Volume 42 • Issue 2 February 2014 Journal of the New Jersey Jazz Society Dedicated to the performance, promotion and preservation of jazz. PEE WEE Pee Wee Russell, New York City c. 1944-46. Photo by William Gottlieb. RUSSELL MEMORIAL Remembering Charles Ellsworth Russell STOMP The 45th Annual NJJS Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp SUNDAY is all set to chase away winter’s chill on Sunday, March 2. Once again presented in MARCH 2 the elegant Grand Ballroom of the Birchwood Manor in Whippany, NJ, this year’s details bands are: Dick Voigt’s Big Apple Jazz Band, David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong pages Eternity Band, the Keith Ingham Quintet and the Warren Vaché Quintet. More info page 26. 2, 5, 26 New JerseyJazzSociety in this issue: New Jersey Jazz socIety Prez Sez. 2 Bulletin Board ......................2 NJJS Calendar ......................3 Jazz Trivia .........................4 The Mail Bag .......................4 Editor’s Pick/Deadlines/NJJS Info .......6 Prez Sez Crow’s Nest. 46 New Patron Level Benefits ...........47 By Mike Katz President, NJJS Change of Address/Support NJJS/ Volunteer/Join NJJS. 47 NJJS/Pee Wee T-shirts. 48 s this issue of Jersey Jazz is on its way to the New/Renewed Members ............49 APost Office, Jackie Wetcher and I are on our storIes way down to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale Pee Wee Preview. ...............cover to leave on a week-long Caribbean jazz cruise, Big Band in the Sky ..................8 which, we have been told, will feature more than Talking Jazz: James Chirillo ...........14 Dan’s Den ........................22 100 jazz musicians, many of them NJJS favorites. Bill Harper at Bethany ...............24 The trip is also serving as our belated honeymoon Noteworthy .......................28 following our wedding last summer, and we are Pianoforte—Soft, Loud and Otherwise ..30 really excited about it! More about this in the New Kukla Book: Jazz in Newark ......32 Has Jazz Changed Your Life? .........32 next issue. Jack Stine on Bill Cleland ............34 n Closer to home, we attended the 2014 Chicken reVIews Fat Ball just after New Year’s. This long-running Other Views. 36 event, for the last several years organized by Hendrik Meurkens at Rutherfurd Hall ...38 Caught in the Act ..................40 Al Kuehn and Don Greenfield, featured Warren Vaché (whom we had seen only a few days before eVeNts at the Italian Bistro in Highland Park on New ’Round Jersey: Morris, Ocean .........44 Institute of Jazz Studies/ Year’s Eve, in the company of past NJJS president Jazz from Archives ...............45 Andi Tyson and Elliott), Ken Peplowski, Bria Somewhere There’s Music. 50 Skonberg, John Allred, Rossano Sportiello, Nicki The Name Dropper .................51 Parrott and Ed Metz. The same producers and adVertIsers some of the same musicians will be involved in a Marlene VerPlanck ..................4 program honoring Bruce Gast to take place on Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp ......5 NJJS Spring Concert: Skonberg & Fuller ..7 February 16, at the same location, the Prospect WBGO ............................9 Presbyterian Church in Maplewood, along with Shanghai Jazz .....................11 even more musicians, totaling 14 in all. I hope William Paterson University ..........13 many of you will be there; judging by how the NJPAC ...........................15 Jazzdagen ........................19 Chicken Fat Ball went, it should be a grand event. Mike Davis is one of 14 musicians set to perform a Rutherfurd Hall ....................21 n Now that I am into my second year as your Arbors Records ....................23 tribute to concert producer Bruce Gast in Maplewood SOPAC ...........................25 president, I think it is time that I pay special on Feb. 16. Photo by Lynn Redmile. Axelrod Performing Arts Center .......27 Ocean County College ..............29 Concert to Honor Bruce Gast ........31 Stephen Fuller .....................32 Stay tuned to www.njjs.org for updates and details. Hibiscus ..........................33 Diane Perry .......................34 Cadence Magazine .................35 NJJS Bulletin Board Sandy Sasso ......................36 PA Jazz Society. .37 Member discount Claim your member privilege! Get free admission to NJJS socials, RVCC ............................39 discounts to music events, discounts from partners! Jim Eigo Jazz Promo ................40 John Bianculli/Italian Bistro ...........41 NJJs Members discounts Hibiscus offers NJJS members a discount of 10% off their Leonieke Scheuble .................42 check. The Berrie Center at Ramapo College offers NJJS members 5% off event tickets. Trumpets .........................43 CTS Images .......................47 Free Jazz socials…ongoing. Join us for music and mingling. Free for members, LauRio Jazz .......................49 WBGO Photo Blog. .49 $10 non-members (applicable to membership) with just a $10 venue minimum. Watch calendar Princeton Record Exchange ..........52 page 3 for upcoming dates and details. Beyond the schmooze, there are some serious musical prizes raffled off at our socials!! 