AI-generated transcript of Medford Jazz Festival 2024 - Friday Aug 16th

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[Elton]: is to provide a welcoming, accessible, and inclusive space to enjoy, engage, and have a diversity of the arts and cultural experiences. And this is only possible through the involvement of everybody in our community, so thank you. I wish there were more of you, but there isn't. That's fine. A big shout out and thank you to Jonathan for bringing this program here. And this is the other thing that was starred that I have to say. Tonight I'm very excited to let you know that one of our initiatives is to increase accessibility resources to all of the musicians in this area. So in two weeks we will be announcing the launch of our music program campaign. and to begin an effort to raise $15,000, which isn't all that much in the big scheme of things, to support the success of local musicians in this space. This will include a creation of a music rehearsal room for music lessons, jam sessions, and podcasting. This will also allow us to pay a local musician to create live music for our community, but it needs your support to make it happen. The other shout out was, if you notice on the on the all around the walls here is the most beautiful work. And it's like a fire sale. It's Will Tenney. And if you would like to purchase anything, it's an incredibly, incredibly well priced and all sales provide income for ACM and cachet. So we're a big shout out Fiona. Who's in the back will be doing all those financial transactions with ease and speed. So I just wanted to let you know about that. I think that's about everything else she wanted me to read. Oh, no, there's one more thing, and that is sign up for our newsletter. You can sign up for the cache newsletter over here and the back there with you, Fiona, the newsletter for ACM. Yes, and a lot more stuff. So go pick up the paperwork and enjoy tonight.

[Fagan]: I'm just going to use this in case there's anybody watching on the live stream. First of all, big shout out, thanks to Luke over there from Medford Community Media. He's waving. You can't see him because he's behind the camera. And also to my dad, Avi Fagan, who's been providing a lot of the sound support for this whole weekend of music. Just a couple other individuals before, I know these guys have been waiting for a little bit, but there are actually a lot of people, more than ever this year, that have kind of come together to make this thing happen. First of all, to our student volunteers, Eitan Ko, over there, and to Fiona from Arts Collaborative Medford, yes. Arts Collaborative Medford. There are too many Medford arts organizations that all have very similar sounding names. So also to my partner, Shayla, who put together the awesome programs you have here. And to a couple other folks who aren't here tonight, but I'm going to mention them for the video anyway. To our former Poet Laureate at Medford, Terry Carter. for he's going to be emceeing everything on Saturday and Sunday. He does an awesome job, and he's also part of the Ally Project, which is a band that I'm in. We'll be playing tomorrow at the West Medford Community Center from 1 to about 2.30. And also to our organizational sponsors. Oh, I'm sorry, just a couple other individuals who have donated for this year. Susan Klein, Steve Shulman, and also