Johnny Varro's Classic Swing Admiration Society

Pianist Johnny Varro cut his musical teeth on the classic swing side of jazz in the late 1940s, working over the next few decades with some of its masters. They included Eddie Condon, Wild Bill Davison, Bobby Hackett, Coleman Hawkins and Pee Wee Russell, among many others.  

Johnny Varro

At age 89, Varro remains one of the sub-genre's most fervent ambassadors. He brought his take on the music back to Port Charlotte FL on Monday, November 11, sneaking a few lesser-heard gems into a familiar repertoire for the Florida edition of his Swing 7 band. This was the band's fourth Charlotte County Jazz Society appearance in eight years, and it include a couple of notable personnel changes.

Randy Sandke

Long-time sidemen Jeff Lego (trombone), Eddie Metz Jr. (drums), Mark Neuenschwander (bass) and Rodney Rojas (tenor sax) were joined by Randy Sandke on trumpet and Pete BarenBregge on alto sax and clarinet. Sandke, a fixture in Varro's New York-based Swing 7 unit, moved to Venice last year. BarenBregge, longtime reed player and former musical director of the Washington DC-based Airmen of Note, also calls Venice home now. He was subbing for the night and fit in seamlessly, sight-reading Varro's book for the first time and adding fine solos on both alto and clarinet.

A season warm-up for Charlotte County jazz fans

While its formal 2019-20 concert season doesn't start until October 14, the Charlotte County Jazz Society whetted the appetites of about 90 members and prospective members on Wednesday, September 25.

Billy Marcus, Don Mopsick

Pianist Billy Marcus and bassist Don Mopsick performed for CCJS at the matinee event at JD's Bistro and Jazz Club in Port Charlotte, FL.The pair are frequent collaborators, although this was Marcus' first CCJS appearance.

Marcus, a South Florida jazz powerhouse for decades, cut his jazz teeth in Massachusetts. His mother, Marie Marcus, was a renowned stride pianist. She was considered the Queen of Cape Cod Jazz. 

Putting a tasty stamp on jazz classics

Billy Marcus

Pianist Billy Marcus headlined the South County Jazz Club's 2018-19 season-closing concert on Wednesday, April 4 in Venice FL. Marcus is blessed with savvy musicality and pyrotechnic piano chops - and his trio mates helped make the evening even more special. 

Mark Neuenschwander

Bassist Mark Neuenschwander is a longtime jazz educator who teaches in the Tampa Bay area and is a first-tier player. Marcus simply calls this blue-ribbon bassist "the Rock of Gibraltar." Dave Morgan is a triple threat. Besides tasty work at the drum kit, he was also featured on vibes and vocals.

The Great American Songbook, songs from a range of movies and jazz chestnuts were the raw material for their inventive explorations. Vintage material included Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz" and W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues." Marcus's romp through the latter burner was one of the evening's showcase moments at the Venice Art Center.

Another was his tour-de-force medley blending gems written by Michel Legrand, who died this year. They included "I Will Wait For You" and "The Theme From Summer of '42." Marcus also paid tribute to composer Andre Previn, who died in February, with "You're Gonna Hear From Me" from the soundtrack for the movie "Inside Daisy Clover."

Dave Morgan

In every instance, the trio found creative ways to put a personal stamp on the music. For example, they performed "A Beautiful Friendship" as a bossa nova. It featured Morgan on drums and vocals. An interesting footnote: this gem was written by Donald Kahn and Stanley Styne, the sons of songwriting giants Gus Kahn and Jule Styne.

Other material included Johnny Mandel's "Emily," Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Triste" and Bronislaw Kaper's "Invitation" (all featuring Morgan on vibes), "Let's Fall in Love," "I'm Old Fashioned," "My Foolish Heart," "On The Sunny Side of the Street" and "Corner Pocket." The latter was an ideal closer, for the band had this audience in its pocket all night long. 

Billy Marcus, Dick Hyman

Pianist Dick Hyman, who moved from New York to Venice many years ago, was in the house. Marcus was quick to quip: "If I had known Dick Hyman was going to be here tonight, I might have taken a couple of tranquilizers." If he felt any stress, he never showed it.

Marcus, Morgan, Neuenschwander

Jazz at sea with healthy doses of Latin flavor

Anybody who didn’t hear enough music aboard the 2019 edition of The Jazz Cruise only has themselves to blame. The offerings were plentiful and varied, with music running from 11:30 a.m. to after 1 a.m., with staggered programming in five different performance spaces. There were more than 100 jazz musicians in the lineup, and about 2,000 passengers aboard the m/s Celebrity Infinity.

