Jazz Haven Radio

October 25, 2017 By Craig OConnell

Tune in to WNHH Radio at 103.5 FM or on the web every Wednesday from 2:00 to 3:00 pm as Stanley Welch hosts Jazz Haven Radio live. The program also airs on Mondays at noon and Wednesdays at 9:00 pm. The program features musicians from the Connecticut area either past or present.

This program also live streams at: newhavenindependent.org and at jazzradiowetf.org

Mr. Welch, aka “Stan The Man,” honored by Jazz Haven as “Unsung Hero” of 2017, is no stranger to jazz radio. Stanley worked at WYBC-FM for many years as on-air jazz DJ and Jazz Program Director. The radio show is sponsored by the New Haven Independent.

Photo by Craig S. O’Connell

To listen to some of the shows click the links below:

New CD by Giacomo Gates

June 12, 2017 By Craig OConnell

The master of modern jazz vocalese, the great Giacomo Gates, has a new album now available on CD and MP3. This recording with Jazz Singer Giacomo Gates, “What Time Is It, ” hit number 1 on Amazon.com for Vocal best sellers when it was released in May.

Personnel: Giacomo Gates – vocals, Jerry Weldon – tenor saxophone, John DiMartino – piano, Tony Lombardozzi – guitar, Lonnie Plaxico – bass, Vincent Ector – drums.

BUY FROM AMAZON.COM

What the critics are saying about What Time Is It ?

What is it that separates a “jazz singer” from the wannabes? While many people are known as or call themselves jazz singers, only a handful truly merit the name. Giacomo Gates, whose latest album What Time Is It? is his seventh (and fourth for Savant Records), is one of the chosen few. Why? Well, as the saying goes, if you have to ask . . . Jack Bowers

Giacomo Gates digs interesting songs that, more often than not, have a clever twist to them. What he delivers—and what you hear—is not always what you expect. – Ken Frankling

Gates still doesn’t get the attention, even within our insular jazz world, that I think he deserves. If you haven’t heard him before, “What Time Is It?” is a great place to start. – Curt’s Jazz Cafe

Giacomo Gates sings like the life he’s lived; he was a blue collar worker before changing careers to sing like a world wise sage. This latest album of his is simply delightful, a mix of stories, advice and observations on life through song. – George Harris

Gates uses classic jazz phrasing, laidback bebop scats and cool vocalese to get his message across; to find musical answers to life’s perplexing questions. – Suzanne Lorge

Giacomo Gates is a singular figure in today’s jazz scene, and once again he delivers an irresistibly magic collection of jazz vocalizing. – Joe Lang

Trombone Shorty in New Haven

May 26, 2017 By Craig OConnell

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue w/ New Breed Brass Band

Sunday, June 11th at 8:00 pm

College Street Music Hall, 238 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510

Tickets are $50.00 to $432.00.

Buy tickets here.

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Trombone Shorty’s new album opens with a dirge, but if you think the beloved bandleader, singer, songwriter and horn-blower born Troy Andrews came here to mourn, you got it all wrong. That bit of beautiful New Orleans soul—”Laveau Dirge No. 1,” named after one of the city’s most famous voodoo queens—shows off our host’s roots before Parking Lot Symphony branches out wildly, wonderfully, funkily across 12 diverse cuts. True to its title, this album contains multitudes of sound—from brass band blare and deep-groove funk, to bluesy beauty and hip-hop/pop swagger—and plenty of emotion all anchored, of course, by stellar playing and the idea that, even in the toughest of times, as Andrews says, “Music brings unity.”

As for why it’s taken Andrews so long to follow 2013’s Raphael Saadiq-produced Say That to Say This, the man simply says, “I didn’t realize so much time passed. Some artists don’t work until they put a record out but I never stopped going.” Truly. In the last four years, Andrews banked his fifth White House gig; backed Macklemore and Madonna at the Grammys; played on albums by She & Him, Zac Brown, Dierks Bentley, and Mark Ronson; opened tours for Daryl Hall & John Oates and Red Hot Chili Peppers; appeared in Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways documentary series; voiced the iconic sound of the adult characters in The Peanuts Movie; inherited the esteemed annual fest-closing set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in the tradition of Crescent City greats like the Neville Brothers and Professor Longhair; and released Trombone Shorty, a children’s book about his life that was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 2016.

