Mainstream swing - with some rhythmic twists

Tenor saxophonist Jim Wellen teamed up with three savvy veterans for an a swinging afternoon of mainstream jazz that dug into the jazz canon, more than a few movie soundtracks and the Great American Songbook on Friday, November 15 in Venice FL.

Jim Wellen

His partners included pianist Billy Marcus, guitarist Dave Trefethen and bassist Don Mopsick. Together as a fine collaborative unit, and three different duet combinations, they explored a wide range of material dating from the 1930s into the 1960s.

Dave Trefethen

The breadth of material included a bit of Earl "Fatha" Hines ("Rosetta"), Django Reinhardt's "Nuages," Antonio Carlos Jobim's bossa nova "Triste,"  Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing (if it Ain't Got That Swing)," and even "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top."

An all-star night in Sarasota

The 39^th annual Sarasota Jazz Festival wrapped up Saturday night, March 9, with honors for a festival frequent flier, rarely heard combinations of all-star performers – and a healthy dose of Duke Ellington. 

Houston Person

Tenor saxophonist Houston Person, a distinctive balladeer whose playing is steeped in soul jazz, received the Jazz Club of Sarasota’s Satchmo Award. The organization has been awarding it since 1987 to honorees who have made a “unique and enduring contribution to the living history of jazz.”

The two sets that closed out the festival mixed and matched players in ways that showcased their creativity. There were a handful of solo tunes, some duos, a few varied quartets, quintets and even a two-piano, two-bass, 10-performer finale.

Sandke, Lamb

Person was featured with pianist Bill Charlap, bassist Alejandro Arenas and drummer Mark Feinman on “You’re a Sweetheart” and “Maybe You’ll Be There” to open things. 

Musical director Ken Peplowski performed a solo clarinet version of Ellington’s “The Single Petal of a Rose” before his duo with pianist Dick Hyman on “Panama.” Hyman, who turned 92 the day before, then delivered the first of two solo spotlights, before he, Peplowski, trumpeter Randy Sandke, Arenas, Feinman and Charlap closed the set with “Take the A Train.”

Later highlights included Hyman and ex-Ellington bassist John Lamb’s duo version of Lester Young’s “Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid” and their collaboration with singer Mary Stallings on Duke’s “I’ve Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good).”

Charlap

Sitting at Yamaha grand pianos at opposite ends of the long ballroom stage, Hyman and his much younger cousin Charlap, also treated the audience to a tasty duet. They traded solos, tossed melodic lines back and forth like a relay baton, and comped behind each other on “All the Things You Are.”

La Lucha members John O’Leary on piano, Arenas and Feinman, who were the ace rhythm section for the main stage concerts, got their own spotlight with an exhilarating take on Fred Astaire’s “Cheek to Cheek.”

Saturday's finale

There was much to savor - or check out - on Friday

Bertoncini

Gary Dow, Lauren Mitchell

Carter

It included a new festival feature: four themed, afternoon stages that preceded the evening's main concert, all at Sarasota's Hyatt Regency. The many performers included guitarist Gene Bertoncini on the classic jazz stage,  pianist Joe Delaney’s trio and drummer Thomas Carabassi’s quartet on the Latin stage, tenor saxophonist Jeremy Carter on the contemporary stage, and singer Lauren Mitchell’s band on the blues stage.

Bertoncini, 81, treated his listeners in the Hyatt Regency’s intimate Boathouse to solo guitar artistry featuring delicacy and clean melodic lines. He opened with a clever “spring” medley that included “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” “It Might as Well Be Spring” and “Gone With the Wind.”

Coss

Pianist Shelley Berg, who directs the jazz program at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, kicked off the evening program with a solo version of “You and the Night and the Music,” setting the tone for the abundance of jazz to come.

On this reed player-dominated night, tenor saxophonist Roxy Coss used her Sarasota debut to perform two originals, “Feminist AF” and “You’re There.” Then festival newcomer Aaron Johnson shared his talent on flute, alto sax and clarinet, the latter on the little-heard-these-days Mack David ballad “A Sinner Kissed an Angel.” 

Then the musical chairs portion of the program began, with varying blends of talent from song to song for the remainder of the set:

• Person and Peplowski teamed up on tenor saxes with the rhythm section on two tunes, including the Bobby Hebb pop hit “Sunny.”
• Peplowski and Berg played a clarinet and piano duet on “It Never Entered My Mind.”
• Coss, Johnson and Peplowski tore into “Cherokee” in a sax spectacular.



