All Jazz Is Local
Occasional visits by ‘big names’ help us realize our place and mission
Jazz fans in the 8495 are extremely lucky to be able to call 2025 Grammy Award winner Zaccai Curtis one of our own. Zaccai is just one example of the stellar jazz talent that lives and works right here. (8495Jazz photo)
One of the hallmarks of any kind of entertainment journalism is making an effort to give readers a kind of Goldilocks notice of events: give something ink too early and you risk it becoming a foggy memory just when it should be getting the most buzz. Pop it up too late and you never build any buzz at all before it’s here and gone.
So I assume a “too early” risk here by pointing out Diana Krall will be coming to Waterbury, CT’s Palace Theater April 3, 2026. That’s almost six months out – an eternity for our purposes of informing 8495Jazz readers of things they might want to consider seeing.
On the other hand, the hall already appears to be more than half full (here’s the link to tix, which run from $55-$155 plus fees). So mentioning her visit this far out may be spot on timingwise, anyway.
But the point about Diana’s visit is that when I say “hall,” I mean the Palace’s ornate grand room, Webster Hall, which seats almost 2,600 people, not the cozy confines of its usual jazz venue Poli Club, which seats about 100 give or take. And most the jazz venues around here are small rooms like the Poli. That is just the way things are.
I will send Diana’s people an interview request – with absolutely no expectation we’ll get one. And that is perfectly OK. Obviously, she does not need a friendly little regional jazz newsletter that gets 500 reads a week on the high side to sell tickets. On the other hand, some folks most of us would consider jazz “luminaries” like Emmet Cohen, Jeremy Pelt, Delfeayo Marsalis, and Benny Benack III have been very gracious and generous in sharing their time and insights with 8495Jazz.
I only remember taking umbrage at a “famous” musician’s refusal to grant an interview one time: on one of Warren Zevon’s swings through Poughkeepsie, when I tried to set up an advance story, his publicist asked me what the Journal’s circulation was. When I said 40,000 Monday-Saturday and 60,000 Sunday, he replied – very curtly, I add – “Warren doesn’t talk to any outlet smaller than 100,000.” To which I said “But the son of a bitch will take our money just the same, won’t he?” and hung up, with emphasis, if you will.
I wasn’t so mad on a personal level; my weekly paycheck was the same no matter how many rock stars talked to me or not, and by that time I had no pretensions about having talked to this or that famous person making me a more desirable social acquaintance. But this jamoke was essentially telling 40,000 people in the mid-Hudson Valley they weren’t worthy of a little more knowledge of somebody they were going to shell out hard-earned money to see.
Though I greatly admired Zevon’s music (and think his induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame this year was WAY overdue), I held a grudge for years, until a good friend who also happens to be a superb guitarist (and banjo and mandolin player), and who played in Zevon’s band, told me it was highly likely Warren never got notice of the request, that the manager was just doing triage.
And here’s the funny thing: On Friday night, my friend played in a tribute to Warren Zevon out in Los Angeles, with another friend. I’ve known both of them 40 years and first saw each of them play before they were out of college, but this is the first time they will have shared the same stage. Are they household names? Nope. Are they superb musicians who have inhabited the top flight of the profession for decades? You betcha.
Now, that is not to say every musician I’ve become acquainted with over the past 42 years of listening with a discerning ear is blessed with the talent and drive to make a first-call living. But that’s not the point. The point is that there can be something magical in (just about) every note you’ll hear from someone brave enough to put themselves out there.
And we are blessed beyond belief with jazz talent here in the 8495. That is the purpose of this newsletter, to introduce you to folks, many of whom you can see week in and week out, who have chops to spare and the grace to share some of their lives with us, “famous” or not.
So do me a favor. Really look over this week’s Out and About gig list. Click on the links to the regional jazz societies, check out their calendars, and see if maybe you can spare a couple hours to check somebody out. Talk to them between sets or after the show – jazz players are almost uniformly accommodating to a degree often unheard of in other genres.
And here’s a teaser. Next week’s top item will be about two such events, one free and one which will cost you the grand sum of $10 – which also gets you a record. You can’t go wrong with either one.
Oh, and if I get that interview with Diana Krall? Well, you can read it right here.
Groton Hill Music Center in Groton, MA offers a 6-week online “Jazz Hang” class three times a year. Last week’s class looked at the career of the late Latin jazz pioneer Eddie Palmieri. And, hey, look who’s in his band for this celebration of his “Harlem River Drive” – Zaccai Curtis on Fender Rhodes and his brother Luques Curtis on bass. All jazz is local and when local is this good, we gotta get out there!
