JULIUS
Leahy’).
ALL THAT’S JAZZ
BY CYDNEY HALPIN
It’s hard to believe that the Holiday Season is upon us, and the year is fast coming to a close.
If you attended the November LIVE! concert you know that the art of jazz is alive and well and in the capable hands of the 2024 NJJS Scholarship winners: Performance—Lasse Corson (1st prize, piano) Isaac Yi (2nd prize, sax), Composition—Joe Foglia (1st prize, sax, “Around the Sun”), and Gabriel Chalick (2nd prize, sax, “Song for My Brother”).
Thank you to musicians David O’Rourke (guest Music Director), Don Braden (NJJS Advisor, sax), Mary Ann McSweeney (bass), and Alvester Garnett (drums) for your musical support, expertise, and wisdom with the winners. Their showcase was the continuum of jazz history personified --veteran performers and rising stars highlight-
ing jazz’s past, present, and future.
Thank you to Nan Hughes Poole for her generous support of the Scholarship Competition. Thank you also to Board members Cynthia Feketie and James Pansulla for their support of the luncheon/roundtable discussion prior to the concert. LIVE! events are available for viewing on our website and the New Jersey Jazz Society YouTube channel.
The 2025 Competition will open in January. The competition is open to all New Jersey college students currently enrolled in a college undergraduate music program, as well as to New Jersey residents currently enrolled in an out-ofstate college undergraduate program. Proof of residency required.
The competition currently awards two $1,000 prizes and two $500 prizes in two categories: Jazz
Performance & Original Composition. We’d like to expand the categories to include a Vocalist category. If you’d like to help support this expansion, please contact me at pres@njjs.org.
Please join us Sunday, December 8, for NJJS’ last LIVE! concert of 2024, and our Annual Meeting featuring The Summer Camargo Trio. Put your festive foot forward and come cast your vote for the 2025 Board of Directors and enjoy an afternoon with Saturday Night Live band member and the first female trumpet player to be named Best Soloist at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Festival. Please see the news article on page 09. It’s also in the Latest News section of njjs.org. Tickets are available to see this fabulous young musician and her band at: artsintrinsic.ticketleap.
com/jersey-jazz-live-december/
The Rising Stars/Opening act will showcase students from the William Paterson Jazz Studies program: Bandleader Evan Gongora— baritone sax, Eli Leder—bass, and Luke Richards—drums. Evan, who is from East Hanover, NJ, was a Jersey Jazz Rising Star in May 2024. If you’ve attended these events, you know they’re great value and that the talent of our featured performers and the showcased Rising Stars is incredible. If you haven’t yet attended a LIVE! event, come be a part of the musical celebration, and bring a friend! Admission is $10 members / $15 non-members. Doors open at 2:30 p.m., concerts begin at 3:00 p.m.. Refreshments are available for purchase. Madison Community Arts Center, 10 Kings Road, Madison, NJ. Free street parking is available.
Mark your calendars and start the New Year of right with our Sunday, January 5, 2025, LIVE! concert featuring the Anderson Brothers Trio, as they present music in support of Will’s new book Songbook Summit. Come enjoy an afternoon with these joyous musicians, speak to the author, have your book signed, and revel in the music of the great American Songbook. “These guys flood the room with joy” The Seattle Times.
The Rising Stars/Opening Act will showcase an ensemble led by alto saxophonist Anish Alur of Ridge High School in Basking Ridge. A member of the All-State Jazz Ensemble, a member of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra led by Gerald Clayton at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and a 2024 Young Arts Award winner, bandleader Alur and his group are sure to kick
the New Year off right! Tickets available at: artsintrinsic.ticketleap.com/ njjs-anderson-brothers-01-05-25/
The New Jersey Jazz Society was founded in 1972 with the mission of promoting and preserving jazz. The past two years has seen a renewed commitment to these founding tenets, with the expansion of our Juried Scholarship Competition and our Rising Stars/Opening Act at our Jersey Jazz LIVE! events. We could not have done that without your support through membership dues, event attendance, and the generosity of donors like yourself.
Please consider helping NJJS continue its performance and educational initiatives by donating to our “Charting the Future…with YOU!” fundraising campaign either by mail, or anytime online at njjs.org via the
red “Donate” button conveniently located at the top of our homepage.
Tuesday, December 3 is the National Day of Giving, a day to celebrate radical generosity and to “do good”—so perhaps you’d like to join this global movement and participate on this date directly online with a tax-deductible donation.
Would you like to maximize the impact of your gift? Many of you work for employers that have a matching gift program—that will double the impact of your gift for free—by completing and submitting a simple form. Check with your Human Resources Department for further information.
You can also make a tax-efficient gift from your IRA today! Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) , also known as IRA CharitableRollovers, are the savviest way for individuals 70 1/2 or older
to use their IRAs to maximize their charitable giving. Your IRA donation is a generous way to fulfill your required minimum distribution for the year. Gifts generated directly from your IRA will save you on taxes while helping NJJS fulfill its mission to promote and preserve jazz.
Every donation—large or small— gets us closer to our $25,000 goal. If you’ve already contributed to this campaign, we thank you. If you haven’t already done so, please consider a tax-deductible gift (to the extent allowed by law) before December 31.
On behalf of my fellow Board members, we thank you for all you do to support jazz music and education.
Together we’re preserving the future of this uniquely American art form.
Here’s wishing you all the merriest of the season—peace, love, and light to all.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
BY SANFORD JOSEPHSON
Celebrating Dan Morgenstern
Basin Street Blues” was written by Spencer Williams and recorded in 1928 by Louis Armstrong. Basin Street was the main thoroughfare of New Orleans’ red-light district in the early 1900s. But it is most important because, according to David Ostwald, Director of the Louis Armstrong Eternity Band, the song was the first Armstrong recording that Dan Morgenstern heard as a child. Morgenstern passed away on September 7, 2024, at the age of 94; and his life and career were chronicled in great detail in the October issue of Jersey Jazz. He served as Director of Rutgers-Newark’s Institute of Jazz Studies from 1976 until his retirement in 2011. On November 19, the current IJS Director, Wayne
Winborne, hosted a celebration of Morgenstern’s life at Express Newark, the new center for art, design, and digital storytelling located in the building once occupied by the Hahne and Company department store.
“We are celebrating a truly magnificent person,” Winborne told the crowd. But it was clear from the many comments during the evening, that Morgenstern—a brilliant writer, historian and jazz advocate— was more than all those things.
Vincent Pelote, IJS Senior Archivist and Digital Preservation Strategist, said, “I worked with Dan for 33 years. WITH, not for, even though he was my boss. He had big ears. He was someone who was actually there and knew all the musicians. He would always
talk about recordings and the artists. I tried to absorb as much as I could.”
Lynn Mullin, retired Director of Rutgers-Newark’s John Cotton Dana Library, echoed Pelote when describing Morgenstern’s knowledge. “He knew so much,” she said, “not from books but from the people who were creating the music. He was an archivist-storyteller like none other.” She recalled that in 1999 the Star-Ledger named Morgenstern “one of the 20 smartest people in New Jersey.” His humble reponse, according to Mullin, was, “There must be a brain shortage in New Jersey.” When Mullin retired, Morgenstern sang “Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home?” to her and, at the last library meeting, he sang, “After You’ve Gone”. Reflecting on those memories, she said, “He was the dearest pal that anyone ever had.”
Ostwald’s band—himself on tuba, Jim Fryer on trombone, Joe Boga on
trumpet, Will Anderson on reeds, Arnie Arntzen on banjo and guitar, and Alex Raderman on drums—played several other tunes that Morgenstern liked. They included Armstrong’s “Sun Showers” (the tune Morgenstern requested be played at his memorial), “I’ve Got a Heartful of Rhythm, and “Sweethearts on Parade”.
Morgenstern wrote a column for Jersey Jazz, called “Dan’s Den”, and I happened to come across his tribute to the 20th anniversary of Ostwald’s band in 2019. “David,” he wrote, “has a talent for discovering new voices able to handle a repertory of Louis-related music.” He then focused on Ostwald’s trumpeter, Boga, and in typical Dan Morgenstern whimsical prose, he added: “He has a tone and way of warm unstrained phrasing that sometimes reminded me of Bobby Hackett, of whom, I found out, he knows very little—something both David and I intend to remedy.”