Arenas, Stallings, Peplowski

Stallings was featured for most of the second set. Gems included her versions of “Girl Talk” and “September in the Rain,” the latter performed with the spare accompaniment of Berg at the piano. Charles Turner, who made his festival debut on Wednesday,  made a Friday night cameo with a lush take on “Stardust” before all of the night’s performers crowded on stage for a rousing finale.

 

Carney with Admirals' sax section

Friday night began with alto saxophonist Pete Carney guesting with the Sarasota High Admirals, one of three area high school big bands that opened the evening performances with half-hour sets. The Pineview High School Jazz Ensemble, North Port High School Jazz One and The Admirals were the top three finishers in the Jazz Club of Sarasota’s high school band competition for young performers from Sarasota and Manatee counties.

 
This year's festival was expanded greatly from prior years.  More than 120 musicians performed in 48 different events.

Friday night finale

Digging into the boisterous side of the tenor sax

Bokulic, Duffy

Saxophonist Paul Duffy has been influenced mightily by the "Texas tenor" style of saxophone - the brawny, honking, at-times boisterous R&B-tinged sound made famous by Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, Buddy Tate, David "Fathead" Newman and King Curtis. That's quite a stretch for a versatile musician who grew up - and developed his passion for jazz - in Dublin, Ireland.

That sound was on fine display on Friday, December 7, in the South County Jazz Club's matinee concert series in Venice FL. Duffy's quartet featured the leader on tenor and alto saxes, trumpet and vocals, Matt Bokulic on piano, Patrick Bettison on bass and Johnny Moore on drums. With range and soulfulness, Duffy's singing was also a strength throughout the program.

The afternoon's material hopscotched through the Great American Songbook and the jazz canon to The Beatles and Hoagy Carmichael.

Moore

Given the holiday season at hand, Duffy's instrumental opener on Duke Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" included fleeting references to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and later in his solo, to "Jingle Bells." 

Bokulic quickly got into the spirit in another way. On "They Can't Take That Away From Me," the pianist seamlessly dropped in a line from "How are Things in Glocca Mora?" from the 1947 Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow.

Favorite moments:

• The band's take on Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" brought to the fore the depth and passion in Duffy's tenor sax style.

  

  Duffy on "Cantaloupe Island"

• Duffy switched back and forth between the tenor and his trumpet,on Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island,"  often starting a musical phrase with one and ending with the other.

  

  Bettison

• Bettison was featured beautifully on jazz harmonica on "The Days of Wine and Roses."
• Duffy dig out his alto sax for a novel treatment of Hancock's "Watermelon Man," which was a mega-hit for Mongo Santamaria. Duffy riffed the melody on alto and tenor sax simultaneously but shifted back to tenor for his solos. It was well done, as in this case, done sparingly. You wouldn't want to hear a full afternoon if it.

  

  "Watermelon Man"

• The quartet's version of Wayne Shorter's jazz chestnut "Footprints" was a tour de force, reflecting just how locked in the four players were on this gig.

The afternoon at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice closed with the band's swinging take on "Danny Boy." Not a surprise given Duffy's roots. What many may find surprising is that he only learned traditional Irish music after he moved here in the early 1980s and opened a Sarasota bar called the Irish Rover.

Matt Bokulic, Patrick Bettison, Paul Duffy, Johnny Moore

Honoring and updating a classic saxophone sound and spirit

Harry Allen

Bandleader Woody Herman's Second Herd in the late 1940s featured a stunning saxophone section known as the Four Brothers. It featured tenormen Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Herbie Steward, plus baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff. The sound was swinging and vibrant as the four players dug into crisp unison lines and took turns passing solos to one another much like relay runners hand off the baton.

Seventy years after the Four Brothers made their mark on big band jazz, Harry Allen is having great fun keeping the format and its spirit alive. In October 2016, he recorded a Four-Brothers-style project, The Candymen (Arbors) with his All Star New York Saxophone Band. Allen made the recording with tenorists Eric Alexander and Grant Stewart and baritone player Gary Smulyan. 

