Remembering August 1 5:30pm Sangamo Club 227 E. Adams St. 523-5101 $75

Celebrating the man and the music

This semi-formal soirée opens with a reception/cash bar at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6 p.m. After a commemorative program at 7 p.m., Jazz by Footprints featuring Virgil Rhodes fills the same corners of the rooms with music as the late Kenneth E. Barton Sr. did decades ago. Barton, a Springfield resident and musician, played every week at the Sangamo Club and started an organization 25 years ago to raise money for students attending historically black colleges. Since Barton’s death in 1996 the association has been renamed the Kenneth E. Barton, Sr. Scholarship Fund, and on August 1 celebrates a quarter century giving the gift of music and education to the residents of Springfield.