CINCINNATI — A local jazz artist has taken it upon himself to start a new weekly tradition to treat people to a concert from their homes for the next few months to benefit different local nonprofits each month.
Ed "Sax" Thomas has performed jazz in Las Vegas and Nigeria, and he has played at the Cincinnati Music Festival. When the pandemic hit, though, he was confined to play in his home for himself and his wife.
But this made Thomas get creative. "How can I come up with a way to share my gift of music and love of music with other people?” he said. Then, Jazz Fridays were born.
The idea is simple. Thomas performs on Facebook Live the last Friday of each month for the next few months so he can share his music, and people can watch a live artist from the comfort and safety of their homes.
What makes Jazz Friday unique, though, is for each performance, Thomas fund-raises for a different local nonprofit to help them during the pandemic as well. The first nonprofit is Rosemary's Babies.
So while the pandemic seems to be sticking around for a while longer, Thomas said he will keep on playing.
"Music – you can always find a place for it," Thomas said. "I just keep playing ... As my grandmother used to say, this too shall pass.”
Jazz Friday starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thomas' Facebook page. You can watch it here.