The cruise departed Fort Lauderdale FL on Saturday, January 19 and returned a week later after brief stops in St. Croix, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Labadee, Haiti. Clearly, most folks aboard were there for the music. It was the 19th annual cruise, and more than a few passengers have been on most of them. 

Valdés, DeFrancesco, Shaheed

This year’s personal treats:

There's jazz in his blood

Pianist Rony Khoury hails from the Dominican Republic, where his sheer talent at the keyboard has caught many an eye - and ear. With good reason.


Rony Khoury

He visited Port Charlotte this week for a showcase performance - a brief stopover en route to Boston, where he's going to study at the Berklee College of Music. He won a half-scholarship to Berklee through the Michel Camilo Scholarship Competition, which is open to student musicians from the Dominican Republic. 


Isaac Mingus

Khoury, 28, performed in a trio format at J.D.'s Bistro with bassist Isaac Mingus and drummer Mark De Rose. Mingus, a recent grad of the State College of Florida in Bradenton who now studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville, is a classical and jazz bassist and cellist. De Rosa, a Berklee grad who spent a lot of time working in Japan, is now based on the Florida east coast.

A fine ambassador for the Great American Songbook - and more

To many fans, Danny Sinoff is a crooner for the new millennium. But to savvy jazz listeners, his piano chops are just fascinating. Maybe more so. He underscored his talent on both fronts on Friday, December 21, in a matinee concert for the South County Jazz Club in Venice FL with his regular trio-mates, bassist Scott Smith and drummer Patrica Dean.

Smith, Sinoff

The program included a wide array of Broadway and movie soundtrack material. Five of the standards were written by Cole Porter, a reminder of how prolific he and many other Tin Pan Alley composers were through the years.

Instrumental treats included “(There is) No Greater Love,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “That’s All,” a bossa-nova version of Porter’s “I Concentrate on You” and a version of “You Don’t Know What Love Is” that hinted at or teased with the melody from start to finish

While Sinoff is a fine ambassador for the Great American Songbook, he also knows how to dig deep into jazz standards. The second set included a romp through the John Lewis tune “D and E,” a 12-bar blues recorded by the Modern Jazz Quartet and intensified on pianist Oscar Peterson’s We Get Requests trio album. Sinoff & Co. turned it into a Peterson tribute.

Patricia Dean

Dean was featured on vocals on two tunes, “I Don’t Know Enough About You” and “Guess Who I Saw Today?,” the latter in memory of singer Nancy Wilson, who died earlier this month. Sinoff ended the program with a terrific piano-and-vocals uptempo take on Porter’s “It’s Alright With Me.”

In the spirit of the season, the program also included Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” and a vocal version of the classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

The concert was held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice.

Dean, Smith, Sinoff

Keyboard artistry on parade

You'd have to look far and wide to find anyone matching Bobby van Deusen's talents at the piano. He's a master of a wide range of jazz styles, possesses fine classical chops and astonishing technique.

Bobby van Deusen

All of that - and then some - was on display Friday, November 23 at the South County Jazz Club's matinee season concert opener in Venice FL. 

Pensacola-based van Deusen, a former member of the Barbary Coast Dixieland Band  who also paid his dues backing trumpeter Al Hirt in New Orleans, can dig into the styles of many piano greats. But even when he mines those distinctive sounds, he quickly adds a special something that makes the tune his own for the moment.

The future of jazz is in good hands

Brett Williams, Brandon Goldberg

Miami-area pianist Brandon Goldberg has soaked up jazz like a sponge takes on water. And he’s been doing so for more than half of his 12 years. He’s a normal kid, polite, poised and eager to learn at every opportunity. Those traits serve him well. That he found his way to jazz – and loves it – is something quite remarkable given the wide variety of musical genres bombarding his peer group.

Steve Allee's compositions - and playing - in the spotlight

Steve Allee

Pianist Steve Allee is a musical quadruple threat - as a player, arranger, composer and educator. All four of those roles were on display on Monday, March 26 when he was the featured artist at the University of South Florida in Tampa. 

The Indianapolis native, now an assistant professor of music at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, held a master class for jazz students at USF, then performed Monday night with the excellent USF Jazz Ensemble I, a big band directed by Chuck Owen, and a Faculty Jazz Ensemble.

An artful blending of two musical genres

Jazz and classical music rarely intersect. But they make interesting bedfellows when brought together by two musicians who are well at ease in both fields.