Out and About with 8495Jazz
These listings are a curated sampling of shows in the region. As an independent resource for jazz news, 8495Jazz does not receive any consideration, free tickets, or affiliate fees for these listings. Please confirm events are still happening directly with the venue.
We are slightly tweaking the gigs listings; we’ll now go out to the Sunday following publication. That will give you a full week instead of a couple hours to ponder whether you would like to go listen to some fine music.
8495Jazz Wild Card Gig of the Week
The Falcon, Marlboro, NY
More like Wild Card Gigs of the Week! The Falcon brings music fans on the western edge of the 8495 no fewer than FOUR jazz shows between now and next Sunday: Tonight, The Professors at 7:30; Wednesday (Oct. 29) Hudson Valley Jazz Jam in the Underground (sign-up at 6, music starts at 7); Thursday (Oct. 30), harpist Edmar Castaneda’s quartet at 7:30; next Sunday (Nov. 2), saxophone master Jimmy Greene brings a quartet of stellar Hartford cats (Zaccai Curtis, Jonathan Barber, and Matt Dwonszyk) across the Hudson at 7:30. All headliner shows are nominally free with suggested donation of $30, suggested donation for the jam $5.
8495Jazz Spur of the Moment Gig TODAY
Pump House Music Works, S. Kingstown, RI
Joe Parillo & The New Ensemble (piano, combo), 7 pm. GA $23.18 including service fee.
Other Shows This Week
Sacred Heart Community Theater, Fairfield, CT
Spyro Gyra, Sunday, Nov. 2, 7 pm. GA $53-$63 including service fee.
University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
Jazz Combos II concert, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 7:30 pm. GA $17.85. student/senior $12.51 including service fee.
Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT
Jazz Combos, Sunday, Nov. 2, 3 pm. GA $10 in advance.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA
Club d’Elf (combo), Friday, Oct. 31, 8 pm. GA $44 including service fee.
VFW Post 399, Westport, CT
Brian Marsella (piano, combo), Thursday, Oct. 30, 7:30 and 8:35 pm. GA $10.76-$20.76, student/vets $15.76 for 7:30 show.
Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT
Dr. AZA Trio (piano/keys combo), Friday, Oct. 31, 8:30 and 10 pm. GA $20 for 8:30 show, $15 for 10 pm show.
The Side Door, Old Lyme, CT
Sean Nelson Jazz Orchestra feat. Atla DeChamplain, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 7:30 pm. GA $38.57, students $22.68 inlcuding service fee.
Russell Hall Quintet (bass, combo), Friday, Oct. 31, 8 pm. GA $49.16, students $22.68 including service fee.
Parkville Market, Hartford, CT
Jazz with Nat Reeves (bass, combo), MOnday, Oct. 27, 6:30 pm. Free.
The Lilypad, Cambridge, MA
The David Haas Group: A Coalition of the Willing (piano, combo), tonight, 7 pm. Free.
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
UConn Jazz Combos, Sunday, Nov. 2, 12 pm. GA $16.30 including service fee.
Jams
Cafe Nine, New Haven CT
New Haven Jazz Underground jam, usually 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month: free admission
(Note: October NHVJU jams will be at The Cannon, 135 Dwight St.)
Saturday jazz jam most Saturdays, 4 pm. Free.
Blackeyed Sally’s, Hartford, CT
Jazz Wednesdays, featured set 7 pm, jam session afterward.
Carmine’s, East Hartford, CT
Paisley’s All Star Memorial Jam, 3rd Tuesday of the month, 7:30 pm. House band set followed by jam. Free.
Mahoney’s, Poughkeepsie, NY
Poughkeepsie Jazz Project, every Tuesday, 7 pm. Free.
Park City Music Hall, Bridgeport, CT
Scott Cushman and Friends followed by jam, first Wednesday of the month.
Jazz Societies and Organizations (great info on events, festivals, and more)
Jazz Society of Fairfield County
Jazz Fridays at Three Sheets New Haven 1st/3rd Fridays from 6-9pm
Jazz Thursdays at The Cannon New Haven every other Thurs from 7-9pm.
8495Jazz takes its name from the two Interstate highways that cross our region, I-84 and I-95. Within short driving distances from either, you can find incredible entertainment, from local jams to world-famous festivals in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. 8495Jazz: From Newburgh to Newport!
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