Well, the weather is changing, a beautiful colored leaf sits on the ground
and you are now getting ready to bundle up just to keep warm but that was
not the case this summer. It was one of the HOTTEST on record both weather
wise and in Columbus for Smooth Jazz.

It all started in June with the "Jazz Attack" featuring Richard Elliot,
Peter White, Jonathan Butler and Rick Braun. Two hours of powerful
recognizable high energy music in a beautiful setting at Wendy's Corporate
Headquarters. If you were there you felt the same as the one thousand people in attendance and that feeling was "We hope this evening never ends". WOW, what a great evening of music and what a performance by all of these
fantastic musicians. Also a Thank you to our opening act Phat Phunction.

The second installment of our smooth jazz series was not as well attended as
we hoped but with 40 mile an hour winds and a thunderstorm of rain and hail
one hour prior to the show it was expected the day of.
ARMS would like to thank everyone that did get out and attend this four hour
performance by saxman Joseph Vincelli, hometown jammasters, Urban Jazz
Coalition and of course to complete the night showcasing there latest CD it
was Russ Freeman & The Rippingtons featuring Eric Marienthal on sax. It was
time to get out of your seat and enjoy some salsa (not with the chips) but
with purcussions, spanish style guitar and just a great new groove from the
Ripps that put a smile on everyones face. Of course we were all smiling that
we even got the concert started because of the weather. Since our first
concert in October of 1988 ARMS has never canceled a concert and we are very very proud of that so once again, thank you to everyone for coming out, we know you enjoyed the music........we did!

Now our third scheduled concert of the summer series to be held at Wendy's
Corporate Headquarters was moved do to the forcast one week in advance and we made the right move because it did rain. The fans that attended this
evening at the Aladdin Shrine Center were not disappointed  in anyway as
this was one excellent show in a very beautiful theater. This stage is huge
and the artists used every bit of it entertaining the audience beyond what
was expected. The artists I am talking about make up the tour name "An
Evening of Guitars & Saxes which started back in 1995 with a tour every year
featuring different smooth jazz artists. This year featured the gentleman
that was on the original Guitars & sax tour Warren Hill along with first
timer and hot as they get on the sax Mindi Abair. This show also featured
native Ohioian on Guitar Jeff Golub and former NBA star on Bass Wayman
Tisdale. This was another high energy show with fun humor and a Big Teddy
Bear in Wayman on stage. The way everyone interacted kept you wanting more and of course even after two hours of jamming know one wanted the night to end. This was just one fun evening in a beautiful setting surrounded by Beautiful people enjoying the music they love. Thank You to Nex Level from Columbus for opening the show with some great tunes

Well the summer ended and so did the series with our last show on September
24th again at the Shrine. This was another fun night out especially it being
a saturday night. On tap was the funny, entertaining, very talented
vocalist, The SLIM Man himself with his Bona Fide Band and they are Bona
Fide excellent. Along with Slim daddy was Marion Meadows and his fine soprano sax sounds. Lets forget for a moment who was playing, if you were not there you missed it because people were leaving before the party ended and the reason being the artists did not want to stop. Slim jammed for 90 minutes and only stopped because of my signal and then two hours and twenty minutes later again I had to give the cut across the throat or Marion and his dynamite sounding band featuring Jay Rowe on keyboards would have played until it was time for church. It again was another (four in a row) fantastic evening out.

Did you get enough to read, here is a little more. We would like to ask you
to please fill out our formed mailing list so that we may contact you for
next years series or anything in between and we would like to thank you once
again for attending our summer series.

A Big Thank You goes out to our friends at 103.5 & 104.3 your favorite radio
station in Columbus. Thanks to Allan, Bill & Lee in programming, the man we at ARMS could not do without and I'm sure the station feels the same Patrick Foy, also to our VIP man himself the cool and never shaken GARY, to Michael Southerland and Omari and last but not least and we wish you the best and a congratulations to Michelle at 103.5  expecting in November. Thank You WENDY"S Corporate, Thanks to Kathy for her time taking care of all of you who attended at the door and to our webman...VLADIK!

Until next time we wish you all the best and a safe and fun Holiday Season
from ARMS Entertainment.

Ali Razi & Mike Scott