Journalist’s ‘2nd Set’ Is A Joyful Journey
Mark Leccese Has Chops, But No Goals For His Music, And He Likes it That Way
Mark Leccese and his bandmates lay down the groove at Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge. The club is closed now, but Mark’s post-retirement jazz journey is going full steam (photo courtesy Mark Leccese)
Mark Leccese had a fairly typical career path for a journalist: Scrambling down daily deadlines as a reporter for a big wire service, editing and writing for community newspapers, and finally, a long and distinguished career as a professor of journalism at Emerson College in Boston until he retired in 2023.
But he also developed an early love for music that never left him. He played trumpet in his school bands and baritone at college at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. And, assisted by circumstances of early exposure to top-flight jazz and instruction on how music works, the flame under that love never really turned off. It was maybe on a low simmer for extended periods, but it was always there. And now it is the guiding force in his post-career life.
“The key for me was to keep in mind, ‘Don’t just retire from something, retire to something,’” Mark told 8495Jazz. “What I retired to was being a student in the adult ed program at the New England Conservatory.”
Shortly after he enrolled at the conservatory, which is a short drive from his suburban Boston home, he was walking to class past a dormitory and received an aural reminder why he took the path he did.
“It was a warm October day, and out of every window there was music. Opera singers, violinists, clarinet players, brass players, people playing scales and melodies. I was enchanted. Because music had always been something I had always loved and something that was not work. And I don’t want it ever to be work.
“I’m not studying to be a professional musician. I am not trying to get a degree. What keeps me going is the becoming. Not reaching the goal, but never reaching the goal.”
He received a great education from his school band directors, who went above and beyond to expose him and his friends to music outside what they were preparing for the next concert or football game.
“Somehow, the music director for the Burlington school system knew a concert promoter who owned a club up in Danvers called Lennie’s On The Turnpike. And the director or one of the other teachers would take 10 of us in a van to Sunday afternoon matinees. I was 14 or 15, and we’d see guys like Oscar Peterson, Charlie Byrd, Rahsaan Kirk. So, because of the school system and the excellent music teachers, I got exposed to jazz really early.”
Given the long hours of a community journalist’s day – gathering notes and talking to sources, often attending meetings at night before one can finish the shift by writing a story – Mark took about 10 years off from playing. Serendipitously, just as he began to really miss making music in his mid-30s, a friend who had a neglected trumpet asked him if he’d like it. He jumped at the chance.
“And I found a little studio that kind of specialized in adult beginners and after six months I joined their ensemble, and that was 30 years ago.”
Today, a year and a half into retirement, he studies trumpet with a teacher at the conservatory, plays trumpet in one jazz quartet, plays bass in another, and takes courses in classical and jazz theory.
“I am as happy as a clam at high tide, as we say in New England,” he posted to the Trumpet Herald, a worldwide online community for trumpet players.
Mark is also lucky in that he lives in Boston, with resources like the Berklee College of Music and the conservatory. The expertise at those institutions bleeds out into the greater Boston area, creating an ecosystem for what Mark calls “community jazz.”
“What’s interesting to me as a non-professional – looking at my experience over the past 30 or so years playing – there is an amateur scene. There are a whole lot of amateur musicians and a whole lot of amateur jazz players. And little independent music schools that have ensembles with a professional musician as a teacher. I’ve been playing in one for 20 years. The drummer works for NOAA. The bass player is a programmer. The alto player is a primary care physician.”
The bands Mark is in now play recitals at community gathering places like VFW halls. They play Porchfests. They’ve opened at local clubs on midweek nights for local pros. It’s all part of being included in, and building and maintaining, a robust music community.
“We brought family and friends out to a club on a Tuesday night,” he said, citing one example of keeping the local scene strong. “So you have 40 people in the place. We’re happy because we get to play the club. The restaurant is happy because we’re bringing in people on a Tuesday. The professional musicians are happy because they’ll get booked again because they brought 40 people in on a Tuesday night. That’s kind of what amateurs do.”
And rest assured, it is a high level of amateur musicianship. At his very first class at the conservatory, Mark said the instructor had the ensemble playing uncommon time signatures like they were Dave Brubeck.
“The teacher said ‘What do you want to play?’ and looked at me. And I said ‘I don’t know, Autumn Leaves? Because I had it in my head. So we played it. Then he said ‘OK, play it in 5/4.’ So we struck our way through that, and he said ‘OK, now play it in 7/4.’”