Adding to that legacy, his Blue Note Records debut Parking Lot Symphony finds Andrews teamed with Grammy-nominated producer Chris Seefried (Andra Day, Fitz and the Tantrums) and an unexpected array of cowriters and players including members of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Meters, Better Than Ezra, and Dumpstaphunk. Considering Andrews’ relentless schedule, it’s all the more surprising that this LP began with him in a room, all alone, back in New Orleans.

“I had two weeks at home so I went to the studio and set up the ‘playground,'” he recalls. “I had everything in a circle: tuba, trombone, trumpet, keyboard, Fender Rhodes, Wurly, B3 organ, guitar, bass, drums—and me buried in the middle.” He recorded an album’s worth of ideas and then, well, walked away for a year. Not because he was too busy, but because he wanted to hit the road and see how the music changed on him. When Andrews came back with a full band, the songs came to life.

Take the album’s two covers, a pair of NOLA deep cuts: there’s “Here Comes the Girls,” a 1970 Allen Toussaint song originally recorded by Ernie K-Doe that here (with Ivan Neville on piano) sounds bawdy and regal, like something from a current Bruno Mars album; and The Meters’ lovesick “It Ain’t No Use,” which swirls a vintage R&B vibe with resonant choir vocals and upbeat guitar from The Meters’ Leo Nocentelli himself to transport the listener to the center of the jumpingest jazz-soul concert hall that never was.

The story there is almost too good. The session band—guitarist Pete Murano, sax men Dan Oestreicher and BK Jackson, and drummer Joey Peebles with Dumpstaphunk’s Tony Hall in for Orleans Avenue bassist Mike Bass-Bailey—were in the studio to lay down “It Ain’t No Use.” Hall even had the vintage acoustic he bought from Nocentelli years ago, which was used on the original Meters session. On the way to the bathroom, Andrews saw Nocentelli coming out of a different tracking room: it was meant to be.

But that’s not unusual for a man raised in one of the Tremé’s most musical families. Andrews got his name when he picked up his instrument at four (“My parents pushed me toward trombone because they didn’t need another trumpet player,” he laughs). By eight, he led his own band in parades, halls and even bars: “They’d have to lock the door so the police couldn’t come in.” Promoters would try to hand money to his older cousins, but they’d kindly redirect them to the boy. In his teens, Andrews played shows abroad with the Neville Brothers. Fresh out of high school (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) he joined Lenny Kravitz’ band.

Across that time, three Trombone Shorty albums and many collaborations since, Andrews nurtured a voracious appetite for all types of music—a phenomenon on fluid display with Parking Lot Symphony. On “Familiar,” co-written by Aloe Blacc, they practically mint a new genre (trap-funk?) while Andrews channels his inner R. Kelly to spit game at an old flame. Meanwhile, the instrumental “Tripped Out Slim” (the nickname of a family friend who recently passed) bends echoes of the Pink Panther theme into something fit for James Brown to strut to. And if you listen closely to “Where It At?,” written with Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin, you may even hear a little Y2K pop. “I know it wasn’t cool to listen to *NSYNC or Britney Spears in high school,” says Andrews, “but those bass lines and melodies are funky.” They pair astonishingly well with all the Earth, Wind & Fire that bubbles beneath these songs.

It’s worth noting that Andrews’ vocals sound better than ever (he credits Seefried for that), because Parking Lot Symphony might be the man’s most heartfelt offering yet. The breezy title track, which Andrews wrote with Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros), is as much about walking the Tremé, being uplifted by the music that seems to seep from every surface, as it is about moving on from a broken heart. And the shuffling, bluesy “No Good Time” reminds us, with a world-weary smile, that “nobody never learned nothin’ from no good time.”

