Neal Smith Quartet

November 8, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Neal Smith Quartet

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Fri, November 8, 8:30PM / $20 – $45 | $2.33 – $3.56 Fees Get Tickets

Neal Smith

Featuring:

Neal Smith – Drums

Rick Germanson – Piano

Nat Reeves – Bass

Kirill Pudavov – Tenor sax

Born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Neal Smith has been playing drums since the age of five. By the time he completed high school he had achieved a remarkable list of performance accomplishments and earned an impressive array of awards, scholarships, and honors. With the support of his family, Neal continued his studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies and Performance, the first African-American to earn a degree in Jazz Studies from the Conservatory.

In addition to his academic training, Neal has studied with Vernell Fournier, Greg Bandy, Paul Samuels, Jeff Hamilton,Tom Freer, Bruce Collie, and Gordon Gottlieb.

Neal performs regularly in clubs and concert halls, at colleges and universities, and at U.S. and International Jazz Festivals. Neal leads his own group, which performs original compositions as well as classic arrangements of jazz standards.

Neal also performs regularly with internationally recognized artists and has shared the stage with the likes of Tom Harrell, Anita Baker, John Hicks, Donald Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Sonny Fortune, Jimmy Owens, Eddie Harris, Isaac Hayes, Gary Bartz, Marlena Shaw, Benny Golson, Donald Walden, Frank Morgan, Brian Lynch, Benny Green, Cyrus Chestnut, Russell Malone, Frank Foster, Dewey Redman, Mark Whitfield, Ronnie Mathews, Rufus Reid, Wendel Logan, James Moody, Marlena Shaw, Charles Davis and Vanessa Rubin.

Neal also leads his own group, which performs original compositions as well as classic arrangements of jazz standards.

Beyond performing, Neal loves to teach developing drummers. He is currently a Professor at Berklee College of Music, The New School and Longy School of Music.

Recognizing the need for a record label that focuses exclusively on the production of jazz recordings, Neal founded the NAS label in 2004.

Neal Smith endorses Sonor Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Vic Firth Sticks + Brushes and Accessories, Hamilton Cymbal Stands and Axis Pedals.

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Fri, November 8

8:30PM / $20 – $45 | $2.33 – $3.56 Fees Get Tickets

Ryan Sands Quartet

November 2, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Ryan Sands Quartet

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Sat, November 2
8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Ryan Sands

David Adewumi – Trumpet

Max Light – Guitar

Kris Monson – Bass

Ryan Sands – Drums

Hailing from Orange, CT/New Haven County, Ryan Sands has worked his way to becoming one of the top young drummers in his field. His emphatic performances have landed him performances with Terell Stafford, Geoffrey Keezer, Wayne Escoffrey, Tamir Hendleman, Lucy Yeghiazaryan, and Jason Marsalis. He holds the drum chair for Christian Sands and Altus. Ryan has performed in the pit of the Ain’t Misbehavin, under the direction of Jeffrey Page, and done music for Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue under the direction of Alphonso Horne.

Ryan’s musical education includes a BA in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory and an MA in Jazz Arts from the Manhattan School of Music. For teaching, he has taught for Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT, and iSchool of Music and Art in Shanghai. He currently teaches private drums at Yale University for their Yale Undergrad Jazz Collective.

Ryan’s recording credits include Christian Sands’ Risin’, Christmas Stories, and his upcoming record in 2024. Altus’ Riot Cycles and Mythos. David Knowles’s Blackest Night. Shihai Li’s Inner Rhythm. As a bandleader Ryan released his debut record, Standing On the Edge of Tomorrow, and will be releasing his sophomore record, Forest Road: Live at the Side Door, in 2024.

Ryan currently endorses Canopus Drums and Paiste Cymbals.

