Bakersfield Jazz Festival Continues Legacy
By Nick Fequiere
The 29th annual Bakersfield Jazz Festival has once more come and gone, leaving no shortage of jazz fans already yearning for next years performers. The festival took place last weekend and likely saw thousands of Kern County residents arrive at California State University Bakersfield’s campus to enjoy good jazz, good food, and good company. Over the last three decades, many have enjoyed the Jazz Festival and all that it has to offer. However, many may not be aware of the incredible benefactors who made this staple of Kern County’s community possible.
Doug and Adele Davis were the originators and organizers of the Bakersfield Jazz Festival, beginning twenty nine long years ago. Doug Davis is a professor of music at CSUB and his wife, Adele, enjoyed a long and successful career as an elementary school teacher. Sadly, she passed away earlier this year due to complications stemming from an abdominal surgery. Though she is gone, the Jazz Festival continues her lifelong legacy and keeps her spirit alive.
While Doug has been instrumental in the festival’s continued success, he would be the first to admit that Adele was the lifeblood of the event and continued to organize the various staff members and booths with precision. Although the couple had stepped back and taken a more relaxed approach to running the festival in recent years, they still maintained a healthy involvement and ensured that the Jazz Festival would remain capable of providing entertainment to those who wanted it and opportunity to all those who deserved it.
Over the years, the festival has been responsible for raising tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships for aspiring musicians who attend Cal State Bakersfield. This past weekend alone, the 29th annual festival raised anywhere between $26,000 and $30,000 in scholarship money. This benefit, coupled with the fact that many alumni relish the chance to give back to their community by playing at the festival, show young students just how far they can go in their field provided they work hard enough. That was Adele Davis’ mission in life, to ensure the success of every child that crossed her path.
Even more remarkable than the Davis’ resolve to help students in any way they could, was Adele’s ineptitude as far as music was concerned. She could not read a note of music, nor could she play an instrument, but that did not hinder her passion for education and altruism.
The Bakersfield Jazz Festival has thrived for nearly thirty years and looks poised to continue its successful run, hopefully earning the chance to outlive and exceed the dreams and expectations of its generous founders, Doug and Adele Davis.