A neighborhood celebration of jazz finally goes public

By JUAN l ASSo jlasso@liherald.com

Dr. Herold Simon’s first memory of jazz goes back to his youth, when he spent summer days with his father, a custodian, walking the streets of New York City and seeing the sights. “He wanted to show me places,” Simon recalled. “Nice buildings and so on.”

But it wasn’t so much the city’s towering skyscrapers or its glimmering museums that captured the teenage Simon’s imagination. Instead it was a street performer playing jazz on his saxophone at 5th Avenue and 54th Street.

Never had the then 18-yearold been so moved by music, and before he knew it, he was locked into a lifelong fascination with jazz. He devoured the songs of classical jazz musicians, and built a collection of old vinyl jazz records and CDs. Through the late 1990s, Simon religiously tuned into BET on Jazz, a jazz television programming network geared toward Black audiences.

Not content with keeping the music to himself, Simon wanted to share his passion for jazz with his friends in Valley Stream. Thus, in 2003, he began a quest to bring jazz performers together to play in his backyard

— literally. He named these inhouse concert gatherings the Valley Stream Jazz Festival.

Simon, an internist who is in his 60s, always had the ambition to host a public jazz concert in one of the village’s parks. By 2015, his backyard concerts had grown, with a more “robust jazz production involving up to 12 influential musicians at a time led by collaborator Gary Sylvian,” as Simon’s website states.

In recent years, as his gettogethers became more popular, Simon encountered various logistical roadblocks. But last weekend, his vision was finally realized, thanks to the collabor- ative effort of the office of Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages and the village: The Valley Stream Bandshell hosted the 18th annual Jazz Festival on Saturday, featuring jazz-folk performers Mikaelle Aimée and Adnan Khan. There was a touch of hometown flair, with a dance performance by Layla’s

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