We are so excited to be launching the 43RD Season of the Jazz Club of Sarasota. Before saying a few things about the coming year, I must take a moment to reflect upon the year that just concluded. It certainly was a mixed bag of applause and catcalls! Here are the highlights:
• We opened to a full season after being “dark” for 18 months.
• We introduced new programming with the Giving Hunger The Blues festival, Jazz Thursdays at the Sarasota Art Museum, the Birth of the Cool concert, and two Scholarship Fund concerts.
• The Jazz Festival in March had an impressive lineup including John Pizzarelli, Catherine Russell, Shelly Berg, Tierney Sutton and Arturo Sandoval and his band; as well as frequent favorites Dick Hyman, Terell Stafford, Ken Peplowski, Russell Malone, Houston Person and La Lucha.
• Jazz Club membership grew 134% from 428 members a year ago to 1,003 this August. This wonderful growth included the popular new “Couples” membership option.
• The Scholarship Fund drive surpassed its annual goal by making $30,487 available to students pursuing Jazz Studies and Performance at colleges and universities. In June seven students were awarded grants for the coming academic year. 330
On the downside… low attendance, low attendance, low attendance! This was pretty much true across the board from Jazz At Two and the Monday Night Jazz Cabaret to the Giving Hunger the Blues Festival and our week long Jazz Festival in March. The interesting thing about the Jazz Festival was that we had a big jump in first time attendees, while many of our regular members did not attend. Lingering concerns about Covid in general and not liking our outdoor venue for the festival clearly were the most common reasons given for not attending. It also didn’t help us at all that many of our out-of-state and out-ofU.S. regulars didn’t come to Sarasota last year. And so, the Jazz Club ended the year in a significant amount of red ink.
The very good news is that the new season seems to be much more positive. Our kick-off event headlining 10-time Grammy Award winning The Manhattan Transfer and featuring Liston Gregory III in the opening set has already sold 95% of Level 1 and 2 seats. Tickets for the remaining two levels are starting to takeoff. We may have a sell out for this October 21 ST event with over 1,000 attendees. Fantastic!
I also want to share with you that this year's Festival will be “indoors” under the Ulla Searing Big Top at Nathan Benderson Park. Terell Stafford, our Music Director, and the club’s Music Committee have secured a very impressive four-night lineup for the main-stage events. We will make a formal announcement and press release around October 1ST . Until all the contracts are signed, we can’t release any names, but this will be a very special festival! We do need to raise $100,000 in sponsorships, but we are already nearly a third of the way there with our traditional sponsor friends. We just need to make more friends!!! More details on that soon.
Inside this edition of “Sarasota Jazz Sounds” you will find a tribute to our friend and fellow board member, Bob Weitz. His recent passing is a great loss to our community. As I wrote in a recent newsletter, “Bob and Vern (as co-chairs of the Scholarship Committee) did much more than simply administer a scholarship awards process. They stayed connected to and encouraged these young artists as they pursued their artistic dreams. ”
Bob, was a good man and an incredible role model. I intend to dedicate everything that I do this year in his honor.
Very truly yours,
Ed Linehan, President
The Manhattan Transfer
50th Anniversary
The Manhattan Transfer has achieved an incomparable career of pop and jazz hits, a legacy that defines the group as it celebrates its 50th Anniversary. The legendary quartet has won 10 Grammy Awards out of 20 nominations and has been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
In 1981, they became the first group ever to win Grammys in both Pop and Jazz categories in the same year – Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Boy From New York City” and Best Jazz Performance for Duo or Group for “Until I Met You (Corner Pocket).” The dozen Grammy nominations they received for their Vocalese album in 1985 were second to Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the most nominated album in one year.
Their dynamic performances and sense of style have led them to become one of the most iconic music groups in the world. With their enduring creativity, energy, and joy in their music, the group has joined the pantheon of the entertainment industry.
Recognized for their unique sound, The Manhattan Transfer has also recorded with an impressive array of artists, including Tony Bennett, Bette Midler, Smokey Robinson, Laura Nyro, Phil Collins, B.B. King, Chaka Khan, James Taylor, and Frankie Valli.