Richard Drexler

Allen brought that sound and energy to Hillsborough Community College's Ybor City campus on Sunday, April 7 for a Tampa Jazz Club concert billed as The Four Others. It teamed Allen with fellow tenorists Lew Del Gatto and Jeff Rupert, as well as baritone saxophonist Saul Dautch. Pianist Richard Drexler, bassist Don Mopsick and drummer Eddie Metz Jr. were the afternoon's ace rhythm section.

Eric Alexander shares many shades of bebop

Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander fully embraced the rich and vibrant sound of bebop in his formative years as a jazz player - and continues to help it evolve a quarter-century later.

Eric Alexander

That was the takeaway after his Wednesday, April 5 appearance with the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra at Artis-Naples' Daniels Pavilion. Despite the big name, the band is actually a sextet. They explored a wide range of standard material, finding ways to add their own energetic stamp on it. In each case, the music was stretched for expansive and interesting solos by all of the participants.

Celebrating Stan Getz and other jazz giants

Tenor saxophonist Jeff Rupert & Friends, featuring rising star singer Veronica Swift, wound up a 10-day Florida concert tour on Sunday, March 19, with a stunning matinee performance in Venice.

Jeff Rupert

 Rupert, who directs the University of Central Florida's Jazz Studies Program, was joined for this performance by fellow faculty members Richard Drexler on piano and Marty Morell on drums, plus Swift and bassist Don Mopsick. 

A jazzy way to end the day

Eddie Metz Jr.

Drummer Eddie Metz Jr. brought his mighty International Trio plus tenor saxophonist Harry Allen to Sarasota FL to provide a musical balm to Inauguration Day on Thursday, January 20.

"We're glad your here rather than at home cheering or yelling at the TV," Metz said at the outset. "We don't care what side you're on -- because this is the universal language of music."

Harry Allen - Part B

It was most fitting that the South County Jazz Club featured tenor saxophonist Harry Allen on Tuesday, March 15 at a free concert to thank members for their support over the past five years. Allen was the first big-name jazz artist presented in the club's inaugural season when he appeared with guitarist Nate Najar.

Allen, Kilgore

This latest event, held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Venice, featured Allen with his New York-based band (pianist Bill Cunliffe, bassist Joel Forbes and drummer Kevin Kanner), plus singer Rebecca Kilgore as special guest. It was the final night of a five-concert Florida tour that included stops in Avon Park, Vero Beach, St. Petersburg and Port Charlotte.

Saxophonist's "A Team" delivers a night filled with musical gems

A touring jazz saxophonist's lot often means solitary travel to a distant city or country- and working with a local or regional rhythm section with whom they may or may not be familiar.

Harry Allen, Rebecca Kilgore

The fine swing tenor Harry Allen had none of that uncertainty for his March 14 appearance in the Charlotte County Jazz Society's concert series. Allen brought his own New York-based band to Port Charlotte as part of a five-concert Florida tour. His ace rhythm section included the superb pianist Bill Cunliffe, bassist Joel Forbes and drummer Kevin Kanner. He also shared the spotlight with a special guest, Portland, Oregon-based singer Rebecca Kilgore.

Channeling two jazz tenor titans

Del Gatto, Rupert

Tenor saxophonists Lew Del Gatto and Jeff Rupert channeled the spirit and hard-driving swing of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims in their Friday matinee concert at the Venice (FL) Art Center.

The South County Jazz Club event teamed the two tenors with pianist Richard Drexler, bassist Don Mopsick and drummer Tony Vigilante. 

All of the music they performed came from the repertoire of Cohn and Sims, whose musical partnership was something to behold on the New York jazz scene in the 1950s and '60s. Half of the afternoon's material was featured on To Al and Zoot, With Love, a 2008 recording that was the genesis of a tribute project by Del Gatto and fellow tenor player Bob Keller.

Richard Drexler

Del Gatto, who spent a quarter century as a member of NBC's Saturday Night Live Band, now lives in Naples FL. With Keller still based up north, he drafted Rupert for this event. Rupert is Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Drexler, a multi-instrumentalist best known for his bass playing, also teaches in UCF's jazz program.

Drexler, Del Gatto, Rupert, Mopsick, Vigilante

The music was swinging from the opening notes of their extended version of "Lover Come Back to Me" to the closer, late pianist John Bunch's frisky "John's Bunch." Other treats included the band's take on "Recado Bossa Nova," Gary McFarland's "Blue Hodge" and Lester Young's classic composition "Tickle Toe." The set also included Cohn's originals "P-Town" and "Mama Flosie," and Billy Byers' "Doodle Oodle. "

Del Gatto and Rupert were in synch with each other - and their rhythm mates - all afternoon. The two tenors' unison playing was very strong, with slight variations enhancing their blend. All of the players' solos were inspired and quite inventive.

