Jazz’s ‘Mr. Everywhere’
Matt Dwonszyk is always in the thick of it, paying it forward
(Andrew Wilcox on keyboards and Matt Dwonszyk on bass lay down the groove at October’s Paisley Jam at Carmine’s in East Hartford 8495Jazz photo)
With apologies to the late, great, godfather of soul – James Brown, if you were drawing a blank – Hartford area bassist Matt Dwonszyk may legitimately have assumed the mantle as the hardest working man in show business.
Just take a look at his gig schedule the past couple of years; if there’s a club or festival stage in southern New England or New York (and beyond) Matt hasn’t hit, it’s a lonely one. His collaborators’ list is both a who’s who of the established jazz community and also a testament to bringing up the next generation. Two of his three listed gigs this week honor the legacies of two departed musicians who saw the urgency in bringing young musicians into the fold. And both efforts were organized in large part by Matt.
Tuesday night marks the third monthly Paisley Jam at Carmine’s in East Hartford. Saxophone player Paisley Ramirez called Matt earlier this year with the idea, the time-honored sort of session with an early professional feature set followed by a jam session, with special emphasis on bringing music students up on stage with the pros afterward, with no cover charge. Tuesday’s pro set features Atla DeChamplain on vocals, her husband Matt DeChamplain on keyboards, Jonathan Barber on drums, and Matt on bass.
Paisley died before the jam sessions could begin, but Matt told 8495Jazz the crowd at the October jam was larger than the first and included a good number of students who brought their instruments and played.
“Hopefully this next one will be the same,” Matt said. “This one with Atla will be a vocal feature and that was by Paisley’s request. He wanted at least one night to be a vocal night. The goal is to get a lot of vocal students to come sing and other vocalists to come sit in. I’m assuming it will be a good night and a lot of people will come out.”
Matt helps prime the pipeline for bringing in students by booking colleagues with teaching positions for the featured set. Matt, who teaches bass at Central Connecticut State University among other pedagogical gigs, was on campus putting posters up for the jam last week. Both DeChamplains are also music professors.
“I told the band the point is to try to get your students out. Every band has been like that. Basically, you choose bands where a lot of the guys are educators.”
He hopes the series will continue into 2025; a fan with knowledge about grantwriting approached him at the last session and they will be applying for funding.
Wednesday night, Matt will take the show a little further down the road, to the iconic Smalls Jazz Club in New York City, with the Donny Time Tribute Band, composed of other Connecticut-based or bred jazz pros. They’ll highlight the album the group and other musicians in the region released in September honoring the late Don DePalma. Don helped establish venerable Hartford area jazz events and venues with titans like Jackie McLean and Paul Brown. All proceeds from the album go directly to the annual DePalma-Roy Scholarship Fund, which helps finance a collegiate music education for a Hartford County student focusing on instrumental music, particularly jazz.
There’s a sense of poetic closure in Matt bringing the tribute band to Smalls, which may be the epitome of a working jazz club these days. Most of the featured performers at the club are probably familiar to dedicated jazz fans, but lack the instant name recognition of somebody like Wynton Marsalis or Herbie Hancock to a more general audience. But working musicians recognize a Smalls gig as a rite of passage, and it was no different for Matt, who grew up studying in Hartford, both as a high school student and in college at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford.
“Some clubs only feature the jazz giants, which is great, but Smalls gives the younger generation a chance,” Matt said. “It’s a rite of passage to play there in a world where sometimes it feels impossible to make it to the next level.”
Wednesday’s show might also be an exemplary illustration of how the foundations of the Hartford scene produce top-shelf talent that can play anywhere, and how products of that environment like Matt are dedicated to pass the torch themselves.
“Hartford has always been somewhat on the map, given its location between New York and Boston, but I would say Jackie took it to the next level and today I think there are people like me who went through that school – it’s a different time now, but at the same time we are still trying to push. There are more students than ever, more jazz programs than ever.”
Tuesday’s Paisley Jam at Carmine’s in East Hartford starts with the house band from 7:30-8:45, with the jam session to follow. No cover (The staff at 8495Jazz are not food critics, but the beef stroganoff at last month’s jam was plenty tasty, and the Old Fashioned hit the spot).
Wednesday’s show at Smalls includes two sets at 10:30 and midnight. Smalls also livestreams all its sets.
8495Jazz Spur-Of-The-Moment jaunts TODAY!
Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
Improvisations Now (combo), 2:30 pm. $15, $12 members, $8 students.
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
UConn Jazz Ensemble, 6 pm. $11.50.
Other Shows This Week
Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT
Ben Goldberg, Todd Sickafoose, Scott Amendola (combo) Fri., Nov. 22, 8:30 and 10 pm. $20/8:30, $15/10 pm set.
VFW Post 399, Westport, CT
Steve Davis (trombone), Thur., Nov. 21, 7:30 pm. $15.76 - $20.76.
Parkville Sounds, Hartford, CT
Charmagne Tripp (vocals), Fri., Nov. 22, 7 pm. $16.
Askew Bar & Lounge, Providence, RI
John Allmark Quintet (trumpet, combo), Thur., Nov. 21. $11.54.
Towne Crier Cafe, Beacon, NY
Beacon Dance Beat (Latin), Thur., Nov. 21. $10 (call 845-855-1300 for availability).
Blackeyed Sally’s, Hartford, CT
Wednesday Jazz feat. Michael Farina (sax), Wed., Nov. 20, 7 pm. Jam session follows first set. Free.
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.
Jazz Societies and Organizations (great info on events, festivals, and more)
Jazz Society of Fairfield County
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