Sat, November 2

8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

April Varner Quartet

November 1, 2024 By Craig OConnell

April Varner Quartet

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Fri, November 1
8:30PM / $20 – $45 | $2.33 – $3.56 Fees Get Tickets

April Varner

“I am music” was one of April’s first proclamations as a very young child and it holds true to this day. Since singing her first notes as a four-year-old, inspired by none other than the Disney Princess movies, her journey toward growing as a musician began. In fact, April has spent the majority of her life performing and competing in the arts.

NYC-based jazz vocalist with the curly red hair from Toledo, Ohio, April Varner is a name you won’t soon forget. She began taking voice lessons at the University of Toledo as a classical vocalist at age 8 and began studying piano from her grandmother at age 6. No stranger to the stage, April began displaying vocal, musical theatre, drama, and piano talents at the local, regional, national, and international levels at a young age. This includes being a guest vocalist at the Toledo Symphony Orchestra Pops Concert, a 2-time All-National Honors Ensemble member in Nashville, TN, and a National Finalist at the Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook Academy in Carmel, IN. By age 16, April had made her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Hall following a first-place award by the American Protégé International Vocal Competition, and had traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland as part of a drama group to share the stage with world actors at the renowned Edinburgh Arts Fringe Festival.

April began her musical transition into jazz after discovering a deep passion for it following her freshman year at Indiana University. April soon after became the director of the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, ResoluSHion, within the Grammy-nominated show choir, The Singing Hoosiers. During her final semester at IU, April was the vocalist in the Du Vido Septet, a Brazilian Jazz Ensemble led by Brazilian composer, arranger and pianist, Guilherme Ribeiro. The group was chosen as one of three finalists within the famed Detroit Jazz Festival’s Collegiate Combo Competition. In the spring of 2020, April graduated with her undergraduate degree in Jazz Studies (Voice).

At the age of 27, April has immersed herself deeply into the jazz tradition and has performed/studied with a multitude of legendary artists and jazz luminaries such as Tierney Sutton, Russell Malone, Sachal Vasandani, Jane Monheit, Kurt Elling, Walter Smith III and others.

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Fri, November 1

8:30PM / $20 – $45 | $2.33 – $3.56 Fees Get Tickets

Alex Claffy’s “Porter Gershwin & More”

October 26, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Alex Claffy’s “Porter Gershwin & More”

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Sat, October 26, 8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Alex Claffy

Alexander Claffy – Bass

Eric Alexander – Tenor Sax

Adam Birnbaum – Piano

Willie Jones III – Drums

Alexander Claffy is a jazz bassist, composer and arranger based in New York. He has played with artists including Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes, Harold Mabern, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Christian Scott and Joey Alexander. In addition to an album of standards, he has released a series of genre-defying compositions with his band simply known as Claffy.

Alexander Claffy studied with legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter. He hosts the podcast Village Green with Alexander Claff?y where he interviews NYC musicians.

Alexander Claffy grew up outside of Philadelphia in a musical family. His father was a pianist and composer, his mother a vocalist and agent. As a child, Alexander played piano, trombone, sang and acted. He often accompanied his father to gigs in Philadelphia. In middle school Claffy picked up the electric bass when some friends needed a bass player for their band and as a teen he could frequently be found in jazz clubs around Philadelphia. In 2011 he earned a scholarship to the New School and moved to New York City.

Sat, October 26

8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Lawrence Fields Trio

October 25, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Lawrence Fields Trio

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Fri, October 25, 8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Lawrence Fields

“I love playing music with Lawrence Fields! He’s full of ideas, plays with a beautiful sound and feeling and can swing! He’s always inspired – and that’s where the magic is…” — Joe Lovano

Lawrence Fields, born and bred in St. Louis, has earned a spot at the forefront of young jazz pianists, thanks to his blending of vintage ideals with a contemporary mindset. For the last six years, in 2024-2019, Downbeat Magazine has placed him close to the top of the keyboardist category in their “Rising Stars” critics poll. Fields showcases his own dynamic blend of composition and playing in his trio and quartet, and his band and music are featured internationally. His debut album featuring his trio and solo playing, “To the Surface”, was released in February 2024 to critical acclaim.

