KEEP UP TO DATE ON GJS ACTIVITIES! JOIN OUR JAZZ NOTES NEWSLETTER! Check the JAZZ NOTES Newsletter and EVENTS pages for current performances and activities!
The GULF JAZZ SOCIETY is dedicated to presenting, preserving and perpetuating America’s Music in the Bay County area. Founded in 1996, the GJS serves as an advocate of jazz music in the Panama City area of north Florida. The Society’s mission is to raise awareness of jazz by presenting live musical events and otherwise preserving and perpetuating jazz as an important part of America’s cultural heritage.
The GJS is an organization of jazz enthusiasts from all walks of life. Membership includes musicians, business, professional and retired persons, students and persons simply interested in listening to great music and advancing the cause of America’s original music.
Jazz is the only American music recognized by Congress as a truly original art form. Its development and flowering not only reflects the cultural diversity and melting pot character of our social history, but represents American values of artistic freedom, improvisation and innovation.
As part of its annual program, the GJS awards a scholarship and introduces jazz to local schools. Recently the Society awarded a $500 scholarship to a young high school musician who has been accepted into the music program of a local university. The Society’s St. Andrews festival series began in April of 2002 with ”Joy Spring––A Jazz Jubilee” in celebration of National Jazz Appreciation Month. A highlight of the mini-festival was the presentation of a “Lifetime Achievement Award” to legendary clarinetist Buddy DeFranco who accepted the award in person with stirring words about the importance of jazz to our cultural experience. Subsequent free Jazz-By-the-Bay festivals have been presented each fall. The festivals have featured jazz musicians of national reputation such as Ira Sullivan, Bob Dorough, Warren Vache, J. B. Scott and the University of North Florida Jazz Ensemble, Duke Heigter, John Eric Kelso, Eddie Higgins, Steve Gilmore, Giacomo Gates, Hod O’Brian and Stephanie Nakasian.