Founded in 1972, The New Jersey Jazz Society has diligently maintained its mission to promote and preserve America’s great art form—jazz. To accomplish our mission, we produce a monthly magazine, Jersey Jazz ; sponsor live jazz events; and provide scholarships to New Jersey college students studying jazz. Through our outreach program Generations of Jazz, we provide interactive programs focused on the history of jazz. The Society is run by a board of directors who meet monthly to conduct Society business. NJJS membership is comprised of jazz devotees from all parts of the state, the country and the world.
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Members at Bandleader level and above and Corporate Memberships receive special benefits. Please contact Membership@njjs.org for details. The New Jersey Jazz Society is qualified as a tax exempt cultural organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, Federal ID 23-7229339. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. For more Information or to join, visit www.njjs.org
Magazine of the New Jersey Jazz Society
VOLUME 52 • ISSUE 11
Jersey Jazz (ISSN 07405928)
is published monthly for members of The New Jersey Jazz Society
382 Springfield Ave., Suite 217, Summit, NJ 07901 973-229-0543 • info@njjs.org
Membership fee is $45/year.
All material in Jersey Jazz, except where another copyright holder is explicitly acknowledged, is copyright ©New Jersey Jazz Society 2024. All rights reserved. Use of this material is strictly prohibited without the written consent of the NJJS.
Editorial Staff
EDITOR
Sanford Josephson, editor@njjs.org
ART DIRECTOR
Michael Bessire, art@njjs.org
CONTRIBUTING PHOTO EDITOR
Mitchell Seidel, photo@njjs.org
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Bill Crow, Joe Lang, Jay Sweet
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Bryan Chan, Chris Drukker, Fred H. Politinsky, Lynn Redmile
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New Jersey Jazz Society, Officers 2024
PRESIDENT
Cydney Halpin, pres@njjs.org
EXECUTIVE VP vicepresident@njjs.org
TREASURER
Mike Katz, treasurer@njjs.org
VP, MEMBERSHIP membership@njjs.org
VP, PUBLICITY
Sanford Josephson, sanford.josephson@gmail.com
VP, MUSIC PROGRAMMING
Mitchell Seidel, music@njjs.org
RECORDING SECRETARY Irene Miller
CO-FOUNDER
Jack Stine
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Mike Katz
DIRECTORS
Jay Dougherty, Cynthia Feketie, Paul Flexner, Pete Grice, Carrie Jackson, Caryl Anne McBride, Robert McGee, James Pansulla, Stew Schiffer, Elliott Tyson, Jackie Wetcher
ADVISORS
Don Braden, Mariel Bildsten, Ted Chubb, Al Kuehn, Jason Olaine
Anderson Brothers Trio to Perform a Wide Mix of Tunes from the Great American Songbook
January Concert Will Include Jazz Interpretations of Music from Composers Such as George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and Hoagy Carmichael
Multireedists Will and Peter Anderson are well known for their Songbook Summit series, which features jazz interpretations of Great American Songbook composers.
On Sunday, January 5, the twin brothers will be joined by guitarist Adam Moezinia to play an eclectic version of that series at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert at the Madison (NJ) Community Arts Center.
This time, according to Will Anderson, rather than focusing on one composer, the concert will be “a mix of a lot of composers. And, we will talk a little about how they differ.”
Some of the writers, Anderson added, “had jazz in their heads—George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Hoagy Carmichael. Others, like Jerome Kern, did not.”
The Andersons met Moezinia when they were all students at Juil-
From left, Will Anderson, Adam Moezinia, Peter Anderson
JERSEY JAZZ LIVE!
liard about 14 years ago. The sound of the trio, Anderson explained, will be “kind of like the chamber jazz aesthetic, softer, more intimate. But, when the rhythm gets going, we can swing out!”
Reviewing the Anderson Brothers’ 2019 Outside in Music album, Featuring Jimmy Cobb, Edward Bianco of AllAboutJazz praised the mellow treatments of Vernon Duke’s “Autumn in New York” and Van Heusen’s “Polka Dots & Moonbeams”, marking the latter as “one of the (album’s) finest.” But he also pointed out the Andersons’ ability to swing. “On (Frank Churchill’s) ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’ and the time-honored standard from Duke Pearson, ‘Jeanine’, the boys are wild with phenomenal call and response performances.” Featuring Jimmy Cobb was released in May 2020, the same month that the legendary drummer passed away
(on May 24 at the age of 91). It was probably one of his last recordings.
The Anderson Brothers have performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, and they were part of the Grammy Award winning soundtrack of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. Moezinia was part of vocalist Freddie Cole’s quartet and has shared the stage with such jazz giants as Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis.
Will Anderson has written a book, Songbook Summit: Fifteen Pioneers of American Sound (Reviewed by Joe Lang in the November 2024 issue of Jersey Jazz). He will have copies of the book available for purchase at Jersey Jazz LIVE!
The Anderson Brothers Trio will be preceded by a Rising Stars
Anish Alur
opening act featuring a band led by alto saxophonist Anish Alur, a senior at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge. Alur was a member of this year’s New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble and was part of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra led by Gerald Clayton at the Monterey Jazz Festival. A 2024 Young Arts Award recipient, Alur studied privately
with educator/alto saxophonist Julius Tolentino (our cover story).
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission is $10 for NJJS members and $15 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets in advance, log onto artsintrinsic.ticketleap.com/ njjs-anderson-brothers-01-05-25/
: Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts. This program is also proudly supported by a grant from The Summit Foundation.
Julius Tolentino: First Place at Essentially Ellington and a Lifetime Achievement Award
“He
Had Amazing Energy, and He Won Me Over. The Rest is History”
BY SANFORD JOSEPHSON
In 2007, alto saxophonist Julius Tolentino learned that Newark Academy, an independent middle and high school in Livingston, NJ, was looking for a full-time jazz director. “I had a young son,” he recalled. “We had just bought a new house. I had started playing with the Basie band a little bit and had just finished a stint at the Village Vanguard with (trumpeter) Jeremy Pelt. My career was going pretty well, and I was trying to figure out how I could avoid being on the road to make ends meet. This sounded really promising.”
When Tolentino visited Newark Academy, he sensed that the school “seemed very dedicated to the arts. They had a full wind ensemble, an orchestra program, a choir program; and they were trying to expand the jazz program. I applied for the jazz director position, and I was very lucky to get the gig.”
At the time, Brian Simontacchi, from Denville, NJ, was a student trombonist at Newark Academy. “The trombone section,” he said, “consisted of me and a French horn player. There was a pretty good understanding of musical-
JAZZ EDUCATION
ity and technique on the classical side already, but the jazz program needed someone who would come in and hold people accountable. I remember being there for his (Tolentino’s) demo lesson. He had amazing energy, and he won me over. The rest is history.”
Tolentino is celebrating his 18th year at Newark Academy. He was recently given a Lifetime Achievement Award for Jazz Education by DownBeat Magazine, and his Newark
Academy big band won first place last spring in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition.
His NA bands had been EE finalists 10 times, finishing second three times and runner up several other times. Finishing first this year “was definitely an apex of my career in terms of that band,” Tolentino said. “It’s really a buildup of all the years. This is one of the strongest bands I’ve ever had at Newark Academy. They
kind of all peaked at the same time. There were really no weaknesses in that group. It all kind of came together.” On April 12, 2025, Newark Academy will be hosting a regional Essentially Ellington festival. “We have bands coming from all over the world,” Tolentino said. “This year, the guest is going to be saxophonist/vocalist Camille Thurman.”
Tolentino also took Jazz House Kids bands to the Essentially Ellington finals three times. From 2010-2018, he was Director of Large Ensembles for Montclair’s JHK program in addition to his Newark Academy duties.
Two of Tolentino’s students were in this year’s New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble—Newark Academy alto saxophonist Noah Tamiso and Anish Alur, an alto saxophonist from Ridge High School in Basking Ridge who studied privately with Tolentino at his JTole music program. (Alur will be leading a small band as the
Rising Stars opening act at the New Jazz Society’s January 5th Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert in Madison).
The first year at Newark Academy, Tolentino said, “was rough. My top group, which we call Chameleon, had two trumpets, one trombone, a French horn, four saxes, and a full rhythm section. The second year, I had a full band, and we started doing competitions. We came in third in the state my second year.”
