The jazz of summer

The concert season in southern Florida pretty much mirrors the months when the area has the most visitors and seasonal residents.... say October through late April or early May. While that makes great sense, some programmers are also taking note that a considerable number of Floridians don't go north for the summer, or for the full summer.

A fair number of restaurants still offer jazz entertainment for their patrons year-round and there are concert gigs if you look for them.

Dick Hamilton

Here's one of the latest examples. The Venice Institute for Performing Arts is running a Local Spotlight Festival throughout June, July and August in the lobby of the Venice Performing Arts Center. It includes a Summer Jazz Series of once-a-month concerts featuring fine area musicians.

The first such jazz event was a Thursday, June 22 concert by Dick Hamilton's quartet, which featured the leader on keyboard and trombone, guitarist Steve Martinucci, bassist John DeWitt and drummer Johnny Moore. All four musicians are based in Sarasota.


Their fare included a wide range of jazz staples and material from the Great American Songbook. 

Dick Hamilton & Steve Martinucci

The finest moments included Martinucci's feature on "Emily," which revealed his beautiful warm instrumental tone, and several tunes on which Hamilton shifted to trombone and went head-to-head with the guitarist in trading melodic ideas. They included Harold Arlen's "A Sleepin' Bee," "Here's That Rainy Day" performed with a bossa-nova feel, and "You Stepped Out of a Dream."

The Venice-based South County Jazz Club now holds several of its major concerts at VPAC (three are scheduled in the 2017-2018 season) and helped the Institute with the programming for this new summer series. The remaining concerts feature drummer-singer Patricia Dean's trio (with bassist Don Mopsick and guitarist Dave Trefethen) on Thursday, July 20, and vibraphonist Dave Morgan's trio on Thursday, August 10.

Johnny Moore, John DeWitt, Dick Hamilton, Steve Martinucci