Each week, WJCT's Rebecca Farmer highlights one of the creators participating in Jacksonville's One Spark Festival.
Local musician Alex Hayward's creation is J.A.M.S. or Jacksonville Artist and Musicians Syndicate. Hayward wants to create a CD of collaborations from 24 artists from different areas of town. There is a full list of the artists collaborating at the J.A.M.S. Official Website. He plans to record the album in his personal recording studio.
Hayward’s mission is to make sure everyone in town can experience a variety of bands. He says that since the Jacksonville music scene is so broad, it’s hard to know about what is going on throughout the community.
“If you ask someone from the beach if they knew artists that play downtown, they probably would only be able to tell you a few.”
The CD is an opportunity to bring musicians of different genres or styles together. The first song they mixed, “Friends to the Rescue”, was performed by Hayward’s local group Chroma, a jam band, and Patrick Edward McMillian, who was once a background singer for Mariah Carey
All of the money raised from the CD sales will go to the Riverside Fine Arts Association, and their program to bring local musicians into schools to help teach students about music. Hayward says he is surprised with most of the students' lack of exposure to music and instruments, and wants to make sure that students learn the importance of working as a team.
“We kind of relate what we do, the skills associated with music, " he says. "You count so there is math, and there are science skills to build the instrument... and then we talk about how if we listen to each other and work as a group, we can create beautiful music.”
Hayward hopes to showcase all of these different pairings to the community to help promote the CD.
Stay updated on J.A.M.S project at the Jax Collaboration website.
One Spark will be in Downtown Jacksonville April 17-21, 2013. To find out how to get more involved or to vote on your favorite creators visit the One Spark website at beonespark.com
