In Westport, The Mitzvah Has a Beat
'Jazz Rabbi' Greg Wall and JazzFC Serve The Community With The Music
‘Jazz Rabbi’ Greg Wall (photo courtesy Greg Wall)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A rabbi walks into a jazz club…
OK, never mind. That said, jazz fans and students in Fairfield County, CT, can thank Rabbi Greg Wall and his colleagues at the Jazz Society of Fairfield County (JazzFC) for providing a mitzvah of entertaining jazz and sustaining music outreach and education. Sure, a series of coincidences over the past 10 years or so may have led to the present day of weekly shows and community enrichment, but then again, it takes intent to build on serendipitous opportunity, does it not?
And who better to intentionally create a sense of joy and community through music than a tenor saxophone-playing rabbi?
“I’ve been blessed,” Greg, who is now rabbi emeritus at Beit Chaverim Synagogue in Westport, as well as president and artistic director of JazzFC, told 8495Jazz. “For my whole life I was able to support myself and my family through music. When I added on being a congregational rabbi without stopping music, my standard of living was lowered a little. But little did I know it was for a higher purpose. That higher purpose was to meet the fine folks who would go on to start JazzFC. And it’s really great.”
For both Greg and JazzFC, the road to their current “Jazz at the Post” weekly shows at the Joseph J. Clinton VFW Post in Westport was a little twisty and turny – with venues that closed abruptly or didn’t have quite the right vibe, the COVID pandemic, and so on. But the shows are now about to enter their fourth year at the post, and when he talks about the venue and the shows, he sounds like they have found a home for the long haul.
“This room is gorgeous and has floor-to-ceiling windows with river views, great acoustics, and probably the most comfortable seats of any jazz club in the country,” he said. “The people could not be nicer and they are pro-artist. It’s been a wonderful relationship, and we are about to celebrate our third anniversary there.”
The shows, which feature top-shelf musicians, are also very reasonably priced, with full-rate tickets costing just $20.76. But like the mustard seed of faith, Greg says that admission price is like the seed for JazzFC’s larger mandates, which include bringing guest artists to schools, playing for audiences who otherwise find it difficult to make it to “regular” gigs, and sponsoring an annual scholarship in memory of saxophonist Micky Golomb for Fairfield County students pursuing music degrees.
“I tell the fans every week when they are paying $20 for artists who are regularly getting $55 or $60 to play in Manhattan, ‘Listen, it’s a tease. It’s worth more than that. But we are counting on you to support our most important activities. The artists are going to play no matter what. But the outreach and education won’t happen unless we make it happen.’”
He makes no bones about the fact he came to appreciate the intricacies and obligations of his faith through pursuing mastery of the saxophone (a story told in greater detail here), but he also draws parallels between the assiduous effort it takes to truly pursue knowledge in both – and for that matter, the effort it should take to truly try to master any discipline. When he was entering adulthood, he had the wisdom and the chutzpah to chart his own course, aided by the music of John Coltrane - there may be no better model for using music to contemplate the nature of the divine - and Miles Davis. He also credits a book he picked up for spare change in a used book store written by composer/jazz musician David Amram. Amram, he said, was obviously in love with music, and that was transmitted very clearly to Greg, who recognized a kindred spirit.
“I let my parents talk me into going to UMass-Amherst because they were hoping I would outgrow music,” he said. “Then, during that time, I heard In A Silent Way and hearing that, I realized that was the most complex form of music – not orchestral music, but improvised jazz. And I realized that you had to be a real virtuoso to do it. So I took a year off and all I did was practice.”
To make a long story not so long, even though there is a rabbi involved – he left UMass, finished his collegiate education at the New England Conservatory, and ended up in New York City, slugging it out in the workaday world of the skilled jazz player. Along the way, he became more immersed in his faith and began the road to ordination – interestingly enough, a journey begun through meeting an Orthodox man at a saxophone lesson – and his musical projects began to manifest that. He formed or co-formed the bands Hasidic New Wave (which “fuses spiritual songs from Hasidic dynasties to funk and jazz, Arabic dances with avant-garde rock, and juxtaposes horas and freylekhs with sheer improvisation”) and Later Prophets (which created jazz compositions around the Biblical verses of Ezekiel, the Lament of Jeremiah, and the words of Malachi).
The music of these bands is a recognizably deft integration of modern jazz and the melodies one associates with Jewish culture. It is intricate, but catchy. And making the intricate catchy, whether it’s jazz or parsing the essence of his faith, is something Rabbi Wall exemplifies.
