By Sydney Bachovin
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – To honor the late Camden County College audio professor Steve Poponi, the arts department at CCC put on a full album performance of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew on April 17. All the proceeds from the event, called Brew After Dark, went to the Steve Poponi Audio Production Scholarship.
The scholarship is awarded to two Camden County College audio production students who are going into their second year at CCC or transferring to another college. The arts department puts on an event each year to raise funds for the scholarship.
This year, visual media and performing arts coordinator Cara Horner and music department head Michael Billingsley decided on a full performance of Bitches Brew. Horner said Billingsley put together a band of local musicians to perform the album. The band consisted of Greg Grispart, Kenny Tam, Joe Peterson, Erik Marley and Billingsley. Horner said they were expecting about 45 people to attend and they had just about that number.
Horner stated the department chose the album because they wanted a psychedelic theme and with Davis’ 100th birthday coming up they wanted to honor one of his most experimental albums.
Before the performance, Billingsley explained a bit about the album. After Woodstock 69, Davis brought a band of famous jazz musicians into a recording studio with no real plan. For 15-minute stretches of time, Davis gave the musicians a general key to play in and just experiment. After recording, Davis created songs out of the stretches of music to create the album. Billingsley described the album as “Funkadelic” and “a real sorcerer’s stew.”
The event was held in Harmony Hall on the Black Horse Pike. The doors opened at 7 p.m. and the music started at 7:30 p.m. The first disc of the album was played before a brief intermission, then the second disc was played. The event also provided bar bites and sold special drinks based on the album. They partnered with Kings Road Brewery for the drinks and got catering from Innovative Catering.
The subject of the scholarship, Poponi, was a major figure in the South Jersey punk and heavy metal scene, working on different bands’ live audio for their performances. Despite never graduating from high school, he became a professor at CCC for live sound. While on a tour in 2023, Poponi died of cardiovascular complications. Poponi was remembered by the arts community at CCC for his humor and Billingsley said, “Steve was like a legend for how comical he was” and “I think our students always appreciated what he had to offer.”
Soon after the event, Horner reported the result of the effort: “We raised over $1,000, funding the scholarship in full for next year.”