Super Sunday: Now Hear This!

Come explore the many connections between music and art as we celebrate our fall exhibition, Blues for Smoke, with interactive spotlight concerts organized in partnership with Columbus’s Jazz Arts Group, opportunities to make your own musical instruments and paint what music sounds like, and much more. Gallery admission and all activities are free, and Heirloom will be open from 12–5 PM.

12–5 PM: Art activities
12 PM: Spotlight on the Blues performance, Michael Cox and Kristin Eubanks
12:30 PM: Exhibition tour
1 PM: Writing the Blues activity/performance, Cedric Easton and Chris Gatton
1:30 PM: Exhibition tour
2 PM: Spotlight on the Blues performance, Michael Cox and Kristin Eubanks
2:30 PM: Exhibition tour
3 PM: Writing the Blues activity/performance, Cedric Easton and Chris Gatton
3:30 PM: Exhibition tour

In conjunction with this Super Sunday, the Wexner Center welcomes Brooklyn’s The Sketchbook Project, a global, crowd-sourced art project and interactive traveling exhibition of handmade books. Check out their mobile library, which will be parked in front of the Wex 12–5 PM, as part of their cross-country summer tour, “Write, Right When You Get There.” For more info, including how to get involved, visit www.sketchbookproject.com.

Michael Cox
Michael Cox joined the Columbus Jazz Orchestra in 1991 after moving to Columbus to teach full time as Professor of Saxophone in the renowned Conservatory of Music at Capital University.

Cox’s path to full time musical occupation began more or less at “street level.” He was active in school music programs and in the '70s he began playing paying gigs when he was 15 under the supervision of his older brother. Cox’s educational achievements include independent studies with jazz luminaries Joe Lovano and David Liebman, a Doctor of Arts degree in Saxophone Performance and Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Northern Colorado, a Master’s degree in Music Performance from Wichita State University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Cameron University in his home town of Lawton, Oklahoma.

In addition to the CJO, Cox has maintained a continuous schedule as a freelance saxophone and woodwind soloist and performer. In Ohio, you may have seen him in the Columbus and Lancaster Symphonies, the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra or such groups as Brasileira, the Science Gravy Orchestra, Magically Delicious, the High Street Stompers, Too Far North, the Powerhouse Trio, or more recently System Theory, Still Motion, and the Black Swamp Saxophone Quartet. Though he has eschewed “going on the road” in the classic sense, he has had the opportunity to play with groups such as the Count Basie Orchestra, rock artist Don Henley, and others too numerous to mention. In 1999 Cox released the highly acclaimed recording Abstractions, Dedications and Red Dirt featuring Matt Wilson on drums and the late Dennis Irwin on bass. Current recording projects include a new jazz CD and a CD of French classical chamber music by Pierre Max Dubois.

Kristen Eubanks
Eubanks has made a name for herself in Columbus working as a jazz and blues musician and it's no wonder. Her father, Ray Eubanks, founder of Columbus Jazz Orchestra, and her mother JoAnne Eubanks, of the Greater Columbus Arts Council, filled her life with music and art. Eubanks has most recently performed with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra under Guest Conductor, Matt Catingub, at the Women's Fund of Central Ohio Keyholders Tribute, and with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra with guest performer Bobby Floyd. Forthcoming is a CD released with the OSU Marching Band, under the direction of Jon Woods, reprising her strong performance of "As Time Goes By," from last year's Ohio State–Michigan game.

Eubanks is a graduate of the Ft. Hayes School for the Performing Arts and the Capital Conservatory of Music. She also studied extensively with her vocal coach and mentor, Michelle Horsefield Carney.

Cedric Easton
From the moment Cedric Easton could walk, he was playing the drums. At the age of four, Easton began playing in church and won his first regional music competition at age eight through the FOX KIDS television network.

A graduate of Columbus’s Fort Hayes Metropolitan Performing Arts High School, Easton has performed professionally with both local and internationally recognized jazz musicians including  the Bobby Floyd Trio, the Matt Adams Quartet, Wess Anderson, WycCliff Gordon, and Kenny Banks, Sr. Currently, Easton performs with national recording artist Christian Howes.

While Easton has been immersed in the music of jazz, he has always stuck with his instrumental roots—gospel music—and has also had the opportunity to perform with nationally recognized gospel artists such as Detrick Haddon, Dorinda Clark Cole, and Marvin Sapp. He serves as musical director of the New Covenant Believer’s Church and is a faculty member of Jazz Arts Group’s Jazz Academy.

Chris Gatton
Since he began studying music at a young age, Gatton has since studied with a wide range of teachers and earned a degree from Capital University where he focused on guitar performance, composition, and audio production. He currently teaches private guitar lessons for students of all ages and performs around Columbus with an amiable variety of local musicians. He has worked with Jazz Arts Group on various educational programs for kids and started the group guitar program at Vineyard Community Center. Gatton also spends time writing and recording music for himself and other artists.