Jazz at New Jersey's southern tip continues

It is great to see that Cape May hasn’t given up on jazz – particularly having its own charming jazz festival.

Two years ago, the Cape May Jazz Festival ended its twice-a-year run (34 weekend festivals in 17 years) due to financial and organizational shortcomings. Some wondered whether the string of November and April festivals would ever be back as a way to extend the tourism season in quaint and charming Cape May.

The good news is that there will be a full-blown jazz festival next month.
The Exit 0 International Jazz Festival has scheduled performances by 21 bands Friday night through Sunday afternoon, November 9 to11.

Hug the ones you love

I never had a brother by blood and missed out on all of those brotherly things that happen in families. Thanks to jazz, I developed brother-like friendships with a couple of people over the past 20 years. And now, one of them is gone - way, way, way too soon.

The jazz world lost one of its great accompanists and yesterday I lost a friend who was indeed like a brother. Pianist George Mesterhazy died in his sleep yesterday - four days after his 59th birthday - at home in Cape May, New Jersey. 

He was a revered player on the South Jersey jazz scene, who also toured the world as accompanist to Shirley Horn in her later years, Rebecca Parris, Paula West and Mark Murphy, among many others. He worked as pianist and musical director for both West and Murphy right up to his passing, accompanying Murphy to London, Paris, Berlin and Istanbul a couple of months ago. And now he's jamming - no doubt leading the festivities and cracking most of the jokes - in a heavenly jazz club.

George Mesterhazy

His talent was over the top as a player and arranger. But his genuine warmth and essence as a human being was more amazing. George had a zest for life and an ability to connect with people that seems beyond compare. His many friends have been filling his Facebook page with their memories over the past 15 hours or so. Such an impact on so many people.

I cherish the memories, the phone calls, the trips, and his dash to Rhode Island 50 weeks ago to play a few tunes when Kathie and I married on a beautiful day in a Japanese garden. George celebrated with us for a few hours and then headed right back to New Jersey the same night. He was always busy but always made time for the important stuff - his friends.

This image by San Francisco photographer Pat Johnson truly captured George's spirit.

My heart aches for his longtime companion/girlfriend, Victoria Watson, his dad, his kids, his extended family.

The only other words right now are those with which George ended every one of our phone calls.

"Love ya, brother."

A memorable Cape May weekend

It’s amazing that the Cape May Jazz Festival has now completed 17 full seasons of its semi-annual jazz weekends. That’s 34 festivals drawing large off-season crowds to New Jersey’s southern tip.

It was a growing pains sort of weekend for the new blood/old blood running the festival after the summertime resignations of festival co-founders Carol Stone and Woody Woodland after a protracted series of skirmishes with the board of directors. This year, I made the trek to quaint and charming Cape May on a photo assignment for jazztimes.com. Images will be posted with Lee Mergner’s review.

The festival had some very strong acts – The Yellowjackets and trumpeter Terell Stafford’s band were Friday highlights, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson’s quartet with soul jazz master Les McCann, as well as drummer Ralph Peterson’s band, on Saturday.

The Saturday afternoon jam sessions were packed – the sure sign of a good turnout. And it was great to see old friend Winston Byrd, a Delaware native whose trumpet artistry seemed ever-present at the festival for several years before he moved to Los Angeles. He knows how to tear it up. (That's Winston in the photo at a Carney's jam session with guitarist Geno White, saxophonist Tim Price and others.)

The only significant glitch was the challenging acoustics and some keyboard sound problems for the Jackson-McCann show at Star of the Sea Auditorium. There was no such problem on Friday because the Yellowjackets bring along their own sound wizard. A good engineer who works regularly with the audio needs of one band has an edge. He (or she) knows how to turn lemons into lemonade when confronted with – in this case – a tired old grammar school gymnasium.

For budget issues, the festival organizers decided not to shuttle fans to the Cape May Regional High School’s state-of-the-art theater/auditorium a few miles away. It had been the headline venue for several years - and became a critical venue after the beachfront Cape May Convention Hall was condemned two years ago.

This year, all of the consolidated events were within walking distance of the beachfront strip of bars, hotels and dozens of B&Bs. And so will be the new Convention Hall, which is expected to open sometime in 2012, in time for at least one of that year’s festivals. Maybe both of them.

It was nice that the 34th CMJF program book included a photo of the founders. But there was no other visibility given to Carol Woody, nor were they ever thanked publicly for 16.5 years of keeping the event alive, nor were they present. Curious. And sad in a way. Understandable perhaps given the ill will that transpired at times. But life – and festivals – go on.