Wrapping up a great summer

For those who hadn’t the foggiest notion how or if they were going to be able to attend Litchfield Jazz Camp or Litchfield Jazz Fest this summer, we found an answer! As our own Albert Rivera often says for emphasis, I’m not gonna lie—it was not easy! But we have a brilliant and devoted staff who never take no for an answer. So, as soon as it became clear meeting in person was impossible, we all set to work to find the best platform for virtual teaching and performing.

I, being the least knowledgeable of the gang about technology, hoped there would be some software that allowed instrumentalists to play together in real time. Well, the bright boys in the back room humored me for a while but finally told me, here again I’m quoting Albert, “It’s not a thing.” And it wasn’t.

That hope dashed, I got over it quickly, and we began working to build a curriculum we could deliver and students would enjoy and came up with a really nice one. More than 80 students, most former Litchfield campers, joined us for the last two weeks of July and were treated to theory classes, master classes, ingenious and entertaining jazz history sessions, electives and even live(streamed) faculty concerts. We called the latter Jazzy Nights at Home and opened them to students and the public for free. Some nights more than 300 people showed up! We wanted to make Litchfield Jazz Camp, Virtually Yours!! as close to the real thing as physics would allow. And with lots of shoulders to the wheel, we did it.

We of course had no intention of giving a pass to the 25^th year of Litchfield Jazz Festival just because of a pandemic! The biggest hurdles were how to do the festival and where to do it safely. After some dead ends, Telefunken Elektroakustik, South Windsor CT, stepped up. A longtime sponsor, donating dollars, equipment and expertise, they offered their new Telefunken Soundstage, complete with lights, staging, streaming, backline, sound and staff. They did everything but play the tunes! A final challenge was to winnow the lineup down to one day and still leave the audience delighted. This, too, was accomplished.

Three top notch sets streamed on July 25^th, beginning at 1PM. We called the opening show Litchfield Legends in the Making, with a tip of the hat to Grammy-nominated vocalist, pianist, award-winning songwriter and head of Litchfield’s vocal programs, Nicole Zuraitis. Her bandmates were pianist Jen Allen, drummer Dan Pugach (Grammy nominee and btw Nicole’s husband) and bassist –for us and for Eddie Palmieri–Luques Curtis. Both Luques and Nicole were long-time Litchfield campers who each came to us at age 12. Nicole invited as a special guest vocalist –

and another camper with a long history—Anson Jones, making the point that jazz camp passes the torch in relay fashion. Sadly, Melinda Rodriques, a finalist this season on “Thee Voice” and another Zuraitis LJC protégé was unable to join us, “marooned” in Florida by the virus.

After a touching interview with Zuraitis and Pugach moderated by long-standing Litchfield MC, Mike Gow, it was time for the mid-afternoon set, a Centennial Tribute to the great saxophonist Charlie Parker. Kris Allen, saxophonist and LJC faculty member, “stood in” for Parker and was joined by trumpeter Bruce Harris, pianist Jen Allen, bassist Zwe Bell le Pere, all LJC faculty, and drummer Jonathan Barber. Kris, who served as MC throughout the 2020 Festival, interviewed Bruce Harris who spoke to the life and contributions of Charlie Parker and the recent resurgence of interest in his music among young players.

The fest wrapped up at 6:30 with another Centennial Tribute, this one to the iconic drummer and bandleader Art Blakey. Trumpeter Valery Ponomarev led the band, with Don Braden on sax, Carl Allen on drums, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Lonnie Plaxico on bass and Zaccai Curtis on piano. Valery has a popular touring big band project he calls “Our Father Who Art Blakey” and, along with Lonnie Plaxico, appeared on recordings and on stage with Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Kris Allen interviewed these two living links to the master drummer.

Two special features at Litchfield Jazz Camp 2020 are worthy of note. On July 21, the Les Paul Foundation sponsored scholarships and a concert and talk by bassist Nicki Parrott dedicated to the master guitarist-inventor, live streamed from her Connecticut backyard. Nicki played in Les Paul’s trio every Monday night at the Iridium for the last ten years of his life. Her trio featured Paul Bollenback on guitar and Ian Carroll on drums, with Nicki on bass and vocals. Bollenback, a performer and educator, has played with Joey DeFrancesco, Charlie Byrd, Jack McDuff, James Moody, Stanley Turrentine, and many more, and Ian Carroll, who was born to drum by virtue of coming into the world just blocks away from the West Village’s great jazz clubs, now leads his own trio every Saturday at the Williamsburg Hotel in Brooklyn. Both men and Nicki are Litchfield Jazz Camp and Festival regulars.

On July 23, the students enjoyed a presentation by the Billy Strayhorn Foundation entitled—Billy Strayhorn, the Man and his Music. The foundation was created to honor the life work of Strayhorn who left an enormous body of work, most of it written and arranged for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. For several years the Foundation has been helping Litchfield Jazz Camp with a scholarship each summer for a student with financial need.

Galen Demas, a nephew of Mr. Strayhorn and a Foundation board member, made the presentation and accompanied it with samplings of some of Strayhorn’s most notable music, including Something to Live For, Take the A Train written on his journey—yes, on the A Train– up to Harlem to meet Ellington for the first time, and Lush Life, a sophisticated tour de force from a 16-year-old Billy. In fact, Strayhorn wrote this song from 1933 to 1936 but did not release it until 1948. Billy Strayhorn died in 1967 at the age of 52.