The group was born when Tim Hauser was paying his bills as a New York City cab driver. He aspired to form a vocal harmony quartet that could authentically embrace a variety of musical styles and still create something unique in American popular music. In his taxi he met the next members of the group – Laurel Massé and Janis Siegel. Alan Paul, who was appearing in the Broadway cast of Grease at the time, was recommended as an additional male voice. The four of them became The Manhattan Transfer on October 1st, 1972.
Soon after their inception, the group began performing regularly throughout New York City – at underground clubs including Trude Heller’s,
the Mercer Arts Center, Max’s Kansas City, Club 82, and other cabaret venues. Quickly, they were the number one live attraction in Manhattan. They were signed to Atlantic Records and released their self-titled debut album in 1975. The second single from that album, a cover of the gospel classic “Operator,” gave the group its first national hit. More hits, like “The Boy From New York City,” “Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone,” followed. The vocal remake of the jazz classic “Birdland” became the group’s anthem and earned them their first two Grammy Awards.
Cheryl Bentyne joined The Manhattan Transfer in 1979, replacing Laurel. Trist Curless became a member of the group in 2014. Together, Janis, Alan, Cheryl, and Trist have remained true to the integrity and artistry left to them by founding member Tim Houser, who passed away in 2014.
The group has released 19 singles and 29 albums over their incredible career and their music has been widely featured in major films and television shows. Their 50th Anniversary celebration will see the release of a new album – with a symphony orchestra – and a 5-disc historic CD boxed set.
With sold-out world tours and record sales in the millions, The Manhattan Transfer continues to bring unique and extraordinary melodic and jazz-infused vocals to new and established audiences, spanning generations.
Don't Miss
The Manhattan Transfer with special guest Liston Gregory III
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2022
Sailor Circus Arena
2075 Bahia Vista St, Sarasota
Photos courtesy of John Abbott
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
WEDNESDAY, JUN. 29,2022
Observer
Jazz Club has grown from fascination to institution
Steady hands have helped the Jazz Club of Sarasota grow by leaps and bounds over decades.
by: Spencer Fordin A+E Editor, Observer
If only Hal Davis could see the Jazz Club of Sarasota now. Jazz, one of the original American art forms, was once an undernourished passion in Sarasota, but over the decades it has developed into one of the city’s most ubiquitous calling cards.
The club birthed by Davis with listening parties in his home has grown into a regional institution with hundreds of members and partnership agreements with several local venues. And it might be ready to grow into an even bigger footprint.
“There’s a need identified there to explore and to evolve the group into a more professionally managed organization,” says Ed Linehan, President of the Jazz Club of Sarasota. “That’s where we are in the development and maturity of this group ... We need professional management and we need staff because there’s a lot of work to be done. Or we need to do a lot less.”
Nobody wants that. If there’s anything the decades have shown, it’s that there’s an appetite for more jazz. When Davis, a former advertising executive and member of Benny Goodman's management team, relocated to
Sarasota, he quickly found a lot of like-minded people. His small group of music aficionados quickly outgrew his living room, his condominium’s meeting room and even a third location at a bank community room.
Davis established a roster of performers, a series of concerts and also the Sarasota Jazz Festival, which held its latest incarnation at Nathan Benderson Park in March.
But Davis, who died in 1990, might not recognize the club he started.
“It was a social group and then became a membership group. It grew amazingly, but without a master plan,” says Linehan. “It wasn't a decision to start an opera company, a theater or a ballet company. It was people who just enjoy the kind of music and recognize that there was a lot of local talent, some of which had retired here from a professional career. And it grew to a point where things like the festival and other events also brought in talent from outside of the area every year.”
Now the group doesn’t just build the audience; it helps to develop the artists.
It raises more than $20,000 in scholarships to higher education for young artists every year, and it helps organize events multiple nights a week during its respective seasons. The Jazz Club has its Monday Night Jazz Cabaret series, hosted by Florida Studio Theatre, in addition to its Friday Jazz at Two performance series at Unitarian Universalist Church. Between those two series, you’re talking about more than 40 performances per year. The club’s newest offering, Jazz Thursdays at the Sarasota Art Museum, have also brought in a dedicated following. Linehan says the jazz club now has more than 800 members, but the Thursday series is notable because it is mining a different set of subscriber.