Veteran saxophone icon Joe Lovano – with his unerring ear for youthful talent – has become one of the pianist’s biggest fans. Fields is a member of several bands led or co-led by Lovano: his Classic Quartet (originally featuring Lewis Nash and George Mraz in the rhythm section); the Sax Supreme Quartet (with Chris Potter); and his Sound Prints quintet with trumpeter Dave Douglas. The Wall Street Journal praised Fields’ “elegant, probing” solos with Sound Prints, while The New York Times noted that he is “integral to the band’s plunging, changeable style.” A modern-minded bandleader from the younger generation also relies on Fields, as he mans the piano and keyboards for the Christian Scott Group. Referencing his role on acoustic and electric pianos in the trumpeter’s band, NextBop said: “Fields remains a constant lyrical presence on the keys – innovative, expressive, supportive, able to soar like a bird in his solos. He never fails to impress.”

Fields has collaborated with Christian Scott on several albums — including co-writing and co-producing 3 songs on the Grammy-nominated The Emancipation Procrastination (Ropeadope, 2017), as part of his work on Christian’s Centennial Trilogy with releases Diaspora and Ruler Rebel. He features prominently in the piano and keyboard chairs on Christian’s Grammy-nominated live recording Axiom (2020), as well as the Grammy-nominated Ancestral Recall (2019), and the Stretch Music (Ropeadope, 2015) and Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah (Concord, 2012) albums.

With Lovano and Douglas, the pianist features on Sound Prints’ two critically-acclaimed studio releases: Other Worlds (2021), and Scandal (2018, Greanleaf) — selected by The Guardian as their #1 jazz album of 2018, as well as one of Rolling Stone’s top 20 jazz albums of the year. Fields also plays on the live album Sound Prints: Live at Monterey Jazz Festival (Blue Note, 2015), which featured two brand-new compositions written for the ensemble by the legendary Wayne Shorter. He appears on the album Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste (2007) alongside Branford Marsalis, Herlin Riley and Russell Malone, as well as on drummer Terri Lyne Carrington’s More to Say (a 2009 disc for which he served as a pianist, keyboardist, and composer-producer). Fields also appears on releases by drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, and saxophonists Jaleel Shaw and Steve Slagle. The pianist has been a member of the Watts band, as well as that of trumpeter Nicholas Payton. In addition to performing onstage with the likes of Payton, Watts, Marsalis and Carrington, Fields has appeared with star bassist Christian McBride, drummer Nate Smith, trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, trumpeter Takuya Kuroda, and bassist Robert Hurst, among others.

Visit Website

Fri, October 25

8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Hamilton De Holanda Trio

October 20, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Hamilton de Holanda Trio

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Sun, October 20, 8PM / $30 – $50 | $2.82 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Hamilton De Holanda Trio

Hamilton de Holanda – Mandolin
Salomao Soares – Keys
Thiago Rabello – Drums

Hamilton de Holanda was born on March 30, 1976, into a musical family. His first instrument, at the age of four, was the Melodica. Two years later (1982) he began his professional career as a six-year-old mandolin prodigy on a national TV show with an audience of over 50 million. Today, as a composer, improviser, bandleader, and educator Hamilton`s music transcends genre as his improvisational genius dazzles audiences around the world.

Hamilton`s music comes from the encouragement of his family, the consolidation of his college degree in composition and the freedom of jam sessions in the streets of the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, where he grew up. His first genre was Choro, a Brazilian cultural heritage and the cousin of Jazz. He co-founded the first Choro School in the world (Brasilia, 1997) and spearheaded the petition to the National Congress to grant Choro a National Day. As a result, since 2000, April 23 is celebrated in Brazil as The Official Choro Day by proclamation of the Brazilian president, exposing the first Brazilian popular music to the people.

