By Bruce Klauber
The nonprofit Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation was formed to pay tribute to the history of segregation of African Americans on Atlantic City beaches; specifically, the stretch of beach between Missouri and Mississippi avenues. The name came from the fried chicken bones that visitors left in the sand.
With the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Atlantic City beaches were open to everyone. Henrietta Sheldon, who founded the historical foundation, believes that remembering that time in history is essential, as is celebrating jazz.
“Jazz represents more than just musical entertainment; it is a progressive, gathering force of inclusion,” states the foundation’s mission statement. “Turning the memory of an unfortunate chapter of American history into a positive force of good through jazz is what the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation stands for.”
And good jazz is what this season’s 24th Annual Chicken Bone Beach Jazz on the Beach free concert series is all about.
The concert series, which will take place Thursday nights on the Boardwalk at Kennedy Plaza, between Mississippi and Georgia avenues at 7 p.m., is one of the most imaginatively, thoughtfully and intelligently programmed jazz series in recent memory.
While there are a couple of veterans among the headliners this season, several performers are younger players and singers from around the globe who have just started making a considerable mark in the worldwide jazz community.
What’s extra special about all of this is that each concert will have an artist from our region opening the show. That’s something that rarely happens, especially in a weekly series of concerts that runs throughout the entire season.
The series opens June 27 with drummer and vibraharpist Jason Marsalis. The youngest member of the famed Marsalis family is, like his famous brothers Wynton and Branford, at home in any jazz genre, from New Orleans and swing, to bop, neo-bop and beyond. Marsalis’ respect for the jazz tradition was on view some years ago when he fronted the Lionel Hampton big band. Marsalis swung like mad on the vibes, as did the band.
The opener is an area favorite, drummer Tony Day and his band. Bassist/composer and Grammy winner Linda May Han Oh, who will appear on Thursday, July 4, has performed with a number of jazz icons, including Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, and Joe Lovano. A native of Malaysia, she’s won numerous awards including the Jazz Journalists Association Bassist of the Year from 2018 to 2023, and Jazz Times Bassist of the Year in 2022. Sharing the bill that night will be the group of pianist/organist Keith Hollis.
Another Grammy winner, vocalist/pianist/arranger Nicole Zuraitis, takes to the Kennedy Plaza stage on July 11. “Nicole has positioned herself as one of the top artists and prolific songwriters to watch,” said Broadway World. Opening the show is area favorite, the soulful vocalist Angela Burton.
Indicative of the diversity of this year’s series, the July 18 concert features the Colombian-born jazz harpist Edmar Castaneda, recently nominated in the Best Latin Jazz Album category by the Grammy organization. Since the passing of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, there just haven’t been a lot of jazz harpists on the national jazz scene. Like guitarist Stanley Jordan, who makes the guitar sound like an entire orchestra, Castaneda has technique to spare, and has a unique way of applying that technique to the harp.
“His technique is the real astonishment,” said National Public Radio. “Castañeda juggles lead, rhythm and bass lines, using a variety of hard and soft string attacks to keep those voices distinct. His amazing technique raises the bar for every harpist.”
Philadelphia’s versatile, smooth jazz-focused Vertical Current, opens the show.
Ekep Nkwelle is a 24-year-old Cameroonian-American jazz vocalist who has worked with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, as well as Russell Malone and Cyrus Chestnut.
The opener, Eddie Morgan and Rek’D 4, is a tight-knit unit that can play it all, from jazz standards and ballads to funky R&B. Whatever the genre, Morgan is an exceptional improviser on trumpet, and quite the crowd-pleaser as a leader.
Drummer Sean Jones, who will appear with this group, the Baltimore Jazz Collective, on Aug. 8, is a straight-ahead player who also has close ties to Wynton Marsalis. He worked with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for only six months before Marsalis offered him the position of lead trumpeter, a prestigious position he held from 2004 to 2010. He’s worked, in person and on record, with a number of certifiable jazz legends including Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson and Marcus Miller.
Youth will be well represented via the opening ensemble, the Camden-based IDEA Youth Collective. The group is an outgrowth of the IDEA Center for the Arts, located in downtown Camden, which has 1,800 square feet of space for youth creative workshops, a jazz cafe, open mic sets, movie screenings and other performing arts projects.
The Chicken Bone Beach concerts are truly international in scope, and the Aug. 15 concert, starring Trinidad’s singer/songwriter Olatuja, is a perfect example.
Olatuja specializes in a type of music called soca, an offshoot of calypso, with influences from East Indian rhythms and hooks. Olatuja, whose high-energy performance has charmed audiences worldwide, effectively combines elements of soul, funk and reggae along with sosa to form a unique and engaging style.
Singer/guitarist/songwriter Gina Roche, who opens for Olatuja, has been a refreshing favorite of shore audiences for as long as I can remember, and for good reason. She is a great versatile artist.
Grammy-winning drummer and educator Ulysses Owens, Jr., and veteran trumpeter and hard-bop specialist John Lamkin and his band are the stars of the Aug. 22 program. Owens, deservedly, is one of the most in-demand percussionists around. “He’s a musician who balances excitement gracefully and shines with innovation,” said The New York Times, and he’s as at home with funk as he is with straight-ahead, swinging jazz.
The Aug. 29 show features Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana and her Quartet and saxophonist/educator Dwain Davis. Aldana is quite the player and has an interesting story. She was born in Chile, moved to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music, and then moved to New York City where she promptly won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. Then she signed with one of the top jazz record labels around, Blue Note Records.
Aldana first showed the influence of Sonny Rollins, but later became immersed in the music and style of Wayne Shorter. To her credit, she’s successfully synthesized elements of both, and has listened carefully to some of the older saxophone masters as well. Aldana’s tone is simply beautiful.
The final show in the series on Sept. 5 features a real jazz legend. Bandleader/trumpeter/recording artist and 10-time Grammy winner Arturo Sandoval was discovered by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in 1977 when Dizzy was visiting Cuba. Gillespie became Sandoval’s friend and mentor and helped him defect from Cuba.
He became an American citizen in 1998 and in 2013, President Barack Obama awarded Sandoval the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Now 74 years of age, Sandoval shows no sign of slowing down, and though he’s long become “his own man” as a trumpeter, you can always hear a little bit of Dizzy in his playing. And that’s a good thing.
High Notes: The South Jersey Jazz Society has announced that bassist Andy Lalasis, profiled in these pages not long ago, has been awarded their highest honor, The George Mesterhazy Jazz Master Award. Andy, a true jazz master, will be recognized at a gala dinner Sept. 25 at the Greate Bay Country Club.
