By Bruce Klauber
The powers that be who book jazz festivals across the country should consider taking a serious look at what the South Jersey Jazz Society is doing with the Jazz@ThePoint festival, taking place at the Gateway Playhouse and Gregory’s restaurant in Somers Point from Oct. 15-17.
While there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing performers for a jazz fest — including costs, availability and drawing power — SJJS’s main considerations have been talent, the importance of an artist in the jazz world and how often, if at all, an artist has appeared in the immediate area. The fact that such-and-such may have sold a million records is not high on their list of priorities when putting together jazz talent for a festival.
The confab, which carries a subtitle of “Red, White & Louis,” is a salute to our country’s 250th birthday, and a celebration of the late and great WRTI Radio broadcaster Bob Perkins, and the legendary Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong. The fest opens at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, at Gregory’s, with Armstrong historian/author/record producer and Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum’s Director of Research Collections, Ricky Riccardi. Riccardi’s knowledge and the understanding of Pops’ contributions to jazz is encyclopedic, and through his extensive work, he’s accomplished something of a miracle: He’s somehow made Old Satch contemporary. Appropriately swinging music that evening will be provided by trumpeter Bob Ferguson’s All-Stars.
Headlining at Gateway Playhouse on Friday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. is trombonist, bandleader, composer, and educator Wycliffe Gordon. Gordon, who played in fellow trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ small group and also composed the theme song for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” has extensive list of credits, but at heart, he’s a straight-ahead, swinging trombonist. Ed Berger of Jazz Times magazine recently wrote, “In an art form too often rife with factionalism and stylistic myopia, Wycliffe Gordon is a breath of fresh air. He’ll play with anybody, bringing his commanding technique, sense of history and sheer exuberance to any musical setting. He is equally at home on the stage at Lincoln Center, on the ‘jazz party’ circuit, in repertory bands, touring with the venerable Statesmen of Jazz and even on the fringes of the avant-garde.”
After Gordon’s show, the action moves to Gregory’s restaurant where the star, beginning at 9:30 p.m., is the one and only “La Chanteuse De Jazz,” versatile vocalist Paula Johns. Johns, long a favorite of shore audiences, has performed a number of tribute shows throughout her career, including celebrations of Dionne Warwick’s work with Burt Bacharach and Nancy Wilson. For this occasion, Johns will reprise her popular and spot-on homage to Ella Fitzgerald. Ella, of course, recorded three, landmark albums with one of this festival’s honorees, Louis Armstrong, and no doubt, Paula Johns will be singing some songs from those iconic projects.
The booking of trumpeter/bandleader Jon Faddis at Gateway on Saturday at 7 p.m. is a real coup, given that Faddis has rarely, if ever, visited the Jersey shore as a performer. Faddis first hit the national scene as a protégé of Dizzy Gillespie — and to be accurate, he was something of a Gillespie clone in his earlier years — as a member of Lionel Hampton’s band. He later graduated to working with the famed Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestra and then as a member of bassist Charles Mingus’ group.
Though he became an in-demand studio artist, he always worked as a jazz player on recordings, and as director of Dizzy Gillespie’s 70th Birthday Big Band and Diz’s United Nations Orchestra. The non-jazz public at large began to take notice of this extraordinary artist when he became the leader of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, a stint that lasted from 1992 until 2002. He continues to record in a variety of settings and teaches internationally, notably at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College/SUNY, in Westchester, New York.
Like many who initially fell under the spell of giants like Dizzy, Faddis eventually became his own man as an improviser — and has added almost another octave to his already impressive range along the way — though the influence of John Birks Gillespie is still very much evident, as it is with just about everyone who has ever played jazz trumpet. This evening is certain to be quite the event.
Ending the festival at Gregory’s that evening is another world class trumpeter, Terell Stafford. Philadelphians may be familiar with Stafford by way of his noteworthy position as Director of Jazz Studies at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. But he’s a fine, swinging improviser, fluent in all styles and a Grammy Award-nominated artist who has recorded extensively as a leader and with famed mainstreamers like flutist Herbie Mann, organist Shirley Scott, and yes, Dizzy Gillespie. None other than pianist McCoy Tyner, pianist in the legendary John Coltrane Quartet, described Stafford as “one of the great trumpeters of our time.” Endorsements don’t get better than that.
What will make this mini-festival extra special is the fact that all involved will be paying tribute to the artist who virtually invented jazz trumpet playing, Louis Armstrong. It’s nice to know that there are still those in the world of jazz who have all carefully and intelligently evolved, but none have forgotten their roots. Armstrong influenced all of those who play or sing jazz. The artists slated to appear at the Jazz@ThePoint festival are well aware of that and no doubt, they’ll come out swinging.
For ticketing and other details on the Jazz@ThePoint festival, visit SouthJerseyJazz.org.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
