Thank you to our Sponsors!
With Great Appreciation, we are Honored to have our Amazing 2026 Annual Jazz Concert Business Sponsors. Please feel free to visit their Business Pages and Connect! The Support of our Sponsors helps to Ignite our Vision and Passion. With our continued on going projects; we are always open to support and resources. If you would like to be a sponsor, please email thegospelandjazzlounge@gmail.com. Thank you.
Thank you to our Elite Sponsor Pennington Greene
Pennington "Penny" Greene is a Washington, D.C. native who transitioned from a standout basketball career to a successful corporate executive, real estate entrepreneur, and cultural historian. He first gained prominence as a basketball star in the 1970s before building a diverse career spanning corporate sales, real estate land development, and media production.
Basketball Career & Legacy
- Collegiate Success: Greene played for the University of South Florida (USF) Bulls, where he became the program's first player to score 1,000 career points. He earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors for the 1978–79 season.
- Acclaim: Known for rising to the occasion against elite All-Americans, he notably received a standing ovation at Madison Square Garden after dropping 29 points against Iona in 1977.
- Injury & Transition: Though recruited by the Atlanta Hawks, a career-ending injury altered his trajectory away from the NBA, guiding him toward business. [
Business & Real Estate Ventures
Following his athletic career, Greene spent 40 years excelling in sales and corporate management for major companies like Xerox, United Airlines, and Bristol Myers. He later pivoted to entrepreneurship:
- Land Development: He served as a developer and project manager in the Atlanta suburbs, notably converting 225 acres of raw land into Tuscany Hills, a 101-lot luxury community along the Chattahoochee River in Douglasville, Georgia.
- Smart Windows: He founded and serves as the Managing Director of Smart Windows, a residential window company utilizing insights gained from vinyl manufacturing partnerships.
Cultural Preservation & Media
Greene remains deeply connected to his basketball roots, focusing heavily on archiving the history of the sport in the D.C. metro area:
- Documentary Work: He was featured in the Kevin Durant Showtime documentary Basketball County: In the Water. He also directed a 40-year oral history archiving project and produced his own documentary, Supreme Courts: A Century of D.C. Area Basketball.