But Andrews is clear that this isn’t some kind of breakup record. “It’s a life record,” he says, “about prevailing no matter what type of roadblock is in front of you.” That message is clearest on “Dirty Water,” where over an easy groove, Andrews adopts a soft falsetto to address just about anyone going through it—personal, political, whatever. “There’s a lot of hope turning to doubt,” he coos. “I’ve got something to say to them / You don’t know what you’re talking about / When you believe in love, it all works out.” Amen. Now let the horns play us out.
Listen: http://www.tromboneshorty.com/

New Breed Brass Band
New Breed Brass Band lives and breathes the culture of New Orleans, infusing funk, rock, jazz, and hip-hop into a custom-made enhancement of second-line brass band tradition.

“That’s what we came up under,” says snare-drummer Jenard Andrews of second line bands like the ReBirth, Dirty Dozen and Lil’ Rascals Brass Bands. “Now we’re trying to take that sound and bring in some new stuff and expand it. We bring outside influences like Earth Wind & Fire and Brass Construction, trying to interpret a different song for every genre, and make it all our own sound.”

With a founding core of five New Orleans natives, New Breed Brass Band made its street debut as a nine-man unit in November 2013 at the Nine Times Second Line. Since then, they have showcased their originality opening for such diverse bands as The Fray, Red Baraat, Dr. John, The Waterboys, and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, as well as competing in the Red Bull Street Kings brass band competition in 2013.

Most of the members have been playing music since they were toddlers and count such New Orleans legends as James “12” Andrews, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Topsy Chapman, Karl Leblanc, and Bruce “Sun-pie” Barnes as family members. Honing their childhood experiences playing music with their families, and on through high school marching bands and concert ensembles, the nine members of New Breed are united to one cause: rocking each show and entertaining audiences to the maximum degree possible. The band’s strong desire is to be the next heavyweight contender among internationally-known New Orleans brass bands.

Whether performing in their hometown or on the road, New Breed will forever bring the vibe of the New Orleans second-line with them. “We can’t wait,” Andrews says of bringing the New Breed sound to stages and festivals around the world. “It’s a new breed of music that we’ll be bringing to our culture, and we hope to create a new sound for our city in the process.”
Listen: http://www.newbreedbrass.com/

BRUBECK BROTHERS IN CONCERT

May 5, 2017 By Craig OConnell

BRUBECK BROTHERS IN CONCERT
With the Choirs of Trinity Church on the Green
Special Guest Neighborhood Music School Premier Wind Ensemble

Friday May 26th, 7:30PM
Corner of Temple and Chapel Streets

$30 Adults, $10 Students

Brubeck Brothers Concert

This is Trinity’s First Foray Into A Jazz Concert!

The Music For Music series was established three years ago at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, to support its unique and historic music program, To date, the series has raised over $100,000. One hundred percent of all monies over costs, including Patron Support (http://trinitynewhaven.org/brubeck-brothers/) goes to support over 40 youth singers in the program.

This concert will feature the seldom played choral jazz composition written by the legendary Dave Brubeck, the father of two of the Brubeck Brothers. It was written in 1976 and this performance at Trinity is a rare event!

Additionally the entering audience will be welcomed by the young musicians of the Neighborhood Music School Premier Jazz Ensemble.

MUSCIANS:

The Brubeck Brothers Quartet is an exciting jazz group featuring two members of one of America’s most accomplished musical families, Dan Brubeck (drums) and Chris Brubeck (bass & trombone). Guitarist Mike DeMicco and pianist Chuck Lamb complete this dynamic quartet. They have performed at concert series, colleges, and jazz festivals across North America and Europe including the Newport, Detroit, Ravinia, Las Vegas, Sedona, Spokane, and Monterey Jazz Festivals. Their hour long concert at Sierra Nevada Brewery has been broadcast on the nationally syndicated program “Sierra Center Stage”. The BBQ was chosen to kick off the New Year with an hour long, coast-to-coast live broadcast on “Toast of the Nation” on National Public Radio. Their new Koch release, Classified, has already earned this rave review from All About Jazz: “Once again the BBQ attains that rarefied level where music is both relaxed and expressive, and their joy in its creation is contagious. There’s really nothing out there that comes close to their unique brand of inventiveness.”