Simontacchi, who is now a professional jazz trombonist, recalled that Tolentino “needed a few people to take the music seriously and to hustle in order to elevate the culture. Culture starts when a few people buy in, then a few more, and, eventually, everyone in the band. I gave him everything I had for three years, and he gave me a foundation so I could practice diligently and hold myself accountable. Because he was willing to criticize every note, every articulation, and
Newark Academy Jazz Band after winning Essentially Ellington
every harmonic decision, I was able to understand every aspect of what I was doing and grow. He was meticulous and as clear as day in terms of what he expected and what you could do with the concepts he was giving you.”
Tolentino feels he “was lucky to have a great public school education in Bloomfield, NJ—from Watsessing Elementary School all the way to Bloomfield High School. I remember every single one of my band directors, and they were all awesome. I think that had a lot to do with what I’m doing now. I had a band director in high school and through middle school—John Scott Chamberlain— who took us on a school trip to the Hartt School of Music (at the University of Hartford). That’s where I met (trombonist) Steve Davis for the first time. I was the featured soloist in the high school band, so he pulled me aside and said, ‘You got to meet Jackie (McLean) and come
up here and audition.’” Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean founded the Hartt School of Music’s jazz studies program, which is now known as the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz.
“The audition day, it was raining,” Tolentino remembered. “My dad drove me up to Hartford. I go into the audition room, and it was Steve Davis and Professor McLean. There was no rhythm section; I was a little nervous about that. They asked me what I wanted to play. I played ‘Embraceable You’. I just played the melody and tried blowing through some changes. I guess I had a decent sound. Jackie was really kind and said, ‘We have these guys we call the twin towers— Jimmy Greene and Wayne Escoffery— that are coming in as freshmen, and we want you to be in that saxophone group.’ And, he gave me a scholarship to come there. That was a turning point in my career.” (On April 11, the day before the regional Essentially
Ben Collins-Siegel: “Mr. Tolentino has played such a pivotal role in my development as a musician.”
Ellington, Newark Academy will host its annual Evening of Jazz, a benefit for Jimmy Greene and his family. Greene’s daughter, Ana Grace, was killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012). Davis vividly recalls the initial meeting with Tolentino and the audition. “I was in my third year on faculty at Hartt’s African-American Music
Department under the direction of Jackie McLean, and I conducted the Hartt Big Band,” he said. “It was immediately evident that Julius was a very talented young musician. He had a lyrical sound on the alto, played with great feeling, and possessed a delightful, buoyant personality. J Mac loved him, and so did I! We knew that Julius would not only become a great saxophonist but had the makeup to be a wonderful teacher one day. All of that has certainly come true!” (Jackie McLean died in 2006 at the age of 74). Tolentino said it “was really a godsend to be around Jackie for all those years. After I graduated (in 1997), he helped me get a gig with (tenor saxophonist) Illinois Jacquet. That was my first gig where I went on the road. Illinois was my graduate school— what it really meant to play in a big band. Having that experience allowed me to play in a lot of other big bands— Count Basie, Christian McBride, Roy
JAZZ EDUCATION
Hargrove, Mingus, George Gee. As far as elders, I would say that playing with (drummer) Louis Hayes was a turning point for me to just be able to play with somebody that powerful (in the Cannonball Legacy Band). He’s truly an institution, someone I give credit to for showing me the ropes.”
A lot of Tolentino’s students play music in college, either as an extracurricular activity or as a major. Some of his students “have gone on to have great music careers. I’m very proud of them. But, with the amount of kids I teach, it’s a very small percentage.
“Somebody told me,” he continued, “that when you teach, you learn twice. So, I’m always working on my musicianship. You never know when you’re going to get called, so I have to stay on top of my chops. But, I’m not going on the road, because I’m teaching really seven days a week—five days at Newark Academy, one day at Jazz
at Lincoln Center, one day at Princeton; and at my own thing, JTole Music.
“I try to get all my students to become their own best teachers,” he said.
“I have a lot of strategies and little tricks of the trade to give them, to kind of analyze themselves in a positive way, to not be too hard on themselves.”
One of Tolentino’s former students, alto saxophonist Zoe Obadia, from Glen Ridge, NJ, said Tolentino’s “deep knowledge of the music and the role of each instrument in
the big band was inspiring. He held us to a high standard but also gave everyone space to be themselves and have fun playing in the band.”
Another Newark Academy graduate, drummer Ben Schwartz from Maplewood, now a freshman at Columbia University, said, “Mr. Tolentino is the reason I am where I am today. He taught me the importance of discipline and the relationship between tradition and innovation. No matter where I go, I find myself interacting with people whose lives were changed by Mr. T’s teaching.
Students of his can be found all over the world playing music at the highest possible level. He is one of a kind, and I’m so lucky to call him a mentor.”
One of Tolentino’s current students, Newark Academy senior Ben Collins-Siegel, a pianist who is also from Maplewood, recalled that he “first began studying with Mr. To-
lentino at the JTole Music Summer program in 2019. He challenged me to play a stride into the Count Basie tune, ‘Counter Block’. I was 12 and had only been playing jazz for one year at that point, and had never played stride before. I was intimidated to play it in front of hundreds of people (at the Roselle Park Jazz Festival), but, somehow, his confidence allowed me to believe that I could perform something that seemed beyond my skill level.
“Mr. Tolentino,” he continued, “has played such a pivotal role in my development as a musician. He has committed his whole life to teaching jazz music, and I feel extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to study with him. He treats me like a professional musician and has very high expectations for me. He can be tough on my playing, but he always goes about it with love.”
Jersey Jazz LIVE!
Best-Known for Producing Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Quincy Jones Was Also a Giant of the Jazz World
He Was Mentored by Clark Terry and Joined Lionel Hampton’s Band as a Teenager
BY SANFORD JOSEPHSON
In his autobiography, co-written with Teresa L. Reed and posthumously published by Indiana University Press in 2013, pianist/ composer Dr. Billy Taylor recalled “an exciting project” he had the opportunity to work on in the mid-1950s. It was a 1957 album called My Fair Lady Loves Jazz on the ABC-Paramount label, featuring Taylor’s trio, plus seven horns, with all the music arranged by Quincy Jones.
“The arrangements that Quincy did,” said Taylor, “were just magnificent. After the release of the album, we had the opportunity to play the music for the cast of the musical, which was a thrilling experience.”
AllMusic’s Scott Yanow called the album “one of the best jazz interpretations of the classic score ... The focus throughout is on the Billy Taylor Trio, but Quincy Jones’ arrangements for the seven horns are quite memora-
BIG BAND IN THE SKY
ble.” Earl May was on bass, and Ed Thigpen was the drummer. Among the horn players were baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, Don Elliott on trumpet and mellophone, and Jimmy Cleveland on trombone.
Jones, who died November 3, 2024, in Bel Air, CA, at the age of 91, was perhaps best known to the general public for his association with Michael Jackson and his production of 1982’s Epic recording, Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. But he started out as a jazz trumpeter, mentored as a teenager by Clark Terry, and joined the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in 1951. In a 1985 interview with DownBeat’s Zan Stewart, Jones called Hampton “really the first rock ‘n roll bandleader, even though he had a jazz background.” When the band (which included Clifford Brown and Art Farmer in the trumpet section) played “Flying Home” at New York’s Band-
box, “Hamp,” Jones recalled, “marched the band outside. You have to imagine this—I was 19 years old, so hip it was pitiful, and I didn’t want to know about anything that was close to being commercial. So, Hamp would be in front of the sax section and beating drumsticks all over the awning, and soon he had most of the band behind him.”
In 1953, Jones left Hampton’s band to work as a freelance arranger for several jazz artists including Count Basie and James Moody. In 1956 he became the Musical Director, arranger, and trumpeter in Dizzy Gillespie’s band, traveling to Europe, the Middle East, and South America as part of State Department-sponsored tours.
His first album as a leader was This Is How I Feel About Jazz on the ABC-Paramount label. It featured an all-star supporting cast including Farmer, tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson, and alto saxophonist Phil Woods. The
six tracks included three Jones originals—“Stockholm Sweetnin’”, “Evening in Paris”, and “Boos Bloos”, along with Cannonball Adderley’s “Sermonette”, Harold Arlen’s “A Sleepin’ Bee”, and Richard Carpenter’s “Walkin’.”
