Kids bop: Noah Kellman (above) and Nick Frenay
are among the student
musicians who have
participated in Jazz In the Square’s late-night jam
sessions. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS
This year’s Jazz in the Square
headliners include the Latin Jazz All-Stars on Friday, July 25, and
Curtis Fuller and His Superband, featuring Randy Brecker and Jason
Marsalis, on Saturday, July 26. After the musicians wrap their paid
gigs at around 11 p.m. each night, they’ll likely head over to Jazz
Central and hang out with fans and area student musicians.
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According to Larry Luttinger, festival
organizer as well as executive director of the Central New York Jazz
Arts Foundation, the events have been so anticipated during the seven
years of the jazz blowout’s existence that people queue up early
outside the doors of Jazz Central, which boasts an intimate 99-person
capacity. “In my opinion, {the jams are} where the real festival
happens, and they’re where the real magic occurs,” Luttinger says.
“They’re exciting, unpredictable sessions.”
However, there’s no guarantee that the
artists will turn out at Jazz Central, considering it’s
“extra-contractual,” as Luttinger puts it. “But it’s really gratifying
to have so many of the main-stage people pop over, and they always do.
Last year Gerald Albright had to literally be on a plane at 6 a.m. the
next morning, and we asked him to come over and he said, ‘I can’t, I
just need some sleep!’ But he came over and I didn’t even know he was
in the room because he came in through the stage door and he came out
in front of the audience and thanked Syracuse.”
Luttinger also gushes about the student
musicians involved in the educational programs hosted by his
organization, with some of them experiencing the chance to trade licks
with the stars. That happened to local trumpet student Nick Frenay, 16;
he’s also the son of musician and former Flashcubes members Gary Frenay.
“Four years ago {2004} Marcus Printup
was playing the stage, and little Nick Frenay got up to play,”
Luttinger says. “At the time Nick was an eighth-grader. Marcus was so
taken with how well Nick played at that age that he pulled out a cell
phone and he called his boss—Wynton Marsalis—and held the phone up to
Nick’s solo, so Wynton could hear Nick play.”
Noah Kellman, Frenay’s fellow school-age
compadre at Manlius-Pebble Hill, has enjoyed similar experiences at
previous Jazz Central sessions. Kellman clocked time as a bandmate of
jazz greats Bobby Watson, Josh Redman (a musician who was friends with
local chanteuse Maria DeAngelis in her formative years ) and Branford
Marsalis, who brought his entire band along for a jam in 2006.
“It’s an experience that you very rarely
get to have, really,” Kellman says. “There aren’t a lot of places where
you walk into a jam session and there’s Josh Redman, or Branford
Marsalis. No. 1, they make you sound 10 times better. No. 2, you get to
experience what it’s like to play with them.”
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Luttinger explains that those students
who are invited to get in on the fun are the cream of the crop from the
pool of students that come in contact with the CNYJO. And because the
sessions get started so late, they often extend well past the witching
hour.
“Unfortunately, they’re for the
stone-hearted and the night owls, because they do not start until after
the main stage shuts down at 11 p.m.,” Luttinger says. “But they’re
part of the indoor club scene that goes until the wee hours of the
nights of the festival.”
The after-hours jams foil the sometimes
stuffy, more formal visage that main-stage jazz performances can often
evoke. For Kellman, they’re a great chance to relive days when jazz was
informally bouncing up the Mississippi River toward its final
destination of Chicago.
“A lot of times in jazz these days you
get a crowd that’s uptight, and really wants to hear these people show
their artistic expression. They’re quiet, and only clap at certain
spots,” Kellman says. “At those jams there are times when the jazz
musicians are laid back, clapping after solos. The people that go down
to the jams have so much energy in the room, and so many people are
listening to the music and having a great time. To me it’s about the
loud room where they’re having a great time.”
Admission to the jazz jams are free. For more information, call 479-JAZZ.
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Jazz in the Square Headliners
With so much excitement primed for
Syracuse Arts Week as well as during the climatic Jazz in the Square
festival, be sure to remember to check out the festival’s headlining
acts, to be featured in the Clinton Square area. Admission to Jazz in
the Square is free. For more information, call 479-5299.
Curtis Fuller
Trombonist Fuller has wisely spent his
career meandering through match-ups with some of the world of jazz’s
most impressive stars. Fuller started out in the Army’s band with famed
saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, then continued to record on a variety
of the highest quality jazz record labels, such as Blue Note and Savoy.
Since, Fuller has also shared the stage with the legendary likes of
trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie and bassist Stanley Clarke. You’ll be
able to check out the latest rendition of Fuller’s musical perspective
when he performs with the Curtis Fuller Super Band, also to feature
trumpet player Randy Brecker and drummer Jason Marsalis, starting at 10
p.m. on Saturday, July 26, on the National Grid Main Stage.
Arturo O’Farrill
With a history that speaks to a
sophisticated take on jazz’s crossroads with Afro Cuban styles, pianist
O’Farrill has spent the past two decades working hard to impress the
likes of occasional stage mates Wynton Marsalis, Dizzy Gillespie and
Harry Belafonte. O’Farrill has four studio albums and one live album in
his stocks, the latest of which, Song for Chico
(Zoho), honors the musician’s father, Chico O’Farrill. The disk
features music written by the senior O’Farrill as well as by Tito
Puente. Artuto O’Farrill will perform alongside Claudio Roditi under
the name the Latin Jazz All-Stars, as a “tribute to Hilton Ruiz and
Mario Rivera.” The concert will begin at 10 p.m. on Friday, July 25, on
the National Grid Main Stage.
