The Jazz Voyager
Returning from abroad the Jazz Voyager is landing in Miami, Florida and heading to Coral Gables for a little bit of jazz at Sanctuary of the Arts. Known to present world-class national and international talent, they support and strengthen existing small and medium arts organizations, and support the next generation of young artists with an array of mentorship opportunities, including strategic planning, development, production, rehearsal and performance space.
This week, presented for our pleasure is drummer and composer Ari Hoenig. After his university matriculation he soon found himself playing for legendary Philadelphia organist Shirley Scott and working regularly in New York City. He has gone on to record several albums as a leader and sideman and is an educator in his own right.
The Sanctuary is located at 410 Andalusia Avenue, 33134. For more information contact the venue at https://www.sanctuaryofthearts.org.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marc Hoffman was born April 16, 1961 in Salisbury, North Carolina. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and received a degree in composition. He continued his education at The Dartington International Summer School of Music in Devon, England then studied film composition at the University of Southern California. He studied with David Ott, Sherwood Shaffer, Leo Arnaud and Neil Hefti.
Up until the early 1990s Hoffman wrote concert music, music for theater, pop, Christian music and film composition. Then he focused his attention on jazz and began writing original compositions, both instrumental and vocal, creating his own arrangements of jazz standards. Establishing his own label, Virillion Music, he recorded Long Way Home in 2003 followed by his sophomore album Christmas Time. In 2010 he released Curioso of all-original jazz.
As an educator and author he teaches and lectures on classical, pop and film music and has published two books. He also is an instructor of piano, composition, and voice at Bold Music in the Charlotte, NC area.
Pianist, composer and vocalist Marc Hoffman continues to write concert music, instrumental and vocal jazz pieces, film scores, as well as performing works solo, or with his trio, quartet or quintet and with four- or five-piece bands in a variety of venues.
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The Jazz Voyager
From Nashville to Bern the Jazz Voyager is crossing the pond once more to sit in the audience at Marians Jazzroom. The venue’s 126 seats offers a guarantee of a musical experience in authentic ambience within the harmonious interior reminiscent of a New York jazz club.
But before I take in some jazz, I’m arriving early in the day and this jazz voyager will be checking out the Bear Park, Museum of Communications, the Clock Tower, and the Einstein Museum.Catching Grammy winner Bill Charlap on the third evening of his five-day engagement will be a treat, especially witnessing for the first time the talents of saxophonist Nicole Glover. She’s a member of Ursa Major led by bassist Christian McBride and leads her own quartet. This isn’t the first time these two have paired up for this
The jazzroom is located at Engestrasse 54, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. For more information contact the venue at https://www.mariansjazzroom.ch.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerzy “Duduś” Matuszkiewicz was born on April 10, 1928 in Jasło, Poland and began playing jazz as a youth. He founded a jazz club at the YMCA in Kraków, Poland at age 20. and played with the orchestra of Kazimierz Turewicz.
A music enthusiasts club, Melomani, was founded in 1947 at the Łódź YMCA, a hang-out of nonconformist thinkers during the late 1940s. Moving to Łódź, Poland to study at the new Łódź Film School, he became part of the club and joined the sessions. After only a few concerts, the YMCA was closed due to promoting imperialist ideology using jazz music.
Jerzy founded and led a band in 1950, playing saxophones and clarinet with Marek Szczerbiński-Sart, trumpeter Andrzej “Idon” Wojciechowski, drummer Witold “Dentox” Sobociński, Marian and Tadeusz Suchocki and pianist Andrzej Trzaskowski and bassist Witold Kujawsk. Being separated from Western jazz by the Stalinist regime, they played a repertoire that did not compare to Western standards.
The band was offered space to practise at the Film School, performed informal concerts at the Film School, as well as in bars and private events, once a week. When they received an invitation to play a concert in Warsaw, Poland at the Academy of Fine Arts, they named themselves Melomani.
In 1952, pianist Krzysztof Komeda joined the band and expanded their performance reach. They played at the first jazz festival in Sopot, Poland in 1956. 1958 saw them as the first Polish jazz band invited to perform at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. The group disbanded that same year.
Until 1964 he performed both in Poland and abroad. The following year he began to mainly compose and conduct music for movies and commercials. Moving to Warsaw with his wife, Grażyna, saxophonist, pianist, composer and bandleader Jerzy Matuszkiewicz died on July 31, 2021 at 93.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Mesterhazy was born April 8, 1954 in Hungary and came to the United States with his family when they fled Hungary following their country’s 1956 revolution. Settling first in upstate New York, they later moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey where he first played guitar and trumpet.
Switching to piano he became a professional musician, relocated to Los Angeles, California but eventually became well known in the area of Cape May, New Jersey.
Mesterhazy had recently released a new album with singer Paula West, Live at Jazz Standard, and the pair was scheduled to play the New York club together in May.
He was nominated for a Grammy for his arranging work on Shirley Horn’s 1997’s Loving You album, on which he also played. George also played with Les Paul, Bernadette Peters and others.
At Rowan University he ran the jazz piano program, taught privately and managed Cape May’s Merion Inn. Pianist and composer George Mesterhazy died quietly in his sleep at his home in Cape May on April 11, 2019 of natural causes. He was 59.
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