In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Jones, in addition to leading his own band, arranged music for such
albums as Betty Carter’s Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant (Columbia: 1955), Dinah Washington’s The Swingin’ Miss ‘D’ (EmArcy: 1957), and Ray Charles’ Genius+ Soul= Jazz (Impulse!: 1961). He also produced several joint efforts between Frank Sinatra and Count Basie, including It Might As Well Be Swing (Reprise: 1964) and
Jones with legendary record producer George Avakian at 2013 Armstrong House Gala.
Sinatra at the Sands (Reprise: 1966).
The best known and most widely praised Jones album as a leader was the 1961 Impulse! release, The Quintessence, which also contained a who’s who of the jazz world including trombonists Melba Liston and Curtis Fuller; trumpeters Freddie
Hubbard, Thad Jones, Snooky Young,
and Terry; tenor saxophonist/flutist Frank Wess; and altoist Woods.
AllMusic’s Thomas Jurek described the album, as “the sound of the modern, progressive big band at its pinnacle. Despite its brevity—a scant 31 minutes—The Quintessence is essential to any appreciation of Jones and his artistry. The deep
“
JONES HAS THE THIRD HIGHEST TOTAL OF GRAMMY AWARDS WON BY AN INDIVIDUAL.”
swing and blues in his originals, such as the title track, ‘Robot Portrait,’ and ‘For Lena and Lennie’, create staggering blends ... What is beautiful about this recording—and every second of the music—is that because of its brevity, there isn’t a wasted moment. It’s all taut, packed with creativity and joy, and without excess or unnecessary decorative arrangement. It doesn’t get much better than this.”
London Jazz News called the album, a “showcase for excellent composing and dynamic arrangements.
And the roster of soloists is phenomenal.” When the album was reissued in 2008 to celebrate Jones’ 75th birthday, AllAboutJazz’s Martin Gladu reminded his readership “of this American popular culture icon’s deep jazz roots and all he did for the genre artistically and entrepreneurially.”
After The Quintessence band dissolved, Jones joined Mercury Records as Musical Director and soon shifted his attention to pop music. He discovered the 16-year-old singer, Lesley Gore, helping make her first
Sinatra and Jones
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release, “It’s My Party”, into a Number 1 hit. In 1964 he was named a vice president at Mercury, the first Black vp of a white-owned record label. He stayed less than a year, moving to Los Angeles to work in movies and television. He wrote nearly 40 soundtracks for movies, including The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, and In Cold Blood. Jones also composed music for such TV programs as Sanford and Son and Ironsides. In 1973, he produced a TV tribute to Duke Ellington.
He suffered a brain aneurysm in 1974, resulting in two operations. After recovering, he slowed down for a few years, but in 1977 he provided music for the TV miniseries, Roots, and, in 1978, was musical supervisor for the movie version of The Wiz, which introduced him to Michael Jackson. In 1980, Jones created his own record label, Qwest, a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records. Among
the releases were George Benson’s Give Me the Night, which won three Grammy Awards, several albums for Sinatra, and Lena Horne’s The Lady and Her Music. In 1985, he produced, arranged, and conducted more than 40 vocalists for “We Are the World”, a single that raised money for famine relief. It was the basis for a 2024 Netflix documentary, The Greatest Night in Pop. He also wrote the score for Steven Spielberg’s movie version of Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple.
Among other jazz-related projects were his reunion of Miles Davis and Gil Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991 and his production of Keep On Keepin’ On in 2014. The movie was about the teacher-student relationship between 89-yearold Clark Terry and a young blind jazz pianist, Justin Kauflin. It received critical acclaim and was a
The arrangements by Quincy Jones for this 1957 album, said Billy Taylor, “were just magnificent.”
New York Times “Critics’ Pick”. Jones has the third highest total of Grammy Awards won by an individual. He won 28 Grammys and was nominated 80 times. In 2023, the Jazz Foundation of America created the Quincy Jones Love and Peace Humanitarian Award. In
announcing it, a JFA spokesperson said: “No one defines the principles of compassion, generosity, creativity, and understanding that we strive to embody at JFA more than him.”
Ricky Riccardi, Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House and author of two books about Armstrong, recalled on Facebook when Jones was an honoree for the Armstrong House Gala in 2013. “At the Gala,” he wrote, “Q was the life of the party. He spent hours talking with anyone who came up to him, making them feel immediately at ease. He was one of the last people to leave, taking photos with members of the wait staff until the end. It was one of the most Louis-like displays of generosity I’ve ever witnessed.”
Saxophonist Tom Scott and keyboardist Bob James posted tributes to Jones on Facebook. “He mentored me from the age of 21,” Scott wrote. “In
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1973, he introduced me to his friend, Sidney Poitier, having told him I was the right guy to compose the score for his directorial debut, Uptown Saturday Night. That led to me becoming Sidney’s composer for his next two films, Stir Crazy and Hanky Panky. Quincy also suggested I record an instrumental version of Joni Mitchell’s tune, ‘Woodstock’ on my A&M album, Great
Scott. In 1973, Joni heard it—leading to a three-album association with Joni: For the Roses, Court & Spark, and Miles of Aisles. Quincy, you did for me what you did for so many others: You recognized my potential before I did.”
James recalled the 1962 Notre Dame Intercollegiate Jazz Festival when Jones was a judge. “My trio prevailed in the competition,” James said, “and, as a result, I was chosen by him to record my first album, Bold Conceptions, with him in the control room guiding and producing. I benefited further from the badge of approval he gave me with his friend, Sarah Vaughan, in 1965, leading to an inspiring four years as her pianist and arranger.”
Jones is survived by a brother, Richard Jones; two sisters, Margie Jay and Theresa Frank; and seven children, Jolie, Kidada, Kenya, Martina, Rachel, Rashida, and Quincy III.
SUNDAYJAZZ
Sunday December 15 • 3:00pm
For the complete performance schedule, visit grunincenter.org.
Grunin Center Box Office Hours
Tuesday-Friday 12:00pm-5:00pm 732-255-0500
College Drive • Toms River, NJ
ADA wheelchair and companion seating is available. Assisted listening devices are available at all performances.
Lou Donaldson: A Leading Player in Blending Bebop with the Blues
“He Was a Master on His Instrument and a True Jazz Legend”
We both love Charlie Parker, so I think we should be friends.” That’s how 17-year-old pianist/ vocalist Champian Fulton introduced herself to Lou Donaldson in 2003.
helped me with my music, my career, my relationships, with everything.”
Lou Donaldson’s 96th birthday party at Dizzy’s in 2022 with pianist/vocalist
Champian Fulton, left, and organist Akiko Tsuruga.
Fulton, who had arrived in New York from Oklahoma to attend the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, went to see Donaldson at the Village Vanguard and introduced herself to him after his gig. “He was packing up his horn in the kitchen,” she told me, in an email, “and he looked at me and said, ‘What do you know about Charlie Parker?’ That day, I had been transcribing one of Bird’s solos, so I started singing it to him, and, after I sang a little, Lou said to me, ‘Well, all right. Sit down.’ So, I sat down next to him and asked him to tell me a story about Charlie Parker, and he did. Over the next 21 years, Lou become one of my closest friends. He
Donaldson, who died November 9, 2024, in Daytona Beach, FL, at the age of 98, was, in the words of The Guardian’s John Fordham, “one of Charlie Parker’s most distinctive alto saxophone disciples.” But Donaldson moved on from Parker’s bebop to become a leading player in the 1950s movement toward hard bop, which blended bebop with the blues. “During the 1950s and 1960s,” wrote The Washington Post’s Matt Schudel two days after Donaldson’s death, “Mr. Donaldson became even better known for his ‘soul jazz’ recordings, often with organists, creating a bluesy, danceable style of music that became popular on jukeboxes and in nightclubs. His 1967 (Blue Note) recording, Alligator Bogaloo, with organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and guitarist George Benson, was a minor hit.”
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Reviewing the album for AllAboutJazz, Marc Davis wrote: “This is Lou Donaldson at the pinnacle of the jazz-soul era, with arguably the best and baddest example of the genre.”
Born November 1, 1926, in Badin, NC, Donaldson settled in New York in 1950. He was part of the house band at Harlem’s Minton’s Playhouse, the birthplace of bebop, and performed as a sideman for pianists Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell, among others. He recorded his first Blue Note
album, New Faces, New Sounds, with trumpeter Clifford Brown in 1952.