Drexler, Del Gatto, Rupert

Ho-Ho-Ho Jazz

Nate Najar

Guitarist Nate Najar brought his jazz holiday show to Sarasota on Saturday evening with special guest Harry Allen. The South County Jazz Club event at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center blended jazz treatments of holiday material with some jazz classics.

Najar, Lamb, Allen, Feinman, Suggs

The event marked the club's first opportunity to hear trumpeter James Suggs, an upstate New York native who moved to the St. Petersburg area this year after having spent the past eight years living and working in Argentina. He was a fine addition to Najar's band, which also included ex-Ellington bassist John Lamb and drummer Mark Feinman.

The holiday fare came from deep in Najar's repertoire in some cases, such as the Joao Gilberto bossa nova "Presente de Natal" ("Christmas Present") and Charlie Byrd's "A Carol for All Seasons," which was named for the guitarist's daughter, Carol. The Gilberto tune was ideal, as New York-based Allen has a special affinity for Brazilian jazz. There were also several pieces from the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn "Nutcracker Suite" jazz repertoire, and a lovely solo guitar version of "Greensleeves" aka "What Child is This?".

The evening's other gems included Suggs' trumpet feature on "What a Wonderful World," and the bands takes on "Things Ain't What they Used to Be" and Duke Ellington's "The Feeling of Jazz." The latter was most appropriate, because jazz and the holiday season are so much about feelings. 

Combine the two, and the spirit on stage is anything but ho-hum. It's ho-ho-ho and them some.

Alexis Cole at Sarasota Jazz Festival (updated)

Alexis Cole and Eric Alexander

New York-based singer Alexis Cole's quintet, featuring tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, performed Friday night at the 34th annual Sarasota Jazz Festival.

Cole's band also included pianist John di Martino, bassist David Finck and drummer Kenny Washington. Here's a link to my concert review for JazzTimes.com.

Klaus Bader's jazz digs deeply into the swing tenor tradition

Klaus Bader

The South County Jazz Club's matinee series took on an international flavor at the Venice Art Center in Venice FL with an appearance by tenor saxophonist Klaus Bader. He flew in for Friday's gig from his native Germany, along with guitarist Peter Starkmann. The quintet also included three Southwest Florida musicians - pianist Johnny Varro, bassist Don Mopsick and drummer Tony Martin.

Jazz saxophonist comes full circle

Scott Hamilton (Blue Duchess photo)

Scott Hamilton, now a renowned jazz tenor saxophonist, was 15, playing harmonica and leading a blues band in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island when he first met Duke Robillard.

It was in the late 1960s, a couple of years after guitarist Duke Robillard and pianist Al Copley founded the no-holds-barred, Chicago-style blues band Roomful of Blues - and nearly a decade before Roomful's first album release.

The A Team scores big with jazz in Port Charlotte

Amanda Carr and Arnie Krakowsky

Massachusetts-based singer Amanda Carr and tenor saxophonist Arnie Krakowsky generally don't perform as a team outside New England, but their Charlotte County Jazz Society concert in Port Charlotte, FL last night demonstrated that they have what it takes to do so. And then some.

Bringing 9/11 reflection to jazz

Saxophonist Tom Ellison didn’t mention the date at tonight’s jam session at Allegro Bistro in Venice FL. He didn’t have to. But he found a way through his music to bring remembrance to this 11^th anniversary of 9/11.

He selected a song written by a man with New York connections - comic actor, director and composer Charlie Chaplin. If you measure it by title alone, “Smile” would seem an odd choice. But Ellison made sure to first sing the lyrics at this edition of the South County Jazz Club weekly jam session.

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking.

When there are clouds in the sky  

you'll get by.

If you smile through your pain and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow

You'll see the sun come shining through

For you.

 

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide every trace of sadness.

Although a tear may be ever so near

That's the time you must keep on trying

Smile, what's the use of crying.

You'll find that life is still worthwhile -

If you just smile.

Then, morphing into an instrumental balladeer, Sarasota-based Ellison delivered a poignant  tenor sax solo that in its own way also sang of sadness and gladness.

Bravo.