“Sax-aholics”

In early December, when the tree tops were just beginning to glisten and the children were barely beginning to listen, Joe Carello and Frank Grosso, two CNYJAF veterans, were making a trip out to East Tennessee State University to be featured as performers and educators after working with the ETSU Jazz Orchestra. The event was called “Sax-aholics Anonymous” (Names of sax-aholics are confidential and will be released in this article.)

I had the privilege of speaking with Frank about himself, his long-standing connection to CNYJazz, and his experience in Tennessee.

NK:  How long have you lived in CNY and how long have you been part of the CNYJO? What experience lead to your becoming part of the CNYJAF?

FG:  I’m a lifelong resident of Central NY and have been part of the CNYJO since its inception.

NK: Who are your biggest influences musically and artistically?

FG:  There are really so many…On the baritone I heard a Gerry Mulligan record and was completely blown away! That had to be around 7th grade for me. After a while, I found myself drawn to the ABC’s of the bop school (Adams, Brignola, & Cuber). There are so many younger guys out there that sound so wonderful but those would be the baritone influences when I was growing up. Of course Dexter, Johnny Griffin, and Jug are as influential but in another way.

NK:  Describe your experience at the residency and why it was important to you personally, and to the community in Tennessee. 

FG:  Joe and I had a wonderful experience down in Tennessee! Joe gave a saxophone master class  & lesson, while my master class was on instrumental music education in the public schools. A significant portion of music majors at East Tennessee state are matriculating in music education. I feel a personal responsibility to pass on knowledge and experiences as they were passed on to me.

As a music educator, in every school setting you will encounter a wide range of student experience and abilities. I believe it’s important for anyone entering the teaching field to be aware of, and have a plan set in place to address that wide range of abilities. To be honest, my class focused not on jazz, but rather on instrumental education techniques along with how to reach special needs children, making their experience with instrumental music more meaningful. We addressed general ideology and then discussed specific situations I have encountered in the past. Boy, we really only scratched the surface!

NK:  What were the highlights of the residency and the concert?

FG:  For me the highlight was making music and interacting with the young adults of the East Tennessee State jazz ensemble. I enjoy meeting people from other locales. It’s interesting to get their perspective and influences.  Every time I play or teach, I pick up a kernel of knowledge to bring home.

NK:  What makes the CNY Jazz community so special? In your experience, how is it different from other jazz communities?

FG:  Many other communities don’t have the long history of jazz music and musicians like we do here in the central/upstate New York area. Johnson City TN. for example, has a very strong tradition of ‘blue grass’. East Tennessee State actually has the only ‘Blue Grass’ playing degree available in the U.S. The jazz legacy is really just emerging, thanks to folks like Dr. David Champouillon who heads up the Jazz department at ETSU (East Tennessee State University).

I think we have a storied history here in Central New York. Folks like Peanuts Hucko are our icons of the swing era. Of course, Hucko also played regularly with Louis Armstrong, so he has a cross over thing happening. The next era you see guys like Sal Nistico, Joe Romano, and later, Danny Dimperio. And today, of course, we have another current stable of greats  like Joe Magnarelli & Walt Weiskopf keeping up the tradition…maybe the next greats will be Collin DeJoseph, Nick Frenay, and this Kellman guy I keep hearin’ about!

Places to Hear Music In CNY

Here’s a short list of a few places I love to go to check out live music regularly in CNY. If you have any more suggestions for places that have live music, please leave them in a comment!

1. Go to Pastabilities on a Wednesday Night – Pastabilities is a well-known restaurant in Syracuse for more than one reason. First of all, you CANNOT miss their amazing hot-tomato sauce. People travel from all over town just to get a taste of this secret recipe. Then on Wednesday nights you can catch the John Rohde trio playing a beautiful blend of songs during dinner. It’s always a fun crowd and guests often sit in with the band.

http://www.pastabilities.com/

2. The Syracuse Suds Factory – On the first Wednesday of each month, this venue hosts the Salt City Jazz Orchestra, a high-energy big band that keeps everyone on the edge of their seats the entire night. If you head there at 6pm, you’ll also make it in time for Jazz Happy Hour. The Suds Factory also hosts other bands and events.

http://www.sudsfactory.com/

3. The Dinosaur Barbeque – Dinosaur Barbeque is already a famous place just for their delicious food, but you can also often catch great live music. Check out the schedule here:

http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/events/calendar.aspx?id=5

4. Funk n’ Waffles – If you’re looking to catch a good show, Funk n’ Waffles attracts a great young music scene. They have all types of bands playing there, and they also happen to serve some of the most interesting waffles you’ll ever have.

http://www.funknwaffles.com/

5. The SITRUS Lounge – Located in the Syracuse, NY Sheraton hotel, the SITRUS Lounge is hosting a new Jazz@SITRUS series that will be featuring jazz vocalists from CNY. You can check out the schedule here:

http://cnyjazz.org/node/64

Happy Endings Café: Remembering Good Times

When I first arrived, I was just eleven years old, probably one of the youngest people in the room. It seemed that all the city’s jazz students and musicians alike had traveled across Syracuse to congregate in front of this small, darkly lit stage. The atmosphere felt friendly, intimate, yet fantastically electric. There was a bass, drums, and an upright piano off to the side of the stage. As more and more people arrived, the excitement continued to build. Finally, a tall, professionally dressed man walked into the room and approached the microphone.