Two years later, Donaldson was part of A Night at Birdland, a threedisc album of jazz all-stars led by drummer Art Blakey. The recording gave birth to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, a leading hard bop quintet that lasted for decades. A Night at Birdland, in addition to Donaldson and Blakey, included Brown on trumpet, Horace Silver on piano, and Curley Russell on bass. According
“
LOU DEDICATED HIS LIFE TO PURSUING EXCELLENCE IN OUR MUSIC, AND HE SUCCEEDED.
”
to The Post’s Schudel, “The combined albums are considered a definitive statement of the hard-bop style.” AllAboutJazz’s Michael Fortuna added: “We should all stand up right now and applaud Alfred Lion and Rudy Van Gelder of Blue Note Records for rolling the tapes at Birdland on a February night in 1954.”
Donaldson’s favorite album was his 1958 Blue Note recording, Blues Walk. Steve Huey of AllMusic called it “Lou Donaldson’s undisputed masterpiece ... where the altoist began to decisively modify his heavy Charlie Parker influence and add a smoky, bluesy flavor of his own.”
Having disdain for the jazz of the 1960s, which he felt, was too disconnected from its audience, Donaldson once said: “To me, all jazz— even bebop—is still dance music.”
The Guardian’s Fordham wrote
Donaldson, performing at William Paterson University in 2015.
that Donaldson “still sounded in fine fettle on some favourite themes on the 2000 (Chiarascuro) album, Relaxing at Sea: Live on the QE2, with the young trumpeter Nicholas Payton reminding him of the bebop audacity that had first lit his musical flame over half a century before.”
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AllMusic called Blues Walk “Lou Donaldson’s undisputed masterpiece.”
Donaldson recorded more than 70 albums and was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2012. That same year he performed at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London, and Fordham called it “an engaging appearance ... affectionately unfurling his old hits like “Blues Walk” and “Alligator Bogoloo”
He retired in 2017 and moved to Plantation, FL, in 2020. “Lou missed New York City so much,” Fulton said.
“That is the real reason we started organizing birthday parties at Dizzy’s. I really wanted him to be able to come to New York and see his friends.
“This year, when he told me he couldn’t come, I told him I didn’t want to host the party without him. He asked me to throw the party anyway. I’m so glad we did, and I’m glad we were able to get him on the phone so he could hear us all sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him; and we could hear his voice, too. That was a great moment. Lou dedicated his life to pursuing excellence in our music, and he succeeded. He was a master on his instrument and a true jazz legend.”
Donaldson is survived by his daughter, E. Carol Webster, a sister, and two grandchildren. —Sanford josephson
Drummer Roy
Haynes: ‘Truly the Greatest ... the Hippest and Slickest of All Time’
“The Syncopation That He Developed Influenced All Modern Drummers”
London Jazz Collector described Roy Haynes’ 1962 Impulse! album, Out of the Afternoon, as a “hard album to classify. It is too cool to be mainstream bop, but too melodic to be angular post-bop.” Haynes, who died November 12, 2024, in Oceanside, NY, at the age of 99, is a difficult drummer to define. He has shared the stage with everyone from Sidney Bechet to Pat Metheny, and played and excelled at every style of music—from swing to jazz-rock fusion.
The diversity of Haynes’ musicianship is perhaps best captured in
the review of his 2004 Dreyfus Jazz album, Fountain of Youth by AllMusic’s Rick Anderson. Haynes, Anderson wrote, “is an undisputed elder statesman of jazz and one of the few surviving ambassadors from the bebop past; at the same time, he plays with the kind of energy and unflagging invention that would be the envy of a drummer one-third his age ... The program opens with a brilliant jazz-waltz setting of the traditional English tune ‘Greensleeves’ and then proceeds to survey both bebop standards (there are no fewer than three
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Thelonious Monk compositions on the nine-track program), Tin Pan Alley classics (Irving Berlin’s ‘Remember’), and even a Pat Metheny tune (the lovely ‘Question and Answer’).
“While Haynes always plays with consummate taste,” Anderson continued, “and never upstages his young bandmates (pianist Martin Bejerano, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and bassist John Sullivan) ... a listener paying any attention at all will be constantly surprised by his inventive and exquisitely tasteful rhythmic exclamations and subtle prods.”
There may be some dispute about which style is Haynes’ specialty, but there is no debate over the genius of his playing. “I celebrate the life of truly the greatest,” posted drummer Terri Lyne Carrington on Facebook. “Every time I sit on the kit,” she said, “I am inspired by Roy Haynes. From 11 years old to now, his inspirations have been ceaseless. The
dance ... the sound ... the creativity ... the hippest and slickest of all time.”
Added drummer Marty Morell, also on Facebook: “He always played with such passion and incredible musicality. For me, Roy was the master of extended drum solos. Never been a big fan of extended drum solos, but Roy...wow! He could play one all night and keep your interest. Truly one of the all-time greats. Mr. Haynes ... You are and always will be a jazz treasure.”
In 1945, the 20-year-old Haynes moved from Boston to New York and played in a big band led by Luis Russell. From Russell, Haynes moved on to drum for saxophonists Lester Young and Charlie Parker and pianist Bud Powell. He toured the world with Sarah Vaughan and played with Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane, among many others.
Pat Metheny’s 1990 Geffen album, Question and Answer, with Haynes on
During a recent visit to the Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark: From left, IJS Executive Director Wayne Winborne, RU-Newark Archivist Angela Lawrence, IJS Archivist Elizabeth Surles, retired IJS Archivist Tad Hershorn, Haynes, Special Collections/University Archivist Adriana Cuervo, and IJS Senor Archivist and Digital Preservation Strategist Vincent Pelote.
drums and Dave Holland on bass, won a Grammy Award, Best Instrumental Composition for “Change of Heart”. Metheny told DownBeat, “I always refer to Roy as the ‘father of modern drumming’. Roy has always had the hippest phrasing, the best feel, the magic component of heart and soul that puts him at the highest echelon of what one can achieve in this music.”
Four years after Question and Answer was released, Haynes invited Metheny, saxophonist Donald Harrison, bassist Christian McBride, and pianist David Kikoski to perform on Haynes’ Dreyfus Jazz album, TeVou! Reviewing it for AllMusic, Scott Yanow wrote: “Veteran drummer Roy Haynes only has a single short solo on this CD but one suspects that
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600 albums and won the DownBeat Critics’ Poll several times. In 1995, he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 201l.
his presence helped solidify and inspire the illustrious sidemen ... This all-star matchup works quite well.”
Kikoski, in a 2000 interview with The New York Times, said, “the accents he (Haynes) does with his different limbs are more complex than anything that came before him. The syncopation that he developed influenced all modern drummers.” Haynes played on more than
He was also a mentor to many younger musicians. Among them was drummer Jack DeJohnette. On Facebook, DeJohnette recalled that when he first came to New York, “He (Haynes) looked out for me, even gave me a drum set when I really needed it.! I was honored to have him play drums on my first recording. He was inspiring to so many artists. I am eternally grateful for the creative gifts he gave me and many others.”
Survivors include two jazz musicians—a son, Graham Haynes, who is a jazz cornetist and composer, and grandson, Marcus Gilmore, a jazz drummer. Other survivors are: another son, Craig Haynes; seven additional grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Tucker
Russell
Bruce Harris
Kevin Bales
Chris Gelb
Herman Burney Shaye Cohn Emily Asher
Nate Najar Ken Peplowski
Rossano Sportiello
Thursday Night Special Event Guests
Carlos Garcia Trio Gregg Gelb Quartet
Chuck Reddʼs
Chuck Redd All-Star Jam
Bill Easley
Lucy Yeghiazaryan
June 2012 cover of Modern Drummer Magazine, from left: Haynes, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack DeJohnette
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Will Mix Holiday Songs with ‘All the Hits’
“He Was an Innovator When It Came to That Sweet Trombone Sound”
In 1935, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra recorded “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” on the Victor record label. Written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, it had become a hit in 1934 when Eddie Cantor sang it on his radio show. The Dorsey version featured vocals by Cliff Weston and Edythe Wright, and the current Tommy Dorsey Orchestra will perform it at the band’s “Sentimental for the Season” holiday show on Sunday, December 15, at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts in Toms River, NJ.
