There’s no doubting Tulsa’s rich music history. We’ve always been a city captivated by live music, especially jazz. With the fall season starting to hit us, music is in full swing downtown, and we feel that its about time.

The Jazz Hall of Fame is celebrating their one year anniversary in their new building, The Jazz Depot; the BOK Arena is slated to open soon with tons of concerts already booked; and new businesses are either starting up or re-locating downtown. The new Downtown Tulsa is changing…and that’s a good thing.

Here’s what the Jazz Depot, who’s motto is "Creating Unity Through Music" has going on through the rest of the year:

September 14 – Songstress – Ms. Olivia Duhon

Ms. Duhon is a TU grad and hot new jazz vocalist with trio, Sonny Gray, Vernon Howard and George Toumayan.

September 21 – Two Gents of Song – Jason De Long and Devre Jackson

Two of the Jazz Hall’s favorites, Mr. De Long and Mr. Jackson are planning a knock-out performance, with Mike Leland on piano, Spike Gore on drums and Nigel Frye on bass.

September 27 –  Kansas City, Mo. American Jazz Museum All-Stars

Greg Carroll (Executive Director of the American Jazz Museum), sax man Gerald Dunn, and other Kansas City jazz all-stars make appearance at the Jazz Depot with a slam dunk performance.

October 5 – Still Jazzin’ Our Way’ With the Midnight Social Club Quartet

Pam Van Dyke Crosby, local jazz vocal favorite sings up a storm with Bill Crosby on bass; guitarist, Frank Brown; drummer, Wade Robertson drums and Jeff Newsome on piano.

October 12 – Amy Cottingham and Friends

Pianist/vocalist Amy Cottingham brilliantly plays jazz, classical, pop and practically any other style of music. She will be joined by her trio.

October 19 – Chuck Gardner “Music From My Heart”

Pianist, Chuck Gardner is a jazz standard at the Jazz Hall and plans a special concert featuring original compositions of his, never heard before in Tulsa. He’s joined by Bill Crosby on bass and Tony Yohe on drums, with special guest vocalists.

October 26 – An Evening with Janet Rutland

The always top-notch vocalist will blow the roof off the Jazz Depot with guitarist, Randy Wimer and her special blend of music and style.

November 2 – Presenting the Annie Ellicott Trio

From young to old alike, Annie Ellicott has carved a niche in everyone’s heart with her shining vocals and wonderful scatting ability. She will be joined by her dad, Rod Ellicott on bass, Wade Robertson on drums, and Frank Brown on guitar.

November 9 – TU Big Jazz Band One

The swinging sound of big band music with TU’s stunning jazz ensemble, and vocalists will be on the bandstand too. Under the musical direction of Jazz Studies professor, Vernon Howard.

November 16 – Ernestine Dillard & the Tulsa Praise Orchestra

World-renowned gospel vocalist and Oklahoma music treasure, Ms. Dillard performs all of your classic gospel selections with the amazing Oklahoma Praise Orchestra.

November 30 – Ellington’s “Sophisticated Ladies” – The Stage Concert

Stage version of the Broadway hit, Sophisticated Ladies will feature a number of top-flight vocalists, with staging by Jazz Hall CEO, Chuck Cissel

December 7 – Jeff Shadley & His Big Band’s “Ring-a-Ding Ding”

“Ole Blue Eyes” shows up at the Depot in the form of vocalist Jeff Shadley and his big band performing your favorite Sinatra tunes, also with plenty of brand new music.

December 14 – Holiday “Jazz Jam” Session

Leon Rollerson’s Band will perform holiday tunes and collaborate with area jazz musicians and vocalists coming together to celebrate the Christmas holiday in an evening of straight-ahead jammin’.

December 21 – Gospel Workshop Choir of America

Making their annual visit to the Jazz Depot performing gospel selections with the choral sound only the Gospel of Workshop Choir can. Musical director is Jazz Hall Inductee, Dr. Joey Crutcher.

December 28 – J3 Acoustic Jazz and Blues Band

Back by popular demand, J3 took the Hall by storm on their first visit, and now they are coming back like a hurricane – to absolutely blow you away with their fine musicianship and vocals. Added treat will be holiday music on the menu.

Site: www.okjazz.org

All concerts are at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame building – The Jazz Depot. Its located at 111 E. 1st St.  Phone: (918) 596-1001

As a little girl I was not the type to walk around with a lace tablecloth around my head and pretend to walk down the aisle. I very rarely dreamed about my wedding day and what everything would be like, and even after being engaged for over a month I have only purchased one bridal magazine in my life. Going into wedding planning, for someone like me who had no idea what she wanted, was a little intimidating. I had no idea what venues were available (let alone which ones were good), where to start my cake search, or even where more than one bridal shop was for me to start looking at dresses. I have lived in Tulsa my whole life, but I simply have not paid attention to these things until lately. The great thing is that Tulsa is a wonderful place to plan a wedding, and after searching websites and calling a few places most of my wedding is already planned. Tulsa is full of great resources if you just open your eyes to look for them.

The first thing I did (which I believe set the tone for the entire planning process) was visit RealSimple.com and download their wedding planning checklist. This checklist is amazing, and goes through everything you would otherwise forget to think of. They break down how much you should spend on various aspects of the day based on your overall budget, give you a month-by-month checklist of what needs to get done, and give you all kinds of helpful tools like an alcohol purchasing chart and a photography checklist. I love lists, and this website really hit me in the right spot.

There are plenty of wedding planning websites designed specifically for those planning Tulsa weddings, but I couldn’t find one that met all of my needs. I simply Googled things like “wedding venues in Tulsa”, and “Tulsa caterers” and lists and lists of options came up. So far I’ve encountered some great people and some not so helpful people along the way, but I’ve found that most people in Tulsa truly want my wedding day to be great, and they want to help in whatever way they can.

The first big obstacle was to find the venue. This was a little difficult for me because my finance’ and I wanted our wedding and reception to be at the same site. For those of you who are like us and want your entire shindig to be at one venue, it can be rather difficult to find places that are big enough to accommodate more than 120 people. We actually were lucky since that is exactly the number we are inviting. Here were my favorite places after searching Tulsa for a few weeks:

Tulsa Historical Society: This venue was really nice, but since we were planning a day time wedding and they are open during the day they didn’t want us to interrupt their visitors, so we reluctantly stepped aside. For weddings of around 120 people you can have a nice indoor ceremony, but if you get blessed with nice weather their outdoor scene is gorgeous.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame: The jazz hall of fame was fun, and would have been great for a night-time casual wedding and reception with mingling and hors d’oeuvres, but we wanted a day-time event and it just didn’t seem to fit.

Dresser Mansion: Another gorgeous venue for an all in one event. The only reason I didn’t consider this one was because one of my best friends had her wedding there, but I would have jumped at it otherwise. It’s perfect if you’re fearless when it comes to weather, because the ceremony will only fit outside if you want more than 100 people.

After lots of searching, we decided on Tarp Chapel. It’s a perfectly adorable, glass chapel in Broken Arrow that is perfect for a daytime ceremony like we want, or for a sunset ceremony in the evening. Many, many people had suggested we check it out. It turns out that other people’s advice led us to the right spot even when a wedding website in Tulsa couldn’t. I guess the best wedding planners in Tulsa are the guests!