On June 16 the Swingin' History: An All American Night of Jazz will be held in Lewes. Delmarva Public Media's Jenny O'Connor take a look at the importance of this music that stretched from the 1920's into the 1940's.
O'CONNOR: A free concert in Lewes, Delaware is using jazz to tell the story of America, Delaware, and the people who shaped the region during some of the country's most transformative decades. I'm Jenny O'Connor. On June 16th, Coastal Concerts and the Delmarva Big Band will present Swingin' History: An All American Night of Jazz as part of Delaware's 250th anniversary celebration. The event combines live music, narration, and local history from the 1920s through the 1940s with help from a generous grant from Delaware 250.
OSTERDALE-ROSENBLUM: We picked the jazz era, which is the twenties through the forties, in Lewes because it's the greatest generation and there's few people from the greatest generation that are left, we really want to tell their story.
O'CONNOR: Anne Osterdale-Rosenblum is a board member of Coastal Concerts and chair of its programming committee. She explained this is one of many events Coastal Concerts hosts, but one of the only events that's free and open to the public.
OSTERDALE-ROSENBLUM: We just really want people to start appreciating different kinds of music, know that they're welcome, that there's plenty of ways that music can touch you in different times of your life.
O'CONNOR: Anne says the organization wanted to celebrate more than just America's founding. The concert explores a period marked by Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II and the years that followed.
OSTERDALE-ROSENBLUM: History in America didn't start and it didn't end in 1776. It's continuing.
O'CONNOR: And according to Anne, Jazz serves as the soundtrack connecting those moments.
OSTERDALE-ROSENBLUM: The jazz music, the blues, was so compelling and was actually a universal thing that brought together the different black and white communities in Lewes at the time. It was a transformative period.
O'CONNOR: Leading the mission of bringing these stories to life is the Delmarva Big Band. Music director Kevin Vansickle says, the music doesn't just reflect history. It helps audiences connect with it.
VANSICKLE: Spreading the word is always our main goal as jazz musicians. To keep the language alive, we need to get it out there so people can hear it, and in this particular case, we're sort of tying a little history to it, which I think is important.
O'CONNOR: Joining the band is vocalist Jackie Johnson, a Cape Henlopen High and Temple University graduate who now performs professionally in Philadelphia.
JOHNSON: There's something amazing about these tunes and songs that have been played over the last hundred years that continuously were rebirthing the music always, anytime somebody does it it's a new version of this song. You listen to "All of me" that Sarah Vaughan does versus Ella Fitzgerald versus Frank Sinatra versus Dinah Washington. It's the same tune, but it's different and there's something so beautiful about that.
O'CONNOR: She explains that ability to reinterpret music as part of what has kept jazz alive and relevant.
JOHNSON: There are very few art forms that are so rooted in our culture and what we are.
O'CONNOR: Anne says the event is free and open to all ages in hopes of bringing jazz to new audiences.
OSTERDALE-ROSENBLUM: Everyone's welcome and the youngest kids who can just dance in the aisles with this music to their grandparents, their great grandparents. It's just like a way for families to connect, hopefully start them talking about their own histories.
O'CONNOR: Beyond the music organizers like Anne Hope audiences leave with the stronger understanding of the area's history and the communities that helped shape it. For Kevin, the goal is to make history accessible while creating the energy of the era itself.
VANSICKLE: We're going to hopefully try to recreate a little bit of the atmosphere that existed in that time period, which will be sort of like a time capsule, is what we're hoping.
O'CONNOR: Swingin' History: An All American Night of Jazz takes place June 16th at 7:00 PM in Stango Park in Lewes, Delaware. A day after the ticket sales open for Coastal Concerts 2026-2027 season. Nearly every month starting in October, Coastal Concerts will hold a show with incredible artists, including the American String Quartet, and Pianist Awadagin Pratt. You can find more at coastalconcerts.org. For Delmarva Public Media, I'm Jenny O'Connor.