The Choir of Men and Boys of Trinity Church, New Haven, is the oldest extant Choir of Men and Boys in Connecticut, and one of the oldest in the United States. Founded in 1885, it is one of the few such choirs in continuous service since, the Choir recently celebrated its 125th Anniversary during the 2010-2011 season. As heir to a musical tradition begun in the Middle Ages and carried to this country in the nineteenth century, it has distinguished itself by continuously providing high quality choral music at Trinity worship services, at the annual Christmas and Spring concerts, and in the wider community.

The Men and Girls Choir was founded in the fall of 2003, with members auditioned from all over south-central Connecticut. That first year, girls from grades 4 through 10 formed the soprano section of the Choir. The Girls of the Choir represent many towns in the greater New Haven area.

Neighborhood Music School’s Premier Jazz Ensemble is an audition only, full scholarship group bringing together the best and most dedicated young jazz musicians in the region. These musicians receive professional training at Neighborhood Music School and by performing in the community. Under the direction of arranger and composer Jeff Fuller, the ensemble includes All-State high school jazz musicians and seasoned adults alongside each other. The group plays in a wide variety of jazz styles, including bebop, swing, Brazilian and Afro Cuban jazz.

In the past, the group has included great young musicians who have gone on to successful careers in music, including Grammy nominee Christian Sands. The group was featured at the 2016 New Haven Jazz Festival, and has performed at numerous area events and venues, including the annual Cherry Blossom Festival and the Whitney Center concert series.

Support Jazz Haven

April 24, 2017 By Craig OConnell

5th Annual Yale Jazz Festival – April 22-23

March 19, 2017 By Ethan Kyzivat

The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective is excited to announce the lineup for our fifth annual Jazz Festival at Yale, a student-organized weekend of musical events, to be held April 22-23. The Jazz Festival is one of the highest quality free festivals in the country, bringing world-class musicians to give concerts and talks on Yale’s campus with no tickets required, free and open to the public. This year’s lineup will feature our most diverse and celebrated artists yet: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, M’Balia Singley, Adam O’Farrill’s Stranger Days, Richard Bona, and Randy Weston.

The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective seeks to promote a community of music education on Yale’s campus and in New Haven. We serve as the hub of Yale’s jazz community by organizing concerts, talks, and events throughout the year, lobbying for a formal jazz curriculum at Yale, and of course, by hosting our fast-growing annual Jazz Festival. Last year’s Jazz Festival, which featured Grammy Award-winning artists Wayne Escoffery and Arturo O’Farrill, drew in hundreds of audience members and was extremely well received by the Yale, New Haven, and greater New England communities. You can read more about the Collective in this recent New York Times Article or on our website.

This year, we are proud to be hosting a new lineup of phenomenal musicians and educators. Each artist will present in conjunction with their performance a talk, discussion, or masterclass. For more info on each our amazing performers and a detailed schedule,* please check out artists bios and posters attached below or head to our website!

The Collective is excited to once again partner with the Yale University Art Gallery. Our headlining acts will perform in the Gallery’s beautiful Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Lecture Hall. The Yale University Art Gallery has long supported Jazz on our campus and we are very thankful that they will be hosting Jazz Festival events for the the third year in a row!

All events are funded by our sponsors, the University, local New Haven businesses, and the Yale University Art Gallery. The Jazz Collective would like to particularly thank our Platinum Sponsor the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, CT, one the country’s best clubs which programs amazing music all year round, as well as our Gold Sponsor, WPKN (89.5 FM), listener supported community radio.

We are excited to make all these events free and open to the public! We hope to see you all there!

