Open Door Concert Vol. 1: Derrick Michaels, Jon Camp and Cody Summit

On Friday, March 22, at 7 p.m., the Open Door Concert Series kicks off at Old Major. This concert series is an open source, creative, salon-style concert featuring the sonic explorations of saxophonist Derrick Michaels and band, a guitar duo led by instrumental guitarist Jon Camp, and the songwriting of Cody Summit and his small ensemble.

Tickets are $10 and go `100% to the artists.

Old Major’s bar and kitchen open at 6 p.m. Street parking is a available. A parking lot is also located across from Old Major.

About the artists:

Derrick Michaels (@derrickmichaelssaxophone): Baltimore-native Derrick Michaels is a tenor saxophonist and improviser with a bold and imaginative presence in the creative music community. He has been described by Jazz Weekly as a “thick-toned tenorist”, and by Downbeat magazine as wielding a “large sound and free flowing style”. The Baltimore Jazz Alliance says: “Derrick Michaels’ saxophone playing comes right out of his soul; the instrument sounds like a human voice.” Michaels has been collaborating across a variety of eclectic music scenes for decades. With deep roots in both the lyrical and exploratory branches of the creative tenor saxophone tradition, his wide expressive palette unapologetically favors creative spontaneity over idiomatic purity — never losing touch with his soulful, melodic sincerity. In October 2022, he released “Solo Saxophone Vol. 1 Live at An Die Musik”, a self-described “declaration of boundless love for the resonance and visceral beauty of the saxophone”. 2022 also saw the release of Trio Xolo’s “In Flower in Song” on 577 Records, which All About Jazz described as “falling right into the sweet spot for some deep, organic listening”. Trio Xolo includes Brookly bassist Zachary Swanson and Lithuanian drummer Dalius Naujokaitis. This evening’s set at Old Major will feature Michaels’ wife Erin Connelly on cornet, along with guitar & electronics by Jon Birkholz.

Jon Camp (@jonrcamp): Jon Camp is a fingerstyle guitarist and composer from the Washington, D.C. region. Jon blends twang, drone, and melody into a coherent whole that is exploratory without forsaking the hook. Of Jon’s recent self-titled release on Centripetal Force, Andy French of Raven Sings the Blues said, “From fingerpicked folk to broken dawn blues, glycerine Loren Conners contemplation, bluegrass breezes and non-trad tributaries, the album doesn’t settle. With so many muses, Jon keeps things from swerving between impulses, finding a common beam between the hues in his wheel of colors.” For Jon’s Old Major set, he’ll perform in a duo setting with guitarist Dave Jones (The Caribbean).

Cody Summit (@codysummit): Cody Summit is Baltimore songwriter and roots guitarist. He plays fingerstyle slide guitar and fuses elements of folk, R&B, and blues into his songs. He released his first full length album “Welcome to Greener Then” in 2021 and has been playing out regularly since.