2 __________________________________ February 2014 New JerseyJazzSociety tell them you saw it in Jersey Jazz! tribute to those who work on this magazine I would also like to thank our advertisers, unfortunately are again not going to have which you are holding in your hands, which whose financial support defrays a major Jazzfest, these will be our two signature is by far the finest non-commercial jazz portion of the cost of publishing Jersey Jazz, events for this year, although we hope to publication that exists in this country, if not as well as Linda Lobdell, Larissa Rozenfeld co-sponsor others. Ordering information the world. I know this because we receive and Jackie Wetcher, who work with the for both is elsewhere in this issue; literature from other jazz societies, and none advertisers to support the business side of let’s make both of them sellouts! JJ of them holds a candle to Jersey Jazz. Most the magazine. I hope readers will thank our would be considered bulletins or newsletters advertisers for their support by patronizing as opposed to a full-fledged magazine like their businesses as much as possible. ours; indeed, I often tell prospective n members who are considering joining NJJS Finally, I want to once again remind New Jersey Jazz Society that the magazine alone is well worth the everyone who has not already done so to membership annual dues (if not more). Most of the sign up for our two major events coming makes a great gift! up in March — the Pee Wee Russell credit, of course, goes to our dedicated Plus, if you are already a member, editor, Tony Mottola, and our equally Memorial Stomp on Sunday, March 2, at dedicated art director/co-editor, Linda the Birchwood Manor in Whippany, and a gift membership Lobdell. We hope they can continue putting the annual concert on Sunday, March 30 costs just $20! out the magazine, which has won several at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in See page 47 for details! awards under their editorship, for years to Morristown, featuring trumpeter/singer come. I would also like to thank the others Bria Skonberg with special guest alto who contribute to Jersey Jazz for their saxophonist Tia Fuller. As always, we have efforts, including past president Joe Lang, an outstanding lineup for the Pee Wee Schaen Fox, Fradley Garner, Dan (details in the ad in this issue). Bria has been Like this issue especially busy lately, performing during Morgenstern, Bill Crow, board members of Jersey Jazz? Sandy Josephson and Mitchell Seidel, and, December at venues ranging from Dizzy’s of course, O. Howie Ponder, as well as the Club Coca-Cola and Birdland to a Have it delivered right to other talented writers, and photographers Chilliwack (her British Columbia home your mailbox 11 times a year. like Tony Graves, Lynn Redmile and Fran town) Chiefs hockey game, at which she Simply join NJJS to get Kaufman, whose work graces the magazine was invited to sang “O Canada,” as well as on a regular basis. working on a new CD. Because we your subscription. See page 47 for details Stay tuned to www.njjs.org for updates and details. or visit www.njjs.org. Sunday March 2 Sunday March 30 PEE WEE RUSSELL MEMORIAL STOMP SPRING CONCERT Featuring Dick Voigt’s Big Apple Jazz Band, Bria Skonberg with special guest Tia Fuller David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band, Mayo Performing Arts Center The Keith Ingham Quintet, Morristown, NJ 3PM The Warren Vaché Quintet. www.mayoarts.org Birchwood Manor, Whippany, NJ Noon – 5PM NJJS Calendar February 2014 ___________________________________ 3 New JerseyJazzSociety Jazz trivia the Mail Bag By O. Howie Ponder I HaVe tHese Jazz IteMs For saLe that might interest NJJS (answers on page 48) members: • 225 books about jazz and big bands • 14 issues of JAZZ Magazine, 1976 to 1980 • 125 issues of The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors Magazine, 1990 to 2012 The Arrangers • 62 books about 40 big bands, a Joyce Record Club Publication by Charles Garrod that includes itinerary, dates, venues, band members, In November’s Jersey Jazz, Schaen Fox interviewed Van Alexander, tunes played — including record dates and record label where each one of the iconic music arrangers of the Swing Era. Arrangers, tune played can be found (these 62 are not part of the 225 books above) the largely behind-the-scenes masterminds of the sound of the • Near complete collection of issues of Jersey Jazz from the beginning big bands, took compositions by bandleaders and others, and (1972) to the present refashioned them. Let’s see if you can remember some of the more All items are in excellent condition and I am asking $500 for the lot. If famous ones. interested, contact [email protected] for additional information. 1. A native of Newark, he is best known for his arranging for Glenn Miller; Walter Bennett “Little Brown Jug,” “Sunrise Serenade,” “Serenade in Blue” and for Tommy Brick, NJ Dorsey; “Lonesome Road” and “Pussy Willow.” In the 1950s he co-led an adventurous band with co-arranger Eddie Sauter.