*event locations and start times are subject to change, please check our website for an updated schedule closer to the date

* * *

On Saturday, April 22nd, the Collective is thrilled to be hosting Yale alumnus M’Balia Singley (SY’94), as the festival opening headliner. M’Balia is a singer who approaches jazz standards with a “fiercely individualistic style and a generous dollop of gospel grounding,” and an “ace” songwriter with a caustic wit and piquant attitude born of lived experience. Her infectious bluesy vocals have been likened to those of Cécile McLorin Salvant, and her list of collaborators includes such renowned artists as John Legend and Orrin Evans. She will bring her powerful and unique artistry to the stage alongside her longtime pianist Sarah Slonim, who she performs with bimonthly at Smalls, NYC. Before her performance she will be leading a discussion and Q&A about her time studying at Yale and her prolific artistic journey since then.

Our Sunday headliner, performing and giving a talk on the afternoon of April 23rd, is Grammy Award-nominated New Orleans trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Scott, hailed by critics as “Jazz’s young style God,” is a beacon of innovation in jazz today and the architect of a new genre called Stretch Music. He is known for developing the harmonic convention known as the “forecasting cell” and for his use of an un-voiced tone in his playing, emphasizing breath over vibration at the mouthpiece, widely referred to as his “whisper technique.” Over the past decade Scott has also scored award-winning films, designed an interactive media player called the Stretch Music App, and has collaborated with McCoy Tyner, Prince, Marcus Miller, Mos Def, and Solange Knowles among others. He will be performing and delivering a pre-concert talk at the Jazz Festival at Yale in promotion of his newest record, Ruler Rebel, which will be the first in a three album set that Scott is producing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the very first Jazz recordings of 1917.

This year’s Festival will also feature the young powerhouse group, Adam O’Farrill’s Stranger Days. Trumpeter and composer Adam O’Farrill has been featured on Grammy Award-nominated and Latin Grammy Award-winning albums. His own group’s 2016 release, Stranger Days earned the New York Times’ acclaim; they wrote that, “Mr. O’Farrill establishes both a firm identity and a willful urge to stretch and adapt.” The band is comprised of some the most talented young players in the New York jazz scene today–O’Farrill is joined by the notable Chad Lefkowitz-Brown on tenor saxophone, the seasoned Walter Stinton on bass, and O’Farrill’s own brother, Zack, on drums. In conjunction with their performance, the ensemble will be conducting a performance workshop with current Yale students.

Finally, we have the pleasure of co-hosting the incredible Cameroonian bassist, vocalist, and composer, Richard Bona, as well as the visionary pianist composer, Randy Weston at the closing event of the Festival. The two artists will perform consecutive sets on the evening of Sunday the 23rd at Toad’s place. This final concert is organized by the Yale Department of Music as part of the Africa Into Jazz/Jazz Into Africa series. Richard Bona has been described by the Los Angeles Times as “an artist with Jaco Pastorious’s virtuosity, George Benson’s vocal fluidity, Joao Gilberto’s sense of song and harmony, all mixed up with African culture.” A Grammy Award Winner, Bona has collaborated with top jazz artists such as Pat Metheny and Bobby McFerrin. Randy Weston has been said to have “the biggest sound of any jazz pianist since Ellington and Monk, as well as the richest most inventive beat.” His long list of honors and awards include NEA Jazz Master (2001) and a spot in the “DownBeat Hall of Fame.”

#Giving Tuesday 2016

November 28, 2016 By Craig OConnell

This year, we’re participating in #GivingTuesday; a global movement to celebrate year-end charitable giving.

Please join us to help us reach of our goal of $2500 to support Jazz Education in New Haven Schools.

Will you tell your friends and family members so that we can continue the great work we do in our community?

Please visit our secure PayPal page and make a tax deductible donation to us.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please let us know. Thank you in advance for your generosity and for supporting our mission to advance the culture of jazz in Greater New Haven through performances and education.

Thank you and happy holidays!

2016 New Haven Jazz Festival

June 27, 2016 By Craig OConnell

The 2016 New Haven Jazz Festival – Sat, August 27th – 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Presented by JAZZ HAVEN in association with New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, the New Haven Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism, the New Haven Board of Alders; the Mfund; The Owl Shop; Yale University; First Niagara Bank; and Brandfon Honda.

The 2016 Festival will be held on Saturday, August 27th on the New Haven Green in downtown New Haven. This event is FREE and open to the public.