Dick Hyman and Ken Peplowski

Such was the case on Saturday, February 24 when pianist Dick Hyman and reed player Ken Peplowski joined forces with a  47-member orchestra conducted by Yakov Bergman. The "Symphony of Broadway" program at the Venice (FL) Performing Arts Center featured a wide variety of band formats..

Hyman, who turns 91 on March 8, has been a prolific pianist, organist, composer, arranger, bandleader, composer of film scores and orchestral works in his long and distinguished career. He was honored last April as a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master.

Peplowski, best known as a proponent of swinging mainstream jazz, also delves into the classical world on occasion, and has been a frequent collaborator with Hyman for many years in many contexts.

Bud Leeds goes Bob-Bob-Bobbying along

Clarinetist Bud Leeds was in fine company - and good spirits - for the South County Jazz Club's first concert of the 2017-2018 season on Monday, November 20.

Bud Leeds

His quartet included multi-instrumentalist Bob MacInnis, Bob Leary on banjo, rhythm guitar and occasional vocals, and piano marvel Bobby van Deusen. (Leeds could have named the band Three Bobs and a Bud.) 

Together, they delved deeply into ragtime, Louis Armstrong fare and other classic jazz staples.The free-and-easy repertoire included "Struttin' With Some Barbecue," cornetist Wild Bill Davison's theme song "I Never Knew," "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?," "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee," Bix Beiderbecke's "Singin' the Blues," Scott Joplin's "Rose Leaf Blues," and "Back Home in Indiana," among others.

Tapping into the lingering love for swing jazz

Johnny Varro played with the elder statesmen of classic swing jazz  in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, working with Eddie Condon, Bobby Hackett, Roy Eldridge and Pee Wee Russell to name but a few. Now at 87, he is one of the elder statesmen.

Johnny Varro

Pianist Varro returned to Port Charlotte with the Florida edition of his Swing Seven band on Monday, November 13. It was the band’s third appearance in five years in the Charlotte County Jazz Society’s concert series.

The band included saxophonists Terry Myers (alto and clarinet) and Rodney Rojas (tenor), trumpeter Charlie Bertini, trombonist Jeff Lego, bassist Mark Neuenschwander and drummer Eddie Metz Jr. The roster was identical to Varro’s October 2012 visit. A couple of subs were aboard in the band’s November 2014 concert.

Pianist will be remembered at Newport

Suffice it to say, Geri Allen will be there in spirit.

Geri Allen at Newport, August 2004

The pianist had been scheduled to perform at this year's Newport Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 5 in the all-star, all-woman trio that has featured her with bassist Esparanza Spalding and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.

That changed late last month when Allen succumbed to cancer.

Under the new plan, Allen will be honored with a one-set performance being called Flying Towards the Sound: For Geri, With Love. Carrington and Spalding will share the stage at Fort Adams State Park with three pianists who were proteges, collaborators and/or friends of Allen: Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran and Christian Sands. 

Celebrating a man and his music

The depth and breadth of pianist, arranger and composer Dick Hyman’s career seems astonishing by any musical standards. Most aspects of his career, which began in the late 1940s in the thriving Manhattan music scene, were touched upon Tuesday, March 7 at the 37^th annual Sarasota Jazz Festival.

Afro-Cuban jazz under the banyan trees

Chuchito Valdes

Latin fire is in pianist Chuchito Valdés' genes. He's the son of Chucho Valdés and grandson of the late Bebo Valdés, two of Cuba's venerable jazz pianists.Though now based in Cancun, Mexico, he carries on the family tradition, much like his globetrotting father. 

Chuchito shared many elements of his Afro-Cuban jazz technique with a crowd beneath the majestic banyan trees at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota FL on Sunday, February 19.

The fine art of solo jazz piano

Dick Hyman

Either as a snowbird or a full-time resident, pianist-composer-arranger Dick Hyman has lived 30 miles up the road in Venice for a few years longer than the Charlotte County Jazz Society has existed. 

The stars aligned on Monday, February 13, for Hyman to make his first CCJS appearance in Port Charlotte. It was long overdue. And it was also the first solo piano concert that the society has presented in its 27 seasons.

A stunning return by a crafty jazz band

Jim Roberts

You experience far more than great playing when pianist Jim Roberts brings his sextet to town. That was clear on Monday, November 14 when Orlando-based Roberts performed at the Charlotte County Jazz Society's concert series with his Saxtet.