“It was one of the first recordings Tommy did as leader of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra,” said trombonist Jeff Bush, current Director of the TD Orchestra. “I’m transcribing it off the record because, to my knowledge, it has been lost. It has that ‘30s kind of sound.”
In addition, there will be a new version of Mel Torme’s “The
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in recent concert at Blue Gate Performing Arts Center in Shipshewana, IN.
Christmas Song” and today’s edition of Dorsey’s Clambake Seven doing its interpretation of Johnny Marks’ “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” There will also be a rendition of “We Three Kings” in “the ‘Sing, Sing Sing’ vein.”
The Clambake Seven was a small group within the main Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, which gave its members solo freedom and the ability to play more jazz-flavored arrangements. The original Clambake Seven included such well-
known jazz musicians as tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman, trumpeter
Pee Wee Erwin, clarinetist Johnny Mince, and drummer Dave Tough.
Non-holiday music, Bush added, will include “a lot of big band arrangements staying close to the style of the swing era of big bands and a couple of things Ernie Wilkins did for Tommy Dorsey in the 1950s. And, of course, all the hits such as ‘Opus One’, ‘Song of India’, Boogie Woogie’, and ‘Sunny Side of the Street’.”
The song, “Opus One”, composed
‘BOOGIE WOOGIE’ IS CONSIDERED THE SECOND MOST POPULAR SONG OF THE SWING ERA. ”
by Sy Oliver, was a hit for the Dorsey Orchestra when it was released after the American Federation of Musicians’ recording ban ended in 1944. It was recorded and rearranged for the band’s return to RCA studios. The rearrangement was notable for the solo by clarinetist Buddy DeFranco.
“Boogie Woogie” was composed and recorded by pianist Clarence “Pinetop” Smith in 1928. It became a hit for the Dorsey Orchestra in
the early 1940s and is considered the second most popular song of the swing era, surpassed only by Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood”.
Bush, who joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 2000 when trombonist Buddy Morrow was the leader, has played with the band on and off for 24 years. He was named its leader in August of this year.
Growing up in Vandergrift, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Bush started his music education playing banjo and piano but switched to trombone in the fifth grade, “because I was tall, and the band director said, ‘You can reach out to these positions.’”
Over the years as a freelance musician, Bush has played with the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band, the Count Basie Orchestra, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and the Harry Connick Big Band, among others. He also got to perform twice with
Jeff Bush
the late saxophonist/composer Benny Golson, who passed away in September at the age of 95 (Jersey Jazz, October 2024). “It was a great honor,” he said. “They were both big band dates— one was at Cleveland State University in 2008. The other time was in Pittsburgh with the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra within the last 10 years.”
Bush’s one album as a leader is Ain’t So Bad to Swing (Beezwax Records: 2010). Reviewing it for Pittsburgh Magazine, Gordon Spencer wrote that Bush “has a mellow tone with touches of Jack Teagarden, Vic Dickenson, and Bill Harris and lopes and jumps with fundamental joy, keeping the sextet’s variations concise and lighthearted.” Other members of the album’s sextet are multireedist Scott Robinson, guitarist James Chirillo, pianist John Colianni, drummer Kevin Dorn, and bassist Matt Hughes.
In his book, The Big Bands (Collier Books: 1974), George Simon described the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra as “the greatest all around dance band, and nobody could come close when it came to playing ballads.” To Bush, “When you listen to Tommy’s band as a dance band, he really could do it all. He was an innovator when it came to that sweet trombone sound, setting the mood. In the late 1930s, he hired Sy Oliver away from Jimmy Lunceford to add a little of the swing era flavor. And, there are a couple of things that Tadd Dameron did for Tommy in the ‘50s, which you wouldn’t expect.”
: The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts is located on College Drive in Toms River, NJ. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra concert begins at 3 p.m. on the Main Stage. For tickets and information, log onto grunincenter@ocean.edu or call (732) 255-0500.
Municipal Auditorium
Terell Stafford as Music Director
Emmet Cohen Trio with Georgia Heers and Terell Stafford Tony Monaco with Eric Alexander The
FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION visit:
www.sarasotajazzfestival.com or scan
Marcus Miller Band
Gustav Viehmeyer Trio featuring Joscho Stephan, MJR Latin Project led by Mauricio J. Rodriguez, The Thomas Carabasi Quintet, Jazz Pub Crawl and much more!
Classical Pianist Karen Xie
Switched to Jazz Because ‘There’s So Much Energy, So Much Joy’
“One
of the Most Talented Musicians I’ve Had the Pleasure to Work With”
While attending New York’s Hunter College as a music major, Karen Xie stumbled upon one of the Jazz Studies program’s big band concerts. “There were four other people in the audience and 20 people on stage,” she recalled. Xie, who is classically trained, felt the band’s performance was “really cool. I thought that was something I could do because I could read music. Right after, I started sitting in on their classes, and the next semester I started playing. That was my first introduction to jazz.”
The 22-year-old Xie is now pursuing her Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies at Montclair State’s John J.
Cali School of Music. She is a member of the MSU Jazz Ensemble that performed at the Montclair Jazz Festival in September, and on December 6, she will be part of a sextet performing at the Junior Recital of fellow student, tenor saxophonist Ryan Huston.
Xie was attracted by the “energy” of jazz. “There’s so much good energy coming from everyone on stage,” she said. “It’s a little different classically. I think I’ve gone through what a lot of people have gone through—practice and recital. Jazz was just so different. There’s so much joy, although improvising was very nerve wracking. I remember they told me
RISING STAR
to play a blues, and I had just learned what a blues was. I just put my hands above the keyboard and told my teacher to take the next person.”
The jazz program at Hunter is directed by trombonist Ryan Keberle. “He’s awesome,” Xie said. “He’s one of my musical heroes.” Keberle described Xie as “one of the most talented musicians I’ve had the pleasure to work with in my 21 years-plus of leading the program at Hunter College. Her musically diverse interests, combined with her enthusiasm and curiosity for all things music related, allowed her to excel across genres and ensembles within the Hunter College Music Department. During her time at Hunter, she participated in almost every ensemble including the Hunter Symphony, with whom she performed a solo piano concerto as winner of the annual concerto competition.”
In addition to jazz and the symphony, Keberle said, Xie was in cham-
ber music ensembles, pop combos, and the choir. “She was a pleasure to work with,” he added, “and I’m excited to watch her career develop and to listen to the beautiful music that I’m confident she’ll continue to make.”
While Xie was a Hunter student, Wynton Marsalis was on campus to celebrate the unveiling of a new Appel Rehearsal Hall, made possible by a gift from Bob and Helen Appel. Bob Appel, who passed away in 2022, was Chairman Emeritus at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Helen Appel is a Trustee on
“
I’M EXCITED TO WATCH HER CAREER DEVELOP. ”
the Hunter College Foundation and teaches history at Hunter’s School of Continuing Education. JALC’s Appel Room is named after the Appels. The rehearsal hall opening, Xie said, was “a really fun event. I was super surprised to see Wynton Marsalis there. I got to play a classical piece for him.”
Xie has been playing music since she was four years old. She just sat down at the piano and began to play. “I was able to plunk out (Beethoven’s) ‘Fur Elise’.” Growing up in New York’s Chinatown, her first exposure to formal music training was at her daycare facility. “They had this woman who would come in and try to teach us. She was very stern—‘play these notes in this order’—and I did
not like it. I got my own little keyboard, and that was a lot more fun.”
After graduating from Hunter, “I knew I wanted to do a masters in jazz. I wanted to be plugged in and continue learning.” She was already taking impromptu lessons from Montclair State faculty member David DeMotta, and is now is studying there with pianist David Cook. Her current piano heroes? “Fred Hersch, Miki Yamanaka, and I really like Gadi Lehavi, a young Israeli pianist who has played with (vocalist/guitarist) Camille Meza.”