“Hello everyone, and welcome to Happy Endings.” His voice was welcoming and he seemed eager to begin. “My name is Larry Luttinger, and on behalf of the Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation, I’d like to thank you all for being here for our scholastic jam. I’d like to welcome to the stage Rick Montalbano on piano, and Daryll Pugh on bass.”

After calling up the first student, Mr. Luttinger proceeded to sit down at the drums.

Now, these were the days when it took my mom a $5 bribe to get me to play in front of an audience. I was happy to see some familiar faces around. Joe Colombo, my band director at school was hanging out, and I was already studying privately with Rick Montalbano at that time. As usual, my nervousness was overwhelming and I refused to play until suddenly, $5 entered the game and it finally seemed worth the risk.

The CNYJAF scholastic jams would soon become a regular part of my life. My friend Nick Frenay and I began attending the jams regularly. One day, a group of older students played the Charlie Parker song “Donna Lee.” Over the course of the next month, Nick and I made it our primary objective to learn that tune. Every time I used our dial-up internet to log into Aol Instant Messenger, I turned to my right and played through Donna Lee as fast as I could on the little keyboard I kept next to the computer. By the time the dial-up was actually logged on, I had always made significant progress. At the next jam, Nick and I went up and surprised everyone with our Donna Lee performance. Guess what? I just dug up the video. Here it is below:

There was always a special tradition which has continued even until now at the Jazz Central scholastic jams. This was to have everyone come back up to the stage and play a blues together. It just so happens that I still have a video of that first jam I went to at Happy Endings, and the video features everyone who attended playing C Jam Blues:

By Noah Kellman

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Thanksgiving Jazz in CNY

This week, I came back to Syracuse for Thanksgiving break, and was surprised by what I found. Without even trying, I came across some CNY jazzers playing in an all new music venue. It was a typical break day. I woke up late and went downstairs to find my parents cooking breakfast and watching the news. After grabbing a cup of coffee, I patted each of my cats and dogs on the head to say good morning and then made my way over to the piano. A couple of pages of music later, my mom and I decided to go to the Wegmans supermarket just down the street to grab a few things. When we walked in, we were surprised by what we found, or heard, rather. There was music coming from the dining area. Jazz. We used our shopping cart to push and prod our way through an average sized Wegmans mob, and finally arrived in the café to find none other than this lovely trio playing music for all of the eaters:

In the picture, you see Dave Solazzo on piano, Tom Bronzetti on guitar, and Spencer Murphy on bass. I happened to catch this shot while Spencer was sitting in on a tune. However, the house bass players is Bill Horrace.

Now, if you’ve ever been to Wegmans, than you know that’s it really “thee” place to be in Syracuse. If you’re ever bored, head over and you’re guaranteed to see someone you know and have a good time. However, Wegmans has really taken it to a new level. Live music? If they keep it up, they may be about to get busier. But I suppose we will all find out. In the meantime, it looks like Wegmans has added another reason to the long list of reasons why it’s a fun place to go– flowers, a large candy section, all your friends are probably already there… and live Jazz!!!!!

The trio will be playing approximately every other Wednesday from 5:00pm to 8:00pm in the Wegmans cafe in Fayetteville, NY. Their last appearance was this Wednesday, Nov. 23rd. Make sure to catch them if you’re in town!

Here’s the link to a great video by guitarist Tom Bronzetti playing Waltz for Debby at Canal Studios in Rome, NY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOby6Yvk7Yc&feature=related

By Noah Kellman

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Alumni Spotlight: Nick Frenay

For many of us here in CNY, there has been no great way to keep tabs on jazz alumni, but today we are featuring CNY Jazz alum Nick Frenay so that we can catch up with his crazy, music-filled life.