“We think beyond another venue for jazz to perform, what’s good for the club in that partnership is an exposure to people in their audience who aren't jazz club members," said Linehan of Jazz Thursdays
Nancy Roucher, the club’s chair of the music committee, has been deeply involved in the club's maturation for decades. She calls Davis, "a genius masquerading as an advertising man," and she says she's fortunate that she got to know him. Her husband, Jerry Roucher, took the mantle from Davis and ran the Jazz Club of Sarasota for a decade.
Over time, the club began to not just foster jazz appreciation but to enrich the community from within, and its expanded performance calendar has given regional artists the chance to showcase their skills to
a wider audience. Some of those artists are teachers, and some of them are local scholarship winners who have brought their career to a higher level.
Roucher singles out cellist Isaac Mingus, who recently performed in Knoxville, and pianist Liston Gregory III.
“He was at our first cabaret this year,” she said of Gregory. “He grew up in the community and went to the University of North Florida, which is known for its jazz program. He’s now touring with a nationally known group, and he’s been to Singapore and all over the world. He’s a fantastic pianist, and that’s probably one of our most successful scholarship winners. But some of them are in bands, and others have become teachers. It’s a really nice energy.”
Adversity appeared on the horizon a couple years ago for the Jazz Club, much like every other industry in America.
Linehan says the club’s membership was at 960 people in March 2020, nearly doubling as the result of a 15-month campaign to bring in new faces.Then came the COVID-related performance slowdown and shutdown, and the memberships dwindled. Recovery has come slowly; Linehan says that many people did come back once performances resumed, but he estimates that there’s at least a few hundred subscribers that never returned after the pandemic. What's next on the horizon? The club's five-year plan indicates that it hopes to add more subscribers and to increase its operating revenue over the next few years, which will help it develop and maintain a full-time staff.
The club has added one full-time office manager, but a lot of the essential duties are currently performed by contractors.
Crowds packed the grounds at Benderson Park to be part of the Sarasota Jazz Festival in March 2022.
There's also one other big potential step for the club in the coming years and decades.
Will the Jazz Club of Sarasota be looking to build its own facility? That's not feasible at this point barring a major building campaign, but Linehan wanted to at least put it on the agenda for members to contemplate.
“It's a valid question to ask, and to explore what it would take,” says Linehan. “Are there virtues? Are there disadvantages? Right now, in a sense, we have the advantage of total flexibility. We're not locked into a building that we actually own.
“On the other hand, if we have an idea to do something more spontaneous, the first question is, ‘Where can we do this?’ And then you're dealing with established schedules and availability, and prices and size. But we do pick up the flexibility of not being locked into our own facility; we do pick up flexibility of taking advantage of many, many different places.”
The very thought of building its own facility was so far away when Davis began the club that it makes an interesting footnote. Davis was building the Jazz Club of Sarasota in a city with appetites it could not yet satisfy; but if you look at the environment it was born into, you can begin to understand why there is still limitless potential to grow.
“They had the Asolo," says Roucher. "The opera was still in its infancy. They had the orchestra. And they had the Ringling Museum. But they didn’t have any jazz, and that’s what he loved to listen to. So he and his wife started inviting people over to their house to listen to records in their living room. And that's how the jazz club started.”
Long time board member, Bob Weitz, who died on July 24, 2022 will be remembered for his sense of humor, positive outlook and as a mentor to young jazz musicians.
Bob and his wife Vern co-chaired the Scholarship Committee for many year and touched the lives of many young musicians with encouragement and support. The 2022 Scholarship Awards event on July 31ST was dedicated to both Bob and Vern.
Bob and Vern both worked in the “rag” business in New York. He was with H.I.S. men’s clothing, and she worked at Lord & Taylor. On their first date, he took her to see Carmen McRae and the next to Charlie Mingus, followed by numerous performances by the major Jazz figures of the time.
Bob will be greatly missed by the Jazz Club and all the people whose lives he touched.
A memorial service is being planned for early November.
Scholarship Recipients for 2022 Jazz Club of Sarasota
AnthonyAldissi
DylanMcHann
LucaStine
Matt Bokulic Award
ANTHONY ALDISSI is a junior studying jazz piano at Temple University. He has played and shared the stage with colleagues as well as many renowned artists. Anthony wants to keep doing this as well as continuing to write his own music. Some of Anthony’s biggest influences in music and jazz are Mulgrew Miller, Kenny Garret and Chick Corea where he interned at his studio and got to know one of his heroes
David L Smith Award
LUCA STINE is a trumpeter, composer, and educator now a senior at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He has performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and has been featured with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. Stine’s goal in life is to make the world a better place by inspiring and providing opportunities to those who are less fortunate, through music and education.
