THE TRI-STATE SKYLARK STRUTTER Member of South Jersey Cultural Alliance and Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance Member of American Federation of Jazz Societies and Jersey Arts VOLUME 18 NUMBER 6 March 2008 ********************************************************************************************************************************* T OUR NEXT CONCERT DUPONT COUNTRY CLUB SUNDAY, MARCH 16 1001 Rockland Road Wilmington, Delaware 19803 2 PM TO 5:30 PM Dan Levinson formed the Palomar Quartet to celebrate the THE PALOMAR QUARTET birthplace of Swing in the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. The quartet is similar to the Benny Goodman Quartet with Lionel WITH MOLLY RYAN Hampton, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, and various singers. We have an equal or even better group today with Dan on reeds (mostly clarinet), unbeatable Mark Shane on the ivories (which is one reason why we are at the DuPont Country Club), popular Kevin Dorn keeping time and taking great solos on the drum set, and young North Jersey virtuoso, Matt Hoffman on the vibraphone. Molly Ryan will give great renditions in her own unique style of the big band singers of the 1030 to 1970 period. Last year you may remember that Dan proposed to Molly on the pulpit level at St. Andrew’s Methodist church. We were honored. Q AND A WITH DAN LEVINSON TSSS Please tell us about your early years. DL First I possess no musical talent but an incredible focus, determination, and inspiration. Born July 5, 1965 in Brentwood, Los Angeles, CA, I lived with my mother from age 8 on. While the family had no musicians, I tried piano and guitar. I was a straight- A student in public school and went to private Windward School at age 13 for special attention. I knew I was going to be a performer. I Dan Levinson, leader, reeds tried acting, did well, and enrolled in drama at NYU in 1983.I studied tap dancing, singing, and piano on the side. I learned about Matt Hoffman, vibes ragtime and early jazz from library recordings. Kevin Dorn, drums TSSS Please comment on your musical training. DL I studied MUSIC THEORY, not performance. I picked up Mark Shane, piano my first clarinet at age 20 and the saxophone soon after. My performance knowledge comes from recordings and studying with Ken Peplowski, Rosy McHague, Jack Maheu, and others. In 1987 I $20 ADMISSION became personal assistant to Dick Hyman, famous compose/pianist/ arranger/ jazz concert producer, for 6 years. In $15 MEMBERS 1989 I earned a scholarship to study clarinet with the eminent Leon $10 STUDENTS Russianoff. Later I studied with virtuoso Al Calladoro. $10 FIRST TIME MEMBER GUESTS TSSS Who were/are your role models? DL Cary Grant,James Cagney, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, 1 Rosy McHague, Benny Goodman, ODJB, Bix. 2007 taking a rare turn on four string guitar. Dan Block and Scott Robinson, who collectively have participated with likes of Ralph TSSS How do your many bands differ? Sutton, Dick Wellstood, Jack Lesberg, Buck Clayton, and Lionel DL Roof Garden (now retired) recreates 1917-23 music, Hampton to more modern players such as Charles Mingus, Toshiko largely ODJB. Akiyoshi, Paquito D’Rivera and Anthony Braxton, adapt Canary Cottage does 1910-1920 dance music. themselves nicely to the genre. Both reed men have performed in Apex Project, with Pete Martinez, is modeled after Jimmy Giordano’s Nighthawks, and have appeared with Grosz on other Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra. occasions. Palomar Quartet indulges in Benny Goodman’s style. You’ll notice next to Scott Robinson’s name I have Anachronists play esoteric music of the ‘20s and ‘30s. “reeds, indescribables.” In addition to being an accomplished DL’s Summa Cum Laude is modeled after Bud Freeman’s Summa saxophonist, Robinson performs on instruments that can only be Cum Laude and its “Eddie Condon Chicago-style.” described as “beyond category.” Some of the instruments in Manhattan Hot Club with Tom Landman, does gypsy jazz question are the echo cornet, trombonium, double-bell euphonium, pioneered by Django Reinhardt. F-mezzo soprano sax, slide saxophone and ophicleide. Not since Rahsaan Roland Kirk have we had a musician bringing to life TSSS At your Last TSJS concert in May 2007, you proposed instrumentation unheard of in a standard orchestra. to vocalist Molly Ryan. How did you meet? Did you expect a Musically, under all the odd instruments and voicings, it is “yes?” pretty much straight ahead swing. The first set opened with Claude DL We met at a Sacramento Jazz Jubilee a few years ago. Hopkins “I Would Do Anything For You” with Grosz uttering Molly lived nearby in Roseville, CA. She came to NY in 2003. We gibberish (he claimed it was a language, but it sounded like Leo are marrying on May 