Danny Jordan

The band features three reed players:  Danny Jordan, Rex Wertz and David MacKenzie - all doubling on sax and flute. They are backed by Roberts, bassist Charlie Silva and drummer Eddie Metz Jr. 

Jazz pianist shows what he's made of

Pianist Cyrus Chestnut shared an keen understanding of jazz improvisation at a South County Jazz Club concert in Sarasota FL on Saturday, March 19: He called it "composition at a rapid pace with no erasers."

Cyrus Chestnut

Then for the next 90 minutes or so, he gave a dazzling display of the art form in a solo piano concert at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center. Chestnut crafted a series of extended improvisational gems built on or stretching five instrumental jazz classics, one classical piece, several songs from the Great American Songbook and a couple of gospel tunes. 

Whether he is playing actual gospel music or merely adding his own gospel feel to a variety of jazz standards, the genre is embedded in Chestnut's musical psyche. He began playing the piano at age 3, was performing in his family's church in Baltimore at 7 and by 9 was promoted to church pianist. 

Chestnut, now 53, has worked in a wide variety of bands over the past three decades and led his own trio. But he said he gets a particular thrill from performing without any accompaniment: "You really find out what you're made of when you strip it all away and do it yourself."

The result was musical risk taking at its finest. Most every tune he selected was reworked with teasing introductions and extensions, as well as clever chordal and melodic twists - all of that delivered with contrasting thunder and delicacy.

His take on "Polkadots and Moonbeams" included a dalliance with the distinctive melody from "Think!," better known as the theme music to TV's "Jeopardy!" game show. "Jeopardy!" creator Merv Griffin originally wrote it as a lullaby for his son.

Other gems included Chestnut's interpretations of "The Old Rugged Cross,"  a blues and gospel-drenched version of vibes player Milt Jackson's "Bag's Groove," Charlie Parker's bebop standard "Yardbird Suite" and pianist Ray Bryant's "Tonk," which the composer named after a card game he used to play.

The finest moment was Chestnut's teasing, twisting take on the jazz classic "Body and Soul." As he dug deep into various aspects of the tune, he barely hinted at the melody until the end. It became a puzzle to keep the audience guessing - until the pianist dropped in the final few pieces. Even Chestnut was amazed by what the process revealed. "I just played 'Body and Soul' like I've never played it before in my life," he said. 

Chestnut's performance earned him a standing ovation. But he had little time to savor it, flying well before dawn to perform Sunday at the 2016 Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Festival. 

The Swiss connection

Drummer-singer Patricia Dean brought her trio to the South County Jazz Club's matinee concert series at the Venice FL Art Center Thursday, and quite willingly handed the center of attention to her pianist.

William Evans

William Evans is based in St. Petersburg for a few months a year but spends the bulk of his time teaching jazz piano and performing in Switzerland, where he's a longtime faculty member at the Swiss Jazz School in Basel. When he's back in Southwest Florida, it's a matter of catch him when you can.

Patricia Dean

Dean, Evans and bassist Joe Porter combined their talents to make Evans' first jazz club appearance a memorable one. Evans' impressionistic approach to the variety of tunes the trio played revealed interesting new facets without ever losing the essence of the source material.

Joe Porter

Highlights included their take on the dreamy bossa nova "Dindi" and Chick Corea's waltz "Windows," Porter's bass feature on "I Fall in Love Too Easily," and the Evans sprightly original "1-3-5 Junction." His solo piano version of Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady" opened with a teasing introduction that likely had listeners thinking it was going to be something else from the jazz canon. Dean's vocals shined on "East of the Sun," "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and "This Can't Be Love."

Dean and Evans began working together back in the 1980s at the defunct Summerhouse Restaurant on Siesta Key shortly after Evans moved to Florida from Detroit. While he doesn't play in Florida as much as he used to, Dean said she relishes every opportunity to work with him.

"He's such a brilliant player," she said. "Every time he comes to town, I go to school." 

Evans, Porter, Dean

Bud Leeds mixes it up

Leeds, Van Deusen

Clarinetist Bud Leeds always pulls together a band that puts on a good show, you just never know walking in the door what you're going to hear. Such was the case at the South County Jazz Club's November 19 matinee concert at ther Venice FL Art Center.

Bobby van Deusen, a keyboard marvel on the traditional jazz scene, was in town from Pensacola for the gig. He is playing this weekend at the Suncoast Jazz Classic in Clearwater Beach with the Barbary Coast Dixieland Band.