April and May have flown by. I had some wonderful gigs and great experiences with students from both programs this year. In April I performed with the New Jersey City Big Band directed by Ed Joffe and we played at the famous Jazz Vespers Concert Series at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, N.J. The one and only Dorthaan Kirk books this series (long time WBGO artistic counselor). Mark Gross played alto on the concert which really made the music special. Thank you to all the guys who played their best on my charts.
The end of the school year brings a sad goodbye to another extremely talented student, Kristen Dziuba. In the past few years, Kristen has grown into one heck of a great musician, improviser, lyricist and composer/arranger. It's always sad when it's time for a student to move on but this is a teachers job to prepare them to fly on their own.
May also brought a tribute to the great jazz vocalist, Mark Murphy for his 80th Birthday at The Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC. Jean-Pierre LeDuc organized a great group of singers who performed as well as Mark. I sang as well as Dena DeRose, Giacomo Gates, Amy London, Rhiannon, Sachal Vasanandi, Tom Lellis, Tessa Souter and Steve Ross. What a great night it was.
On May 22nd. the NJPAC Jazz for Teens Program had the final concert. I worked with seven kids who have a lot of spunk and heart and talent. They were great in concert and I'll miss the graduates out of the class who will go on to college this next year.
The NJPAC Vocal Jazz Class - 2012...Love you guys..
Watch my website for gigs and new projects. Clare Fischer's son Brent reached out to me recently and I may be doing a new project of Clare's music. What could be cooler than that?
Ro