Jazz Club Special Merit Award
ColinLeonard
DYLAN McHANN is a senior at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, majoring in jazz saxophone performance. Dylan has loved learning and performing on the saxophone for the past 10 years and plans on staying in Miami after graduation to continue to perform professionally and hone his skills.
Blake Bennett Award
COLIN LEONARD, jazz saxophonist, flutist, and clarinetist is a second-year student at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he is majoring in Jazz Performance. Colin plans to teach, perform, and compose music to advocate creative thinking, community building, and a better relationship with our environment.
Merit winners:
BEN DUNHAM is sophomore at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He is studying music composition while playing the vibraphone with numerous ensembles. “Jazz is a way to express myself musically as well as connect with my peers and the audience. My goal is to eventually become a film scorer, while also performing as a jazz vibraphonist.”
KALEEN BARTON is a senior at the University of Miami working on her bachelor’s degree in Jazz Vocal Performance from the Frost School of Music. Her musical priorities are emotion and storytelling through lyric delivery and improvising. After finishing her degree, she intends to stay in Miami for a time to dive into the jazz scene while recording her debut album.
JONATHAN MUNOZ is studying Jazz and Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Florida. “Playing or listening to jazz never fails to take the edge off, and the more you understand the more you appreciate and enjoy it. In my future I hope to be in a big band plus other gigs wherever I may live, as long as jazz stays fun and youthful it'll be a part of who I am.”
A Special Thank You to Our Scholarship Committee Chairs: Michael Ross and Louise Coogan
KaleenBarton
BenDunham
JonathanMunoz
Jazz Club announces 2022-23 Schedule for
Fridays from 2 - 4
Unitarian Universalist Church
3975 Fruitville Rd., Sarasota
Tickets are sold at the door
JCM $15 | NM $20
The season kicks off on October 14 th with the swingin’ sounds of big band jazz with the Ocean’s Eleven Big Band.
Jazz at Two features many of the best jazz artists in the area performing various types of jazz - straight ahead, contemporary, big band, jazzy blues, Dixieland, Latin jazz (bossa nova/Samba) and cabaret style. Enjoy the best jazz on Florida’s West Coast with some returning favorites along with some exciting newcomers to entertain you throughout the season.
Tickets are sold at the door with a portion of every admission allocated to The Club's Scholarship Fund.
October 14
October 28
November 4
November 18
December 2
December 16
Oceans Eleven Big Band
Eddie Tobin and Friends
Tom Ellison “Hip Pocket”
Patricia Dean Trio
Ron Kraemer Jazz/Blues
Mark Moultrup Music
December 30 Scholarship Concert
January 6
January 13
January 20
January 27
February 3
Trace Zacur Quartet
Kitt Moran Quartet
Paul Gavin Music
Synia Carroll Jazz
Pete BarenBregge Jazz
February 10 Roy Gerson Quartet
February 17
February 24
March 3
Danny Sinoff Trio
Scotty Wright and Friends
Skip Conkling Dixie Mix
March 10 Fred Johnson with the Michael Ross Trio
March 24 Anne/Mark Burnell Quartet
March 31 Sarasota Jazz Project
April 14
April 21
April 28
May 5
Tom Carabasi Latin/Samba Sounds
James Suggs and Friends
Rodney Rojas New Profiles
TBA
of Friends A SPECIAL THANK YOU
Inner Circle ($2000+)
George & Janet Allgair
Anonymous
Karen Bokulic
Les & Karen Bunch
Cannabis Theory’s & Trulieve
Beth Cotner
Harold & Evelyn Davis Foundation
Rachel R Domber
Elsa Fierens
Diane Foxman
Gulf Coast Community Foundation
Jazz at Two - Scholarship Fund
Conrad Kenley & Melonie Favorite
Michael Lazaroff, The Jazz Cruise
Margaret Moore
Sarasota County Tourist Development
Smarthouse Integration
Lynn Smith, Smith Family Grant
State of Florida
Sunset Jazz Events - Scholarship Fund
Close Friends ($1000 to $1999)
Robyn & Charles Citrin
Seidman Family Foundation
Judy & Eric Mower
Anonymous
Elizabeth Locke Besse
Michael Bloomfield
Joe Bruno
Greg Cemer & Jamal Hartage
Susan Christy
William Jesse Correll, Jr
Cheryl Cummerow
Dakin Dairy
Lancelot & Patricia Disley