6:00 – 6:30 p.m. – Neighborhood Music School Premier Jazz Ensemble
6:45 – 7:45 p.m. – The Mitch Frohman Quartet
8:00 – 9:00 p.m. – The Christian Sands Quartet

This festival on the green is FREE and open to the public. Food plus arts & crafts vendors will be on hand.


Six-Time Grammy Winner Mitch Frohman and Quartet	Four-time Grammy Nominee Christian Sands

Jazz Week gigs in New Haven’s restaurants, bars, clubs and venues occurring the week of the festival – August 26 – September 3.

Jazz Festival

November 21, 2015 By Craig OConnell

For eight years, from 2008 through 2015, Jazz Haven produced the New Haven Jazz Festival in cooperation with the City of New Haven and its sponsors. Every August, for eight years, folks were treated to a delightful evening of jazz for free right on the New Haven Green. Yes the Green was the showcase and the people came out, with their lawn chairs, blankets and families in tow. The musicians were often internationally famous “stars” in the world of jazz, but many others had their roots right here in New Haven. In fact each festival began by showcasing our youth performers, including children who played their instruments or simply recited jazz poetry to the assembled crowds. We believe that all jazz is local and that educating people about the culture of jazz is an important part of our mission. For the past five years, from 2011 through 2015 Jazz Haven successfully extended the concept of a festival to provide a week to ten days of live jazz in New Haven’s restaurants, clubs, bars and venues.

Artists who have performed at the New Haven Jazz Festival under the direction of Jazz Haven include (…and we are updating this list):

Giacomo Gates, T.S. Monk, Wayne Escoffery, Joe Lovano, Harold Mabern, Hamiet Bluiett, Helen Sung, Bobby Sanabria, Karrin Allyson, Jay Hoggard, Christian Sands, Matthew Whitaker, Joe Morris, Candido Camero, Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Bobby Watson, Winard Harper, Natalie Fernandez, Javon Alexandre, Joe Morris, Matthew Shipp, Jim Hobbs, Nick Biello, Gerald Cleaver, Tina Fabrique, Larry Wills, Annette Aguilar, Claudia Acuna, Robby Ameen, Noah Baerman, Isabella Mendes, Ryan Sands, Ed Fast, Jonathan Barber, Jeremy Pelt, Jesse Hammen II, Wycliffe Gordon, Zaccai Curtis, Luques Curtis, Adam O’Farril, Daryl Johns, Gabe Schnider, Stephen Porter, Joshua Bruneau, Gil Hawkins, Jr., Godwin Louis, Matt Oestreicher, George Lesiw, Harold Zinno, Tim Moran, Barry Ries, The Brubeck Brothers, Jonathan Blake, Tony Lombardozzi, Jeff Fuller, Ali Bello, Rex Cadwallader, Orrin Evans, Rachel Z, Mike DiRubbo, Judi Silvano and many, many more.

The revival of the New Haven Jazz Festival in 2008 by Jazz Haven is told in this YouTube video.

This WTNH TV-8 link from 2009 tells part of our story …. CLICK HERE.

This video by Alex Vishno tells the story in 2013.

2015 New Haven Jazz Festival

January 28, 2015 By Craig OConnell

The 2015 New Haven Jazz Festival — Celebrating WOMEN IN JAZZ

Presented by JAZZ HAVEN in association with New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, the Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism, and the Cultural Affairs Commission, City of New Haven.

The 2015 Festival will be held on Saturday, August 22nd on the New Haven Green in downtown New Haven. This event is FREE and open to the public. This festival is dedicated to the memory Martha Meng, our friend, colleague and avid jazz supporter.

6:00 – 6:30 p.m. – local area youth band TBA
6:45 – 7:45 p.m. – Isabella Mendes & Sambeleza
8:00 – 9:00 p.m. – The Karrin Allyson Quartet

This festival is FREE and open to the public. Food plus arts & crafts vendors will be on hand.


4 Time Grammy Nominee Karrin Allyson	Isabella Mendes

Greater New Haven's community
resource for Jazz since 1996!