When jazz goes on vacation, it goes to Martha’s Vineyard. So trumpets the tag line of the inaugural 2011 Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Festival, which officially takes place August 6-13, but enjoyed an unofficial kickoff at Lola’s in Oak Bluffs this past weekend. Throughout the summer, you can find jazz all over the Island leading to the weeklong festival in August.

Minnesingers Encore

In Paris the audiences screamed oui, oui. In Prague it was prosim, prosim prídavek (yes, yes, encore). And here on the Vineyard we begin by saying, Welcome back to the high school Minnesingers.

After taking Europe by storm, they perform for us this weekend at their annual spring show at the high school performing arts center. Bravo.

Baby boomers may shudder at the thought but Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna founding member Jorma Kaukonen is entering his sixth decade of performing. It may be somewhat reassuring, then, to know that Mr. Kaukonen, he of blistering licks and subtle fingerpicks, is still at the top of his game.

Beatlemania at the Oak Bluffs School

It is billed as O.B.eatles, and when you get past the oddity of the name it is actually quite accurate. The kids at the Oak Bluffs school have been eating the Beatles.

Art by Kids Speaks to Kids and More

This Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. IMP for Kids, the YMCA dance program and Joanne Cassidy’s vocal students are coming together to present an evening of entertainment and importance entitled Assertions: Kids Speak Out Through the Arts.

One could argue that all art is important, but this performance lends itself to a category all its own.

In the end, it came down to a shoe box full of microcassettes, 75 interviews, two years of research and a lifetime of listening to Let It Be, Déjà Vu, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Sweet Baby James.

The Martial Art of Mixing It Up

This weekend at the Yard there’s a merging of the professional and the personal. The opening weekend at the dance colony in Chilmark features the H.T. Chen dancers, the Yard’s company in residence this summer, and the boys and girls next door. Say what?

The concept is this: Earlier the professional dancers visited Island schools to find local talent to take part in the show. Some young dancers will be hitting the boards for the first time.

On Sunday, May 22 at 10:30 a.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center will present Howard Frazin’s oratorio, The Voice of Isaac, as a retelling of the Abraham and Isaac story, from Isaac’s perspective.

Senior Music Camp

Camps, camps and more camps for kids. All well and good, but what about the rest of us? Particularly those no longer spry enough to pogo stick but not willing to go gently into that good night, either. Hmm, is that a mandolin I hear in the distance.

Each Wednesday in July and running through August, the Tisbury Senior Center is hosting a music camp for seniors. It’s a jam session, a sharing of tunes, and a class for beginners all rolled into one and hosted by instructor and conductor Sally Flood.

KCT Concerts is whistling an Irish tune to ring in Memorial Day Weekend.

Laurence Nugent, a flute and whistle playing demigod from Ireland, kicks off the summer season.