Guy Elliot
Melvy Erman Lewis
Steve Fenker
Fred Fiala
Lori Gentile
Pamela Hahlbeck
Roberta Hamilton
Bill Coughlin
Gold Coast Banjo
Paulenne Kirschenbaum
Ed & Synia Linehan
Guy C. Mattson
Ivan Rubin
Lenore Walsh
Friends (Under $1000)
S.Hope
Judy Jones
Joy of Jazz - Scholarship Fund
Gerald F. & Mary B. Kilanoski
Prince Knight
Alfred Kuehn
Susan Leavis
M. Lewis
James Linker
Brad & Carol LoRicco
Barbara J Lorry
Ronald Lusen
Gene McGowan
Martine Moscovita
James Moule
Leonard & Nancy Murphy
Kerstin Nicholson
Colleen Odom
Greg Parris
Piper Sandler
Peg Pluto
Steven Ronis
Joyce Rosenthal
Michael Ross
Nancy Roucher
Lisa Russo
Cynthia Salomone & Albert Cenci
Thomas Schlender
Daniel Shaffer
Maureen Shea
Harley Sommerfeld
R&G Timmerman
Gisela Weinland
James Whitman
Donations received from September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2022
Ken Franckling’sJazzNotes A life well-lived, and then some....
by Ken Franckling
omeone's impact on others is a more meaningful measure of a life well-lived than the number of years they spend on the planet. That notion was reinforced when we received word that Dan Miller died unexpectedly on Friday, August 19. He was just 53.
Dan Miller 1969 - 2022
Dan was passionate about a lot of things - auto racing and other sports, fine food, and his family. Most of us knew him best through his many contributions to the world of jazz. He was a high-octane trumpeter, blessed with a bright, soulful sound that graced the ranks of many a band through the years.
His sudden passing came just a few days after he and his sweetheart, Judi Woods, returned from their regular 12day vacation trip to New Orleans. On this visit, he caught up with many longtime musical friends and former band mates, and sat in one night at Preservation Hall.
The Chicago-area native worked with Maynard Ferguson, Harry Connick Jr., the Wynton Marsalis-led Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Tom Jones, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton and others. It seemed he could do it all - and do it well. He was as passionate about teaching as he was about performing, maybe even more so.
Dan was a fixture on the New York jazz scene until 2004 when he began spending part of the year in Southwest Florida. He moved here permanently about a dozen years ago, quickly making an indelible impact on the region's music scene - as a performer, educator and mentor.
In addition to leading or co-leading groups, frequently with NBC Saturday Night Live Band alumnus Lew Del Gatto, Dan was on the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of Central Florida and also taught privately. He traveled the country frequently as a guest clinician at high school and college jazz programs. He was a Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician for more than 30 years.
He taught late pianist Barry Harris's principles of jazz improvisation to students of all instruments. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz players and their recordings - not just the trumpeters whose work he studied in analytic detail. He shared that knowledge freely - and eagerly.
He started and directed the Naples Philharmonic Youth Jazz Orchestra, and led a Naples-based community big band concert series on Sunday afternoons during the snowbird season.
Here's what Wynton Marsalis shared today on Facebook about what he termed his "inexpressible grief" over Dan's death:
“Dan was the essence of our music: soulful, original, virtuosic and consistent. He was a great great educator and even better student. Most importantly, he was deeply engaged with humanity and how it could best be expressed in our interactions with each other, and through the trumpet. Big sound, big spirit, his sudden passing is shocking and a wake up call for us all to savor every moment down this road. Rest In Peace.”
If you want to read more about Dan's impact on jazz here, there and seemingly everywhere, here is an appreciation of his work that I wrote last September.
Ken Franckling is a veteran arts writer and freelance photographer specializing in music photography. This article and photos are from his blog. For more articles visit http:// kenfrancklingjazznotes.blogspot.com/.