3 in Big Sur, CA near both families. I did not Watson with a bad hangover!), then settling in for a nice vocal. anticipate a “no’, but it was a big surprise. Robinson and Block performed on clarinets on this one; the former on a metal clarinet, the latter on an Albert system clarinet (an TSSS What do you see as the future of OKOM? alternative to the Boehm system clarinet, which is used today, but DL I do not worry about it. Music evolves. Some preserve the highly favored among New Orleans clarinetists. Johnny Dodds, past. Some “old jazz purists” make and follow rules. Not me. Jimmie Noone and Sidney Bechet performed on the Albert Younger generations do not follow rules. Our “jazz forefathers” clarinet). They both took one chorus each, after performing a duet. had no rules. They ignored rules. There are some terrific young Grosz took a fine chorus on guitar, reminding one of the works of groups out there like “Loose Marbles” with Ben Polcer. We should Carl Kress and Dick McDonough. The clarinets take on a not be stubborn and hold to the past. There are brilliant minds “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” groove towards the end of the number. ready to take our “old music” to something new, fresh, and truly On “Love is Just Around the Corner” finds Vince fantastic. Giordano in a Blanton mood on string bass. The tune also introduces the “saxette”, performed by Scott Robinson, which For further information, go to Mississippi Rag, 2003, looks like a clarinet but with a slightly curved bell and mouthpiece. www.danlevinson.com, and other websites you can “Google.” Aurally, the instrument is close to Adrian Rollini’s hot fountain Bill Wallace pen. Thomas A. Dorsey’s “Riverside Blues” has Scott Robinson on Echo cornet, doing a Bobby Hackett turn. Vince Giordano’s MIGHTY “WINDS” AT BROOKLAWN commanding tuba leads the incoming ship to port, and Dan Block makes the aforementioned Albert ancestors proud. “Everybody The Time: 2:00pm – 5:30pm Loves My Baby” has everybody except Grosz on saxes – Scott The Place: American Legion Hall, Brooklawn, NJ 08030 Robinson on soprano (I believe this is the F-mezzo soprano, as The Band: Marty Grosz and the Hot Winds with Marty Grosz, cited in some Jazz journals), Dan Block on Alto, and an aggressive, acoustic guitar, vocals and leader; Vince Giordano, tuba, string growling Vince Giordano bass sax. Grosz throws in some Django bass, and bass sax; Dan Block, reeds; Scott Robinson, reeds, licks. Closing chorus reminded me of some of the things Soprano indescribables. Summit used to do, with Scott Robinson holding a high soprano note for quite a spell. The set closed with Hoagy Carmichael’s My first introduction to Marty Grosz was when he was a “Jubilee” giving Vince Giordano another robust bass sax solo, a member of Soprano Summit in the late 1970s, providing steady Scott Robinson Echo cornet lead, and some sweet alto from Dan rhythmic support on guitar and banjo, and providing humorous Block. vocals to pieces such as “Wake Up, Chillen” Later, in 1988, I “The Sheik Of Araby”, opening the second set, is reed would witness the guitarist in a octet led by Bud Freeman at was ultimatum. Robinson takes a chorus on echo cornet, C-melody sax, Pennsauken’s Ivy Stone Inn. Twenty years have passed, and while metal clarinet, soprano sax, and Block solos on saxette, bass I have been to many concerts, Marty Grosz was not among the clarinet, baritone sax, alto sax and clarinet. As this wasn’t enough, headliners. Until today. both men performed a chorus on clarinet sans mouthpieces! Grosz The Hot Winds Quartet is a group which, instrumentally performed a humorous version of “Mississippi Mud” in both at least, reminds one of the Venuti-Lang recording groups of the English and German, accompanying himself on the guitar. A late 1920’s/early 1930’s. The group consists of two reeds, bass and Frank Loesser number film the 1939 film, Some Like It Hot, “The guitar. The other participants, Vince Giordano, leader of the Lady’s In Love With You” features a sax chorus (Block – alto, famous Nighthawks, is no stranger to TSJS; his most recent Robinson – c-melody, Giordano – bass) unaccompanied by Grosz. appearance was with Dan Levinson’s Mama’s Boys on May 13th, An unusually slow version of Nacio Herb Brown’s “When Buddha 2 Smiles” has a tuba lead, with the reeds responding, and the leader forward looking Swing Era arrangements were attracting the ears himself on banjo. Grosz vocalized on the Fats Waller medley of bandleaders outside the Philadelphia area, and he would go on to “Aint You Glad”/”I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby” write arrangements for the bands of Jimmie Lunceford, the Mills The second –to-last number required a long dissertation Blue Rhythm Band and Gene Krupa. Krupa’s theme song, by Grosz.