Tucked in the back corner of Batavia’s Kiss the Sky, a throwback mom and pop record store, a group of avid music and history buffs gather every other month in a space sometimes reserved for musicians.
This offshoot group of the nonprofit Fox Valley Music Foundation has created a sizable goal for itself — a music history project that will examine all types of musical genres prominent in Fox Valley’s history.
With a mission to preserve, promote, protect as well as provide music education, the Fox Valley Music Foundation was created in 2013, Kiss the Sky owner Steve Warrenfeltz and executive director of the Fox Valley Music Foundation said.
“We are meeting to spur people on and trigger more interest,” foundation member Karen Christensen said.
Researching the history of music in a variety of ways including newspaper articles and a 1955 dissertation written by John Rex McMullen, a teacher of band music in East Aurora School District 131, the group is delving into the history of bands, orchestras, choral societies, musical clubs, small ensembles, dance music, and “the most prominent musicians” in Aurora and the surrounding Fox Valley area.
Foundation member and genealogical librarian with the Aurora Public Library Robb Winder said, “A lot of us are doing work in different areas so this information gets out there and is shared with others so it isn’t lost.”
The Fox Valley Music Foundation grew out of the now defunct Fox Valley Blues Society, a volunteer group that assisted the city of Aurora in running the annual Blues on the Fox Festival.
“The committee took it from a small street festival with about 2,500 attendees and we grew it,” Warrenfeltz said.
This June, the Blues on the Fox Festival will be celebrating it 20th anniversary. It has grown tremendously and is now run by the group in charge of the Paramount Theatre and RiverEdge Park in Aurora.
With that transition, the group of volunteers was left without a distinct purpose, and they decided to form the Fox Valley Music Foundation, Warrenfeltz said.
Although many of the members live in Aurora, the group is “venturing out from Aurora” and expanding throughout the Fox Valley area, he added.
This summer, the foundation will be holding the Blues on Water Street event in Batavia and a music symposium at the Batavia Public Library.
More Top Picks Steelcase Series 1
The group is also involved in digging into the history of historic blues recordings that were made at the Sky Club of downtown Aurora’s Leland Hotel in the 1930s.
The recordings were rediscovered about 22 years ago, Warrenfeltz said, “but no one has dug deep and brought all the cool and interesting stuff to the surface.”
For the last five years, he has been studying the 323 recordings and the individuals who created the music.
For the Blues on the Fox Festival, Warrenfeltz is working with musician Scott Tipping to have 20 of the songs from the Leland sessions available for purchase at the festival on compact disc and in the fall have the music placed on vinyl, “which is the way it should be.”
The group is considering turning the history of creating the recordings into a scripted play, Christensen said.
“We are really interested in the people behind this project,” she added. “There is a giant hole.”
The next meeting of the Fox Valley Music Foundation is set for 7 p.m. July 5 at Kiss the Sky, 180 First St. in Batavia.
Cathy Janek is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
Fox Valley Music Foundation Performance Series
Six local professional songwriters will describe their craft and perform before an audience at local libraries this summer as part of a Fox Valley Music Foundation program.
The events, which are free, will feature a one-hour songwriting workshop led by the artist and will be directly followed by a 60-minute live performance.
The schedule for the series is:
*June 11, 1 to 3 p.m. West Aurora Branch Library, featuring Greg Boerner
*June 25, 1 to 3 p.m. Batavia Public Library, featuring Scott Tipping
*July 9. West Aurora Branch Library, featuring Dave Ramont
*July 23. Batavia Public Library, featuring Noah Gabriel
*Aug. 13. West Aurora Branch Library, featuring Kevin Trudo
*Aug. 27. Batavia Public Library, featuring Gerald Dowd