By Anna Eason

Every third Friday of each month, families of all ages pack a picnic dinner, gather some blankets, lawn chairs and sometimes even the dog and head out west to Frederiksted to hear the most tantilizing jazz music and watch the setting sun.

Sunset Jazz in Frederiksted is a Frederiksted Economic Development Association (FEDA) event, hosting an impressive roster of local and international jazz musicians on the third Friday of each month. Admission is free and all families are welcome. The music starts at 5:30 p.m. and continues for two hours. Just when the sun will slip into the horizon off the waterfront is up to Mother Nature, but it is part and parcel of the evening inspiration.

In 2000, Joines took both bands to a competition at Disney World in Orlando, where, again, each finished No. 2 in category overall.
Last year, he took the jazz band back to Atlanta for the 2002 Spectrum Fiesta-Val competition. It came home with another Superior rating -- and Grand Champion honors.

The CHS Jazz Combo currently consists of Wayne Christian on tenor saxophone, Rufino Morales on alto sax and percussion, Michael Tyson on keyboard, Andrew Brady on bass, Emilio Edwards on drums, and Alejandro Quinones on percussion. The ensemble performs some 60 to 70 engagements a year, including concerts, club dates, charity events, conventions, private parties, and weddings.

It shouldn't be surprising that with their combination of training and professional experience, Central High music students have an enviable track record of acceptance into the nation's finest college music programs, often on scholarship.

Joines was introduced to jazz by his high school teachers in Macon, Georgia, which is located smack-dab in the middle of the state, about a hundred miles south of Atlanta. "Macon isn't exactly a jazz mecca," he muses, "so the jazz recordings they turned me on to were the greatest things for me at the time." He cites Freddie Hubbard, Doc Severinsen and Miles Davis as early influences.
Joines is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon. He also got some memorable hands-on experience in Macon -- sitting in at jam sessions with members of the Allman Brothers band ("Ramblin' Man"). "We didn't play their record tunes," he recalls. "We would play 'Green Dolphin Street' and straight-ahead tunes like that."

So, expect the coolest and the hottest of jazz on the third Thursday of each month in free jazz concerts presented by the Frederiksted Economic Development Association. The two-hour program starts at 5:30 p.m. in Vendor's Plaza on the Frederiksted waterfront.

Admission is free, and that includes the sunset as well as the jazz. FEDA will be operating a cash bar, and Hispanos Unidos will have food for sale. FEDA encourages concertgoers to stay in town and dine out or take in some night life after the concert.

For more information, send an e-mail to Sunset_Jazz@hotmail.com, or call 340-690-0617 during business hours.