Also in 2000, an emblematic year for him, Hamilton reinvented the traditional 8-string Brazilian Bandolin (Mandolin) by adding a pair of extra strings tuned to low C (going from 8 to 10) giving it a deeper voice that emancipates the emblematic Brazilian instrument from the legacy of some of its influences and genres. The increase in the number of strings, combined with the fast solos and improvisations, inspires a new generation to take up the 10-string mandolin.

Hamilton’s playing and improvising transcend limitations and genres. Today he travels to the different corners of the planet “bringing his heart to his fingertips” performing his own compositions with his signature sound. He interacts with other music traditions, ensembles, and instruments. This allows him to be invited to be the guest soloist of Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra or to perform his own compositions with Symphony orchestras from around the world; from Rock/Pop Festivals to Dave Mathews Band at The Gorge; from The Central Park Summer Stage in New York City to The Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro; from noble museums like The Smithsonian in Washington or the Grand Palais in Paris to the famous Carnival in Rio. He has performed in Australia, Paris, Germany, Amsterdam, Rome, Norway, Los Angeles and other countries, cities and festivals around the world.

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Watch Video

Sun, October 20

8PM / $30 – $50 | $2.82 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Renee Rosnes Quartet

October 19, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Renee Rosnes Quartet

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Sat, October 19, 8:30PM / $20 – $55 | $2.33 – $4.05 Fees Get Tickets

Renee Rosnes

Renee Rosnes – Piano

Steve Nelson – Vibraphone

Peter Washington – Bass

Carl Allen – Drums

Renee Rosnes’ already distinguished career continues to reach new levels marked by new music, exciting collaborations, and ever-evolving musicianship. Upon moving to New York from Vancouver, Canada in 1985, she quickly established a reputation of the highest regard, touring and recording with such masters as Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, JJ Johnson, Buster Williams and James Moody. She was the pianist for the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra and a founding member of the all-star ensemble, the SFJAZZ Collective, with whom she toured and recorded for six years.

In 1990, Renee released her debut album on Blue Note Records and went on to record 10 albums for the legendary company. In 2020, she returned to the label with ARTEMIS, a jazz supergroup including trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, saxophonist Nicole Glover, alto saxophonist/flutist Alexa Tarantino, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller and Rosnes serving as pianist and musical director. Artemis’ performance at the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival was so dynamic, Blue Note Records President Don Was signed the group to the label. Tour dates across Europe and North America followed, including performances at such iconic stages as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, SFJAZZ, Chicago Orchestra Hall, and the Detroit and Monterey Jazz Festivals among others. Artemis has been featured on the cover of DownBeat, in Vanity Fair, on NPR’s Jazz Night in America. NPR raved, “A killer line-up of players, composers and performers who hail from all over the world… they all converge on a extremely cosmopolitan, sleek, rhythm-forward, modern sound.” Artemis recently won “Jazz Group of the Year” by the 2023 DownBeat Readers Poll.

Rosnes’ own 2016 outing Written in the Rocks (Smoke Sessions) was named one of ten Best Jazz Albums of the Year by The Chicago Tribune, one of the Best Albums in all genres of music by The Nation, and was awarded a Canadian JUNO. Her latest release, Kinds of Love (Smoke Sessions) was composed during the pandemic and features saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Carl Allen, and the Brazilian percussionist Rogério Boccato. All About Jazz wrote, “Rosnes elicits some of the most emotive and enthralling music of her career.” The recording was honored with another Canadian JUNO award (her 6th) for 2022 Best Solo Jazz Album of the Year.

In 2018, The Montréal Jazz Festival presented Renee with the Oscar Peterson Prize in recognition of her exceptional contributions to jazz. She is also an 14-year member of NEA Jazz Master Ron Carter’s Foursight Quartet. The group’s double album “Ron Carter: Live in Stockholm, Vol. 1. & Vol. 2” (In’n’Out Records) was released in 2021.