As for the future, “I want to write more music. Right now, I just want to learn as much as I can in school. I’m just really grateful to be a musician.” — Sanford Josephson
FROM THE CROW’S NEST
BY BILL CROW
Here are a couple of Sinatra stories that I found:
Violinist Carmel Malin played for Sinatra many times. She posted this on Facebook:
“I was always impressed by the love that passed between Frank Sinatra and his audience. One particular incident comes to mind. We were in Verona, Italy, playing the ancient amphitheater there. Midway through the concert it started to pour, and it never let up. Not a soul moved—I’m sure they were soaked to the skin. The canvas that covered us was threatening to collapse from the weight of the water. The crew was climbing the jungle gym-like structure, hold-
Bill Crow is a freelance musician and writer. His books include Jazz Anecdotes, Jazz Anecdotes: Second Time Around, and From Birdland to Broadway. This column is reprinted with permission from Allegro , the monthly magazine of AFM Local 802.
ing it up and using their backs to push the water off. Frank looked at his wet audience and stepped to the edge of the stage—which was not covered—and proceeded to get thoroughly soaked. To top it off, he sang ‘Pennies from Heaven,’ and the audience went wild. They just loved him.”
And Pete Hyde sent me this one:
“Stan Rubin got a real plum job with his big band one night, at the Waldorf Hotel. It was a formal roast for Elizabeth Taylor, and many of the elite entertainers of the time took part, including Dean Martin, Red Buttons, Joan Rivers, and Frank Sinatra. Stan called our band together just before the job and said, ‘You don’t have to sit up on the bandstand during all the speeches, so I’ll tell you when we can get off. Frank Sinatra is scheduled to be the last speaker, and I want to bring him on with a splash. I’ll tell
you when to get back on the stand, get up ‘New York, New York,’ and when they announce Sinatra’s name, we’ll play the intro. And maybe he’ll get into the spirit of the night and start singing. So be prepared to play the whole arrangement if he does.’
“It was a fun night for the audience, and for the band, too, and all went smoothly. Stan called us up to the bandstand at just the right moment, and when we played the oh-so-familiar opening, three bars and a quarter note, to start up ‘New York, New York’, everyone was on high alert to see what Sinatra would do next. There were about five seconds or so of silence, then Frank announced in a quiet, clear, authoritative voice, ‘Don’t ever play that music again!’ After another few seconds of absolute silence in the room he added, ‘I thought ‘My Way’ was bad!’”
FROM THE CROW’S NEST
Jean-Marie Juif posted this story on Facebook. It was originally from a New Yorker article.
“Two years before Duke Ellington died, in 1972, Yale University held a gathering of leading jazz musicians in order to raise money for a department of African-American music. Aside from Ellington, the musicians who came for three days of concerts, jam sessions, and workshops included Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Mary Lou Williams, and Willie (the Lion) Smith.
“During a performance by a Gillespie-led sextet, someone evidently unhappy with this presence on campus called in a bomb threat. The police attempted to clear the building, but Mingus refused to leave, urging the officers to get all the others out but adamantly remaining onstage with his bass.
“‘Racism planted that bomb, but racism ain’t strong enough to kill this music,’ he was heard telling the police captain. (And very few people successfully argued with Mingus.) ‘If I’m going to die, I’m ready. But I’m going out playing ‘Sophisticated Lady.’
“Once outside, Gillespie and his group set up again. But coming from inside was the sound of Mingus intently playing Ellington’s dreamy ‘30s hit, which, that day, became a protest song, as the performance just kept going on and on and getting hotter. In the street, Ellington stood in the waiting crowd just beyond the theatre’s open doors, smiling.”
When comedian Charlie Callas once sat in on Sonny Igoe’s drums, Sonny’s big band played a tune with him. When it was finished, trumpeter Charlie Camilleri called out: “Better than Mickey
Rooney, not as good as Mel Torme.”
Bill Easley posted this on Facebook:
“At the airport, David Baker’s cello didn’t show up at the baggage carousel, and he went to baggage claim department, very upset. He said, ‘That cello was made in 1872!’
The baggage claim agent said, ‘Thank God it wasn’t a new one.’”
In memory of some old friends, here’s an item from one of my old columns:
In 1958, bassist Don Payne, fresh out of the Army, moved into a cottage in the Hollywood Hills, where a group of local musicians that called themselves “The Jazz Messiahs” often rehearsed, trying to develop their own sound. Don Cherry, the trumpet player with the group, introduced them to Ornette Coleman, who had
written some interesting originals. One day they were working on “The Blessing,” one of Ornette’s tunes. Walter Norris had worked out the harmonies, and they were playing it over and over to memorize it. Suddenly the door opened, and Payne’s next-door neighbor walked in.
After nodding hello, he took a sheet of music paper and quickly wrote down the tune they had been playing, and added an improvement to the chords at the end of the bridge. He reached over Walter’s shoulder and put the music in front of him on the piano, bowed and smiled to the other musicians, and went back out the door.
Walter played what he had written and said, “This works!” He turned around to say thank you, but the man was already gone. He asked, “Who was that?” Don said, “That’s my neighbor, Johnny Mandel.”
A WONDERFUL WORLD
The Louis Armstrong Musical
Good
Theater But Disappointing Re His Impact on Jazz
BY JOE LANG
Given the complexity and lengthy career of Louis Armstrong, capturing the life of one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century in a single show is a large challenge. A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, being presented at New York City’s Studio 54, succeeds more as a theater musical than it does in capturing the jazz essence of Armstrong.
Aurin Squire’s book touches upon the essential elements in Armstrong’s life but, given the amount of biographical territory that is covered, it is a sketchy portrait of his subject. While the book does touch on many of the social issues surrounding Armstrong’s
life, especially as relates to the racism that affected him in many ways, it fails to capture the singular significance of Armstrong’s contributions to the evolution of jazz as an artform, as an instrumentalist and as a vocalist. It also misses the groundbreaking acceptance that he received as a Black artist who in many ways broke through the color barrier to become one of the most beloved entertainers in America. Simi-
larly, it does not capture the reality that he became an effective cultural ambassador for his country despite the roadblocks that he faced due to his race.
The show is divided into four sections over two acts, each centering around his four marriages which roughly follow his career from New Orleans to Chicago to Los Angeles to New York, a simplification of his actual career path. As the story progresses, the musical score includes 29 songs associated with Armstrong.
James Monroe Iglehart does a fine job of capturing Armstrong’s voice, but the portrait does not capture the sparkling charisma that was a major element in his popularity. His four wives, Daisy Parker, Lil Hardin, Alpha Smith and Lucille Wilson, are nicely portrayed by Dionne Figgins, Jennie Harney-Fleming, Kim Exum, and Darlesia Cearcy. The Hardin and Wilson characters were the most influential of Armstrong’s wives, and they are more
well developed than those of Parker and Smith. Each of the women has a fine voice, but none of them have much of a jazz feeling. The other major characters are Joe King Oliver, played by Gavin Gregory and Joe Glaser, Armstrong’s manager from the mid-1930s through the late 1960s, played by Jimmy Smagula, both of whom are workmanlike.
From a production perspective, the choreography by Ricky Tripp, the costumes by Toni-Leslie James, and the sets by Adan Koch and Steven Royal are eye-catching.
For those familiar with Armstrong’s life, it will be easier to follow the flow of the story, but it will also be a distraction as there are holes here and there. For those who are attracted to Armstrong because of his jazz essence, this production will probably be a disappointment. However, for those who are there to enjoy a Broadway musical type experience, there is much to appreciate.
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BY JOE LANG
New Orleans is inextricably linked to jazz. On Crescent City Jewels ((Troubadour Jass Records) trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis leads his Uptown Jazz Orchestra through a collection of 16 tracks that includes a blend of originals, standards, jazz tunes, and miscellaneous selections interpreted with New Orleans R&B grooves that are flavored with a jazz sensitivity. The overriding impressions garnered from a first listening are excitement, outstanding musicianship, and well-conceived programming. The liner material does not give specific personnel for each selection on the program that was recorded in two sessions from November 2023 and an additional set of sessions in May 2024. However, there are several guest players noted such as Branford Marsalis on tenor/ soprano sax, Kermit Ruffin on trumpet, Davell Crawford on piano, Herlin
Riley on drums, and Maurice “Miracle Meaux” Trosclair on trombone.