He was also lucky enough to get the occasional instruction from Boston-based jazz legends. Interestingly enough, one of those legends, trumpeter Herb Pomeroy, who came in as a substitute instructor one night – imagine, Herb Pomeroy as a sub – sounded like he was following a philosophy similar to Mark’s, and just letting the music flow.
“He was probably about the age I’m at now,” Mark said. “One of the other guys said ‘What are you doing these days?’
“He said ‘I’m trying to unlearn everything teachers taught me over 40 years and just play music.’ And I have never forgotten that.”
Connecticut Musicians Take Home The Hardware
Musicians with Connecticut roots took home two jazz Grammy awards last Sunday night:
Dan Pugach, who is married to Waterbury native (and 2024 Grammy winner ) Nicole Zuraitis, won the Best Large Ensemble Jazz Album Grammy for Bianca Reimagined: Music For Paws And Persistence, which honors the love of the dogs Dan and Nicole have rescued and loved over the years. The band, including Nicole, was also nominated for the Best Jazz Performance Grammy with the song “Little Fears” off the album. Congratulations to Nicole and Dan on their rare status as married Grammy winners. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, they have just slightly fewer awards than Beyonce and Jay-Z, who had 56 combined as of 2023.
Windsor natives and longtime Hartford scene mainstays Zaccai and Luques Curtis won the Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy for Cubop Lives! (with Zaccai as leader and Luques as band member on bass).
“I'd like to describe Cubop as primarily a bebop composition with Afro-Cuban elements in the rhythm section,” Zaccai said in Bandcamp notes for the record. “In the least, the composition might have to ‘lean’ more towards the bebop side of this musical fusion.
“Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo with George Russell's ‘Cubana-Be Cubana-Bop’ (1946), along with ‘Manteca,’ and ‘Tin Tin Deo (1947) became the first examples of this and inspired artists like Stan Kenton, Art Blakey, Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, Cándido, Billy Taylor, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and more to create new paths that changed the world of music forever.”
Local fans will have a chance to check Zaccai out this Friday. Check the details under the 8495Jazz Wild Card Gig of The Week.
The Dan Pugach Big Band plays “The Bridge” off their Grammy-winning album. Anybody who has ever had to send a pet over the Rainbow Bridge probably will have a hard time not tearing up here.
Out and About with 8495Jazz
8495Jazz Wild Card Gig of the Week
Waterbury Palace Theater Poli Club, Waterbury, CT
Albert Rivera Quartet w/ 2025 Grammy winner Zaccai Curtis (sax, combo), Friday, Feb. 14, 7 and 9 pm. $40.
That’s right, the folks at Litchfield Jazz tell us Grammy winner Zaccai Curtis will be in the house at the Waterbury Palace Theater’s Poli Club Friday night as part of the Albert Rivera Quartet. Zaccai started attending Litchfield Jazz Camp at the age of 13 and has returned as an instructor many times. Joining Zaccai and Albert (the camp’s operations director) will be Richie Barshay on drums and Conway Campbell on bass. Set times are 7 and 9 pm. Tickets are $40.
8495Jazz Spur Of The Moment Gig TODAY
Hartford Public Library, Hartford, CT
Baby Grand Jazz, Aja Moyé & Friends (vocals, combo), today, 3 pm. Free.
Other Shows This Week
Mad Monkfish, Cambridge, MA
Owen Leeuwis Quartet (sax, combo) Thur., Feb 13, 7 pm. $15.
VFW Post 399, Westport, CT
John Fumasoli (trombone), Thur., Feb. 13, 7:30 and 8:45 pm. Early show $20.76, $15.76 student/veteran. Late show $10.76.
Buttonwood Tree, Middletown, CT
Michaela Coppola (guitar, piano, vocals), Friday, Feb. 14, $15.
Blackeyed Sally’s, Hartford CT
Ben Simmons (sax, combo), Wed., Feb. 12, 7 pm. Free, jam follows.
Uncle Cheef, Brewster, NY
Svetlana and the New York Collective, Fri., Feb. 14, 7:30 and 9 pm. $40-50, one ticket good for both shows pending availability. $25 minimum/person/set.
Scullers, Boston, MA
Greg Piccolo & Heavy Juice (sax, combo), Sat. Feb. 15, 7 pm. $35-50.
Social Bar & Kitchen, New London, CT
New London Big Band Spotlight Series, Gianni Gardner & Ascent (guitar, combo), Wed., Feb. 12, 6:30 pm. $9.85-$12.51.
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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