Musician, Know Thyself
Resolutions Of A Jazz Camp Dropout
Choose wisely going into the new year (meme creator unknown but all credit to them)
OK, truth be told, that whole resolution thing in the subhead was kind of clickbait. “Laid more and paid more” in my early and mid-20s was the only heartfelt New Year’s resolution I ever made (sometimes it worked and most the time it didn’t).
The other part is true, though – after two days at a trad jazz camp in New Orleans seven years ago, I told the director I was done. My lip was shot because they had us playing four to five hours a day and I get an hour of horn time a day most days. And my sight-reading skills, which worked fine for twice-a-year high school concerts, were simply no match for the other campers’. So I spent the rest of the week doing what one should do if one lives in New England and gets to New Orleans every six or seven years at best; walking the streets, taking in the buskers at Jackson Square, hitting the clubs on Frenchmen Street, and just absorbing the aura of one of the great music cities of the world.
If one has a natural instinctive bent toward something, it’s maybe easy to forget others don’t have that same ease in attempting it, and it’s good for one’s humility to see those with that gift one lacks in other pursuits. I marvel at the way some of the folks I’ve watched since 8495Jazz launched rip off 32 bars of improv of complex music at speed; whether it’s because I started playing too late in any way other than reading specks on a chart, or just don’t have The Touch, my thought patterns intrude on the process and slow it down, painfully, when I play.
So, knowing more or less precisely what I need to do to – or if I even want to – progress beyond my insular living room noodling and elementary riff and melody creations is probably of more value to me than trying to make a “resolution” to be a better improviser. Or going to a jam underprepared and end up a deer in headlights. But where the thoughts don’t intrude and slow things down is in front of the QWERTY keyboard.
Many years ago, I was sitting on the drum risers at a club in the Hudson Valley, talking to the singer from a red hot MTV band from England after a show, thoroughly enjoying myself. “Yer a very foony mon,” he told me. “Y’oot to be on the telly.”
I thought about it for about two seconds. After all, the perks of being on the telly seem quite attractive at first glance. But I’m not a performer by nature. “Nah,” I told him. “I’m exactly where I want to be.” I was then, and am now.
I launched 8495Jazz last Labor Day with not much more than the idea the jazz community in the region deserved a dedicated local outlet, and if I treated it as professionally as I have everything else I’ve written in 42 years of getting paid to do this stuff, it would find an audience of some sort. And it has; this little one-man digital gem run out of a home office in greater Waterbury is averaging almost 150 reads a week and has hit almost 70 regular subscribers. The jazz community has been extraordinarily welcoming.
So I am going to take this early momentum and see where it takes me in 2025. And there is so much going on people should know about.
From today’s kickoff of the Hartford Public Library’s Baby Grand Jazz series (more on that just below) to the Hartford Jazz Society’s Paul Brown Monday Night series coming up this summer; from one-day festivals in Manchester and Waterbury, CT, to multi-day festivals at Yale University, Newport, RI, and in the Litchfield hills; from visits by world-famous acts like the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to those known mostly to aficionados like Tuba Skinny; from regular jams like those in New Haven and Providence, to local clubs featuring jazz two, three, or four nights a week, and maybe a road trip journal or two, I’ll try to make 8495Jazz an easy but enlightening read. I want it to inspire readers to get out, see some very, very good musicians, and support those who make their performances possible.
The 8495 is one of the richest regions for jazz in the country; if you don’t believe me, maybe Christian McBride and NPR will convince you.
Thanks for reading. Please, tell others you feel might be interested in finding out more about regional jazz about 8495Jazz. Feel free to suggest story ideas. Happy 2025.
I don’t do “Best of the year” or “Favorite of the year” things, but this band, Or Shovaly Plus, is something I find myself drifting back to a lot. The New Orleans-based band’s 2024 album is chock full of superb grooves like this. If you’re of an historical bent of mind, they have a kind of 1970s vibe like The Section, the band composed of top LA session players. No particular connection here to the 8495, except the hope they may tour up this way.
Out And About with 8495Jazz
Now to the important stuff, where you can catch some great music this week:
Ain’t It Grand, Baby?
The Hartford Public Library kicks off the 21st season of its Baby Grand Jazz series today with tenor saxophonist Chloe Madrak: “In addition to being a member of Hall High School’s Concert Jazz Band, she is also a member of Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra in New York City,” the event’s web page tells us. “She has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. She has received awards throughout her high school career, including Outstanding Clarinet Soloist & Woodwind Doubler awards from the Essentially Ellington Festival, Outstanding Soloist Award from the Charles Mingus Competition, and was named a YoungArts Winner in 2024.”
Sounds like one of those “I saw her when” kind of talents.
The series runs through April 27 (except Easter Sunday, April 20). It’s held at the downtown library’s Center for Contemporary Culture at 500 Main St., with doors open at 2 and showtime at 3. Admission is free, with the library expressing thanks to presenting sponsor, the Kaman Foundation, and longtime partners WWUH and the Hartford Jazz Society.
8495Jazz Spur of the Moment Jaunt TODAY
Proprietor’s Lodge, Pittsfield, MA
Hot Club of New England w/ Matt and Atla deChamplain, 4:30 pm. $20.
Other Shows This Week
Palace Theater Poli Club, Waterbury, CT
Peter McEachern Quintet (trombone, combo), 7 and 9 pm. $40.
VFW Post 399, Westport, CT
James Weidman and Harvie S (piano, bass), 7:30 and 8:45 pm. $20.76, $15.76 student/veteran.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA
Isaiah Collier (sax), Fri., Jan. 10. $40-$60.
Tierney Sutton and Tamier Hendleman (vocals, piano), Sat., Jan. 11, 7 and 9 pm. $35-$55.
Chan’s, Woonsocket, RI
Shawnn Monteiro, Sat., Jan. 11, 8 pm. $25 advance, $30 at the door.
Elicit Brewing Company, Manchester, CT
Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Mon., Jan. 6, 7:30 pm. 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.
Blackeyed Sally’s, Hartford, CT
Jazz Wednesdays, featured set 7 pm, jam session afterward.
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.
You can help make 8495Jazz better. Share it with your music-loving friends. Follow us on Facebook and Bluesky. Share gig information and story suggestions to 8495jazz@gmail.com