DELAWARE — There’s a nightmare on Elm Street and a wolf on Wall Street, but on Lincoln Avenue in Delaware, there’s something not-so-Hollywood and much more homegrown.
A deep bass line sets the foundation. Drum brushes patter softly against a snare drum. An opening note from a blindingly-gold saxophone launches the sound into a sense of familiarity, and ultimately, a song.
But the stage isn’t traditional. The band doesn’t have a spotlight beaming on them from the rafters. The audience isn’t listening from amphitheater seats.
Instead, a comfortable grassy front yard on a slight hill makes for a natural set against the backdrop of a blue house. When the sun goes down, streetlights calmly light the stage. Foldable lawn chairs line the lawns and sidewalks across the street.
This is 151 West Lincoln Avenue on a spring or summer Friday night. This is Jazz on Lincoln.
Korey Black and his wife, Abby Wimbiscus Black, moved into their blue house this past June but have lived in Delaware for seven years.
They started putting on the shows in the summer of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic — back then, the stage was a different blue house just down the block.
Both play several instruments, Korey mainly the saxophone and Abby the violin. The couple also both teach music in the central Ohio area, Abby orchestra at Delaware City Schools and Korey band at Worthington City Schools.
“Korey, as a gigging saxophonist, was just struck by the amount of loss there was to creating music and being together with people that you had weekly gigs with for years,” Abby said.
“Suddenly restaurants were shut down, so the gigging economy was shut down. No one was paying musicians,” she said. “We opened up our front lawn that summer for just a few concerts where he and his buddies played music socially distanced.”
Before they knew it their neighbors, sprawled out around the block, started coming outside to hear Korey play. What happened next turned out to be much more than the couple expected.
Bands joined in on the fun
While Korey and Abby still occasionally play for crowds, by the summer of 2021 the couple began seeking outside band applications. Soon, they had a whole slate of bands lined up for Friday shows.
The business model is a simple and humble one: The couple encourages the folks who come out to the shows to tip the band at various empty coffee ground pots around the setup.
“What’s unique about Jazz on Lincoln is that it wasn’t set up this way on purpose, but it became a business model that’s completely grassroots, crowd-funded, community-funded,” Korey said.
“Musicians actually not only look forward to playing the show, but they end up making more oftentimes than they would at a normal gig.”
Meanwhile, Korey and Abby don’t take home a dime — all tips go to the bands.
Korey’s business as a professional musician covers the series’ general expenses and a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council covered the sound system.
A Backstretch food truck even parks nearby for attendees and takes home whatever money they make from sales.
“But it’s certainly not for making everybody pay for this experience,” Korey said. “This is just a fun community experience, and a lot of musicians have said following the performance that it’s some of the realist performances they’ve had with audiences.”
This year’s lineup has seen eight bands perform already — Largemouth Brass Band on August 14 will serve as the season finale.
A whopping 26 bands from all over Ohio, but mainly the Columbus area, applied this year despite no guarantee of what they’d make — simply because they love the atmosphere on Lincoln Avenue.
“We even had someone apply from Germany last summer who wanted to come perform,” Korey said. “It didn’t work out, but it was pretty sweet to have someone from out of the country want to come play on our front lawn.”
Abby also said they try to kick off each season with some of their students performing. Students from the Dempsey Middle School jazz band performed on May 21 for the “School’s Out” concert.
“We’ve had Delaware’s high school jazz band, the high school and middle school orchestras play before,” Korey said. “A few years ago I brought some Worthington middle school students, too.”
Below are photos of the band Favorite Daughter from their July 31 Jazz on Lincoln concert. Story continues below. Credit: Jack Slemenda / Delaware Source
What it means to the community
Putting on Jazz on Lincoln means Korey and Abby plan their summer breaks from teaching — and time with their young daughter and soon-to-arrive second child — around the concert schedule. But they say seeing its impact on the community makes it worthwhile.
“It works for our family because it’s so similar to what we do as educators day in and day out, so we love doing it,” Abby said.
“We have audience members who wish that we could do this every single Friday night in the summer, but the truth is we’re still teachers and we need a few days off.”
But the community’s love for Jazz on Lincoln goes beyond the few audience members who are diehard fans. The couple said they see and feel the concerts’ impacts in so many places.
Both of them even laughed about how people on the streets call Abby “the jazz lady” or say “The Jazz on Lincoln people are here!” when they walk into a room.
While the local fame and sense of playing an important role in the community is cool to the couple, it isn’t the sole reason they started this musical journey.
“I’ve been that musician who performs at a bar late at night and has four people that are in the audience,” Korey said. “Having an audience of over 150 people at these shows and interacting, not just sitting there and talking to their friends, but interacting with you is an experience that is hard to find.
“Not only have we made our community better, but we’ve made the musicians’ lives who come and perform here even better,” he said.
For Abby, being able to share something that her family loves so much and have the community react in such a positive way has been impactful on her.
“I teach hundreds of students here in Delaware, and to that effect, it’s been neat to watch kids who grew up going to our concerts start to be in my classes,” she said.
“Seeing them take an interest in double upright bass because they see bass players on our lawn and see how versatile the instrument is has been amazing.”
She added that watching her 2-year-old daughter grow up alongside the series and the community surrounding it has been special — especially knowing her second child will soon get to experience it, too.
As for what’s next, the pair said they’re just living in the moment.
“We’re very much just trying to live in the excitement and experience of this concert series,” Korey said. “We hope it goes on forever, honestly, but we’re enjoying what we have as we have it.
“And I would just add that our neighbors are incredible,” he said. “The fact that they support this and want to support it with everything they can give just keeps the concert series going in such a bright future.”