“Judaism is like jazz in the way that there are a lot of moving parts and it requires a lot of the participant,” Greg said. “If you’re prepared, you will be able to get a lot out of it. The job of the rabbi is really to help people prepare to practice Judaism.”
Now that he is rabbi emeritus of Beit Chaverim, he can spend more time on the philosophical essence of Judaism and less time on the bureaucracy of running a synagogue. And he also wants to bring even more outreach to the things JazzFC already does.
Last Septmber, for instance, the society presented its first show outside the VFW, the Amina Figarova Sextet and the Matsiko World Orphans Choir in a free, underwritten show. He would like to do a jazz festival. And he would like to “pay it forward” not just to local audiences and students, but also to musicians who want to make the area home as he has done.
“I am looking forward to introducing in the next year or so outreach to emerging artists and service to people already in the field, professional jazz musicians who have elected to raise families and live here instead of in a closet in Brooklyn, and support them and give them career development.”
Rabbi Wall plays regularly at the Thursday night gigs; he and David DeJesus will be presenting a “nod to Cannonball and Trane’s 1959 collaboration” Feb. 20.
Among the bands Rabbi Wall has played in that integrate modern jazz and Jewish culture is Hasidic New Wave.
Litchfield Jazz Festival Lineup Has Dropped!
The Litchfield Jazz Festival will be celebrating 30 years of bringing the best jazz talent in the world to Connecticut’s northwest hills this year, and the lineup will not disappoint.
The festival is held these days at the Frederick Gunn School in Washington, CT, this year from Friday, July 25 to Sunday, July 27:
Friday, things kick of at 5:45 with a performance by the year’s top jazz campers, followed at 7:45 with camp alumnus Emmet Cohen and his trio. It will mark his fifth appearance at the festival.
Saturday, another camp alum, Matt Dwonszyk, brings his sextet onstage at 3, followed by the guitar duo of Pasquale Grasso and Frank Vignola. Clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen and her newest ensemble, the Anat Cohen Quartetinho, close out the day.
The always popular Sunday brunch show features pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton and her trio of 18 years featuring Fukushi Tainaka on drums and Hide Tanaka on bass. Champian first appeared at Litchfield when she was barely in her 20s.
Festival tickets go on sale March 1, according to the email announcing the lineup. Next week, Litchfield Performing Arts Executive Director Vita Muir looks back on 30 years of the festival, and how it all started, in a talk with 8495Jazz.
8495Jazz Wild Card Gig of the Week
The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective will bring three acts to its 12th Annual Jazz Festival at Yale, Thursday through Saturday. The festival kicks off Thursday at 6 pm with trombonist Mariel Bildstein and her trio. Friday’s performer is vibes virtuoso Sasha Berliner, also at 6. Festival headliner Cécile McLorin Salvant plays Saturday at 7:30 pm. The festival is free; there’s a waiting list for Salvant tickets, but tickets for the first two shows are still available.
8495Jazz Spur of the Moment Jaunt TODAY
Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
Improvisations Now (Jacqueline Kerrod – harp, Joe Morris – guitar), 2:30 pm. $15, $8 students.
Other Shows This Week
Hartford Public Library, Hartford, CT
Baby Grand Jazz, Charlie Apicella and Alexis Marcelo (guitar, combo), today, 3 pm. Free.
VFW Post 399, Westport, CT
Melissa Newman (vocals, combo), Thur., Jan. 23, 7:30 and 8:45 pm. $20.76, $15.76 student/veteran.
Blackeyed Sally’s, Hartford, CT
Akin Hobson (drums), Wed., Jan. 22, 7 pm. Free. Jam after first set.
Chan’s, Woonsocket, RI
Brian James Quintet, Fri., Jan. 24, 8 pm. $15 advance, $20 at the door.
Elicit Brewing Co., Manchester, CT
Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Mon., Jan. 20, 7:30 pm. Free
Scullers, Boston, MA
David Weiss sextet (trumpet, combo), Sat., Jan. 25, 7 pm. $35 - $55.
Side Door, Old Lyme, CT
Larry Fuller Trio (piano, combo), Fri., Jan. 24 and Sat., Jan. 25, 8 pm. $45, $20 students.
Jams
Cafe Nine, New Haven CT
New Haven Jazz Underground jam, usually 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month: free admission
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.
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.
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