Where is Nick now?
After completing his second year at the Brubeck Institute, in Stockton, CA, Nick recently began his first year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Because of Berklee’s strict credit requirements, he was unable to transfer credits over from his previous schooling, so he is a freshman this year in Boston.
However, this hasn’t proven to be an issue for Nick, as he has entered Berklee as a 2011 Presidential Scholar with his next four years of school completely accounted for, an incredible honor than only a small group of students receive yearly.
“I’m really liking Berklee right now.” Nick said with an air of excitement in his voice. “It’s the absolute right place for me at this point in my education.”
He then went on to describe the stark contrast between Berklee and the Brubeck Institute:
“The two schools are really opposites in almost every way. Style-wise, Brubeck was really all jazz. Berklee, on the other hand, is all different styles. Whereas at Brubeck I played with the same four people all the time, at Berklee I rarely play with the same group more than once unless it’s a specific ensemble.”
Through school, Nick is now playing trumpet in a few ensembles, including the Ralph Peterson ensemble, one of the best jazz ensembles at Berklee, and the SCAM ensemble, a group dedicated to playing the works of Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, and Marvin Gaye, hence SCAM. He also plays in a number of groups outside of schools and happens to be one of the most on-demand trumpet players on the Berklee scene.
However, according to Nick, there is still more room for growth, and he finds this very inspiring.
“When I first got to Berklee, I auditioned for the Neo Soul Ensemble, one of the two top R&B ensembles led by Skip Smith. The Neo Soul ensemble is really thought of as the best one, though, because they play really cool music and often feature amazing guest artists. For example, they just did a concert with Bilal. Once we were about half way through the audition process, the judges came back out and called me back along with one other trumpet player for what seemed like the final round. In the end, I didn’t end up getting in. I was really disappointed at first, especially since I had made it so far, but now I realize that it’s actually kind of a good thing that a new freshman trumpet student like me didn’t just come into school as the best. I’m happy that I got some rejection in the first few weeks here. It was good to realize that there’s more to strive for, and things to work towards.”
After the audition, Skip Smith went up to Nick and gave him a mysterious hint that he should show up in the same place the next day with his trumpet. So Nick went back the next day and realized that he was there to audition for the SCAM ensemble. The SCAM ensemble is the other of the two best R&B ensembles at Berklee, and Nick made the cut.
Aside from all of the playing opportunities, Nick takes a tough schedule of classes. He is currently taking 26 credits, which include classes like Ear Training 4, Harmony 3, Arranging 1, Traditional Theory, Intro to Music Tech., and a liberal arts course. “It is a very heavy workload, but I’m really enjoying it and I feel like I’m learning a lot. Music Tech. has been really cool because I’ve been learning how to put my songs into Logic so that I can hear how they sound and then compose more based on that.”
However, when all is said and done, Nick, along with other CNY Jazz alumni in Boston, really misses the CNY scene.
“I don’t know if you know this, but Jared Mulcahy is also at Berklee along with some other guys from the 315. Even though I love Berklee, it’s not the same vibe as CNY. I’m always so happy when I run into Jared because I get a reminder of home.”
Nick will be back in CNY for Thanksgiving break, and he’ll be bringing his performance schedule along for a concert with his father, Gary Frenay and CNY musician George Rossi, also known as “Little Georgie.” The event will be held on November 26 at the Auburn Public Theater and is a rare opportunity to hear the songwriting skills of Gary Frenay and Rossi paired together. Nick will be playing trumpet throughout the show as well as bass on some of his father’s songs.

By Noah Kellman 

www.noahkellman.com

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About the Blog

Dear reader,

My connection to CNY Jazz goes way back to the great year 2002 when I first attended the CNY Jazz Camp over the summer along with my good friend and trumpeter Nick Frenay. I think it’s safe to say that being at the camp that summer changed the entire course of my life. I met many people there who would become very influential to me as both friends and mentors. Two of these people were Joe Colombo and Rick Montalbano.

That summer, Nick and I were both incredibly excited to be meeting Joe, who would become our new band director at Manlius Pebble Hill school that same year. From that year all the way until we graduated high school, the three of us spent time learning and talking about music together on a daily basis. Joe helped us grow from the little jazzers we were into the “grown up” (I can’t help but say that with skepticism) young men that we are now.

I met Rick for the first time at the CNY Jazz Camp concert that year. I remember that after hearing me play he told my mom that I sounded like a professional musician who just didn’t know how to pick the right notes just yet, or something along those lines. When I go back and watch videos from around that time, I know exactly what he meant. I played a thousand notes with the confidence of a jazz master… except that the notes themselves made no sense! Nonetheless, Rick took me on as a student, and until I graduated high school, Rick changed me as a person and as a musician, all for the better.

Along with Rick and Joe, Nick and I had the opportunity to meet Larry Luttinger, the man behind the scenes at the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation. Larry and my family have developed a close relationship over the years, and at this point, the entire CNY Jazz community now feels like my family. My mom, who recently became a member of the Board of Directors at CNY Jazz has always been a strong supporter of the organization, even before becoming officially involved.

As a whole, I feel that it is my duty to highlight and share the many wonderful people and experiences that have resulted and will result out of the Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation. I want this blog to serve as a place where our CNY family can enjoy themselves, keep track of each other, and support a wonderful organization that is constantly improving our lives. I hope to see alumni getting involved with this blog, and I hope to hear from community members and anyone else who desires to offer stories, advice, pictures, videos, or simply comments. This blog is meant to be a CNY family project, so please contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

Noah Kellman