Vocalist Tonya Boyd-Cannon is featured on six selections—“A Sleepin’ Bee,” Valley of Prayers,” “Summertime,” “Exactly Like You,” “’Round Midnight” and “I Wish I Knew How It Felt to Be Free.” Ruffins lends a gruff vocal on “Ooh Poo Pah Doo.” Crawford handles the vocal chores on “Basin Street Blues” with Trosclair adding
some nice trombone interludes. Riley is the driving force on “Basie Moods,” a nod toward the great Count composed by Delfeayo Marsalis. When the band closes with a rambunctious take on “Little Liza Jane,” it is time to sit back with a smile and indulge the impulse to immediately revisit what you have just experienced. dmarsalis.com
During the existence of The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, leader Wynton Marsalis has written several extended works for the orchestra. His latest is The Shanghai Suite (Blue Engine Records). This live performance of the nine-part suite was recorded at Frederick P Rose Hall on September 30 and October 1, 2022. This tribute to the city where jazz flourished in the 1930s was written for the opening of JALC’s club in Shanghai. Marsalis opted to base his composition on pentatonic scales, five notes to the
octave, the basis for much of Chinese music. This work, he said, “is inspired by that civilization’s rich mythology, cuisine, and architecture and set to the language of jazz rhythm.”
The titles of the individual sections, “Swinging on the Bund,” “The Monkey King’s March,” “White Yulan – First Flower of Spring; Yulan Magnolia – Soul of the South,” “Hot Pot,” “The Nine Dragons,” “Li Bai’s Blues,” “The Five Elements,” “From the Casanova to the Peace Hotel to Right Here Tonight”, and “The Shanghai Skyline” identify the range of subjects that Marsalis considered. The music is eclectic, often complex, and offers significant solo space for the players on the band. As it proceeds, the listener is carried along on a musical adventure that is satisfying and consistently engaging. This album is available in download format at jazz.org/shanghai
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Over the years, there have been many inspirations for albums, but Vinyl Brews (JCGardner Music) by the Gardyn Jazz Orchestra is unique. It’s a nod in the direction of the beers from the Von C Brewing Company of Norristown, PA. It is alto saxophonist/leader Jon C. Gardner’s rationale for composing six swinging charts of wonderfully accessible modern big band music. The album includes six compositions, plus three alternate takes. This live recording was performed at Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia. The 17-piece aggregation is tight in its ensemble playing, while the soloists nicely distinguish themselves as the opportunities arise. Gardner has composed melodies that should be picked up by other big bands, as they are unceasingly interesting and engaging, a reaction that, judging by the enthusiastic response, was shared by those gathered
to hear this terrific band in an intimate setting. jcgardnermusic.com
Irish pianist John Donegan has composed the dozen songs performed on We Will Meet Again, Sometime (Jayde Records) and played by The Irish Sextet, a group of A-list Irish jazzers, including Michael and Richie Buckley on reeds, Linley Hamilton on trumpet and flugelhorn, Dan Bodwell on bass, and John Daly on drums with Hugh Buckley adding his guitar on four tracks. The instrumentation varies with some tracks by the septet, some by the sextet, some quartet pieces featuring a horn player with rhythm, and a couple of Donegan solo selections. No matter the format, the results are satisfying listens. Donegan has a talent for creating tunes that are instantly engaging, and the musicians render them in style with fine musicianship. Each song
is inspired by a situation, location mood or person that reached out to Donegan as he composed them. The sole exception is a completely improvised piano solo that the engineer on the project dubbed “La Vita e Bella.” This album gives evidence of the impressive talent on the Irish jazz scene. johndoneganjazz.com
Music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn has been the focus of countless albums. Duke & Strays Live (Corner Stone Jazz) is a two-disc set by Day Dream, a trio of pianist Steve Rudolph, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Phil Haynes, that was recorded in concert at Bucknell University in September 2023. They offer takes on 10 selections, including “Perdido,” “Single Petal of a Rose/Sophisticated Lady”, and Lush Life”. “The trio’s approach to this music is unique and interestingly creative. The music
is open to the kind of out-of-the box approaches that they take throughout, and the result is a collection of music that compels the listener to have an open mind to best appreciate their creativity. Make the effort and you will find much pleasure in the music of Day Dream, a trio of three musicians who wonderfully complement each other as they take you on a new musical voyage. cornerstorejazz.com
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Swedish alto saxophonist Klas Lindquist is one of those musicians from the European jazz scene who deserves wider exposure in the USA. Hopefully, Handle with Care (Yellow Car Records – 001) will open that door. Produced by the popular American singer/pianist Champian Fulton, Lindquist, accompanied by pianist Leo Lindberg, bassist Niklas Fernqvist, and drummer Daniel Fredriksson, presents a 12-song program that includes 10 standards, including “My Old Flame”, “Tea for Two”, and “Cry Me a River”, with a pair of Lindquist originals, “The Day We Met” and “Bernadette.” Lindquist has a mellow tone, swings nicely, and has a creative musical mind. He is well supported by his trio, with Lindberg excelling on his solo interludes. It would be welcome if Lindquist brings his horn stateside in support if this fine release. klaslindquist.com
One of the most wonderfully unexpected confluences of musical genres occurred when Ray Charles started to record country and western music. Here was a great Black rhythm and blues singer singing songs that were mostly created by white southern artists. Having grown up in Florida, Charles was certainly exposed to this music, but it was the rare Black artist who sang those songs. Earlier in his career, he had started expanding his musical horizons by including standards in his repertoire, most notably with his chart-topping recording of “Georgia on My Mind.” With the release in 1962 of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Volume 2, both arranged by Marty Paich, Charles had seven Billboard Top 100 hits, starting with “I Can’t Stop Loving You” that reached the top
position. In 1965, he returned to the charts with selections from the albums, Crying Time and Country and Western Meets Rhythm and Blues, placing “Crying Time” and “Together Again” two tunes by Buck Owens, in positions six and 19 respectively. These albums mixed C&W tunes with R&B/Pop selections. Now, over 60 years since the original releases of these albums, Tangerine Records is reissuing remastered versions of these four albums on vinyl, CD, and all streaming platforms, with the latter two albums being available on vinyl for the first time since their original releases. This provides an excellent opportunity to revisit this genre-bending music that appealed to many of the fans of both musical styles. Charles was a singular performer who infused all his music with the uniqueness that was Ray
Charles, and no matter the material, he was one of those artists who could put his own stamp on any song that he performed. These are albums to be cherished for their unrelenting outpouring of memorable performances. In addition to these albums, Tangerine is releasing a new compilation titled Best of Country and Western containing 13 selections comprising the most popular of his C&W recordings, including a duet with Willie Nelson, another genre-bending artist, “Seven Spanish Angels. Kudos to Tangerine Records for making this material available for new audiences. amazon.com
There are fine vocalists spread around the country who do not receive recognition outside the areas where they are located. One such singer is a local New Jerseyite, Jan Findlay . On Don’t Explain: Melodi-
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ous Reflections, Harmonious Connections (self-produced), Findlay is joined by pianist Tomoko Ohno , guitarist John Zweig, and bassist Rick Crane for 10 tunes with a variety of musical settings. The full quartet is present on “Blue Skies,” “Estate,” “What a Difference a Day Makes,” “Don’t Explain,” “So Danco Samba,” with Findlay and Crane sharing the vocals, and “Here’s to Life;” Findlay does “Straighten Up and Fly Right” with Crane and Zweig and “Someone to Light Up My Life” with Ohno; Crane vocalizes on “I’m Afraid the Masquerade Is Over” with Ohno and Zweig; and the instrumental trio adds “The End of a Love Affair”. Findlay’s singing is spot on with a voice that is smooth and rangy, and she exhibits magnificent phrasing. Crane has a Chet Baker-like sound and feel to his vo-
calizing and is a strong presence on bass. Ohno and Zweig are both accomplished accompanists as well as marvelous soloists. There is not much more explaining necessary for Don’t Explain. janfindlay.com
Down in New Orleans, Meryl Zimmerman, a transplanted Long Islander, has been a steady presence
on the Crescent City musical scene for the past decade. She recently released Easy to Love Records – 1404) containing a dozen tunes on which she is backed by Kris Tokarski on piano, Nobu Ozaki on bass, and Hal Smith on drums. The program includes 11 familiar stan dards, including“It’s a Lovely Day Today,” “Fascinating Rhythm”, and “Easy To Love”, plus a wonderful Hoagy Carmichael/Helen Meinar di gem, “April in My Heart, “ a song that is currently too often overlooked. Zimmerman has a voice that is immediately welcoming. Her phrasing is excellent, and she makes each lyric sound like it was written for her. In addition, she has an underlying jazz sensitivity that fits nicely with the superb players who are her musical partners. Easy to Love is indeed easy to love. merylzimmerman.com
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