Renee is married to renowned pianist Bill Charlap ad the two often perform together in a two-piano setting. In 2010, they released their acclaimed duet recording, Double Portrait (Blue Note). Downbeat stated, “The counterpoint and compatibilities are so perfectly balanced, the selections and arrangements so handsome, that Double Portrait is a prize.” The Charlap/Rosnes piano duo was also featured on four tracks of the 2015 Grammy winning album: Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap: The Silver Lining, The Songs of Jerome Kern.

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Sat, October 19

8:30PM / $20 – $55 | $2.33 – $4.05 Fees Get Tickets

Renee Rosnes Quartet

October 19, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Renee Rosnes Quartet

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Sat, October 19, 8:30PM / $20 – $55 | $2.33 – $4.05 Fees Get Tickets

Renee Rosnes

Renee Rosnes – Piano

Steve Nelson – Vibraphone

Peter Washington – Bass

Carl Allen – Drums

Visit Website

Sat, October 19

8:30PM / $20 – $55 | $2.33 – $4.05 Fees Get Tickets

Renee Rosnes Quartet

October 18, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Renee Rosnes Quartet

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Fri, October 18, 8:30PM / $20 – $55 | $2.33 – $4.05 Fees Get Tickets

Renee Rosnes

Renee Rosnes – Piano

Steve Nelson – Vibraphone

Peter Washington – Bass

Carl Allen – Drums

Visit Website

Fri, October 18

8:30PM / $20 – $55 | $2.33 – $4.05 Fees Get Tickets

Zaccai Curtis Trio Plays The Music of Ralph Peterson

October 12, 2024 By Craig OConnell

Zaccai Curtis Trio Plays The Music of Ralph Peterson

The Side Door Jazz Club

at Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371

Sat, October 12, 8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

Zaccai Curtis

Zaccai Curtis – Piano

Essiet Essiet – Bass

Anton Kot – Drums

Zaccai Curtis moved to New York City in 2005 where he’s connected with and regularly performed with artists such as: Lakecia Benjamin, Christian Scott, Donald Harrison, Cindy Blackman Santana, Eddie Palmieri, Brian Lynch, the Mambo Legends, Abraham Burton, Ralph Peterson, Ray Vega, and Avery Sharpe among others.

Currently Zaccai is a professor of music at the University of Hartford: Jackie McLean Jazz Studies Division and University of Rhode Island. Besides being an educator Zaccai authored two books “Art of the Guajeo” and “Theory of the Common Voicing” which are meant to aid students in their Jazz and Latin Jazz education. Zaccai composes and arranges for his own quartet and trio as well as for artists such as Little Johnny Rivero, Steve Kroon, Sonido Solar and more. In 2003 he was chosen as a winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s competition and each year consecutively through 2006. Zaccai and his quartet were selected by the U.S. State Department to be in the American Music Abroad (Jazz Ambassadors) program two times in 2006. They performed in Bangladesh, Calcutta, Bangalore, Mumbai, Sri Lanka and Maldives. In 2007 Zaccai Curtis was awarded the ‘Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism’s Artist Fellowship’ for ‘original composition.’ In 2017 Curtis became a Chamber Music America: “New Jazz Works” grant recipient. In 2020 Zaccai was voted as the Rising Star in the Critics Poll for Downbeat Magazine. Most recently, Curtis has been invited to be the special guest director for 2023 CMEA Southern Regional High School Jazz Band.

When Zaccai is not busy being a sideman, he performs his own music with his group ‘Zaccai Curtis Quartet’ and ‘Sonido Solar’ and after five successful releases; He plans on releasing his next recording “Cubop Lives” in 2023.

Zaccai, along with his brother Luques, has developed the record label TRRcollective which is a collective of musicians that produce their own music and release it together. He is also proud to have produced and released the GRAMMY nominated album, ‘Entre Colegas’ by Andy González (2016). Zaccai has created the first ever music news app developed for record labels, artists and venues. ‘The Riff: Music News‘ available for free on iTunes and android.

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Watch Video

Sat, October 12

8:30PM / $20 – $50 | $2.33 – $3.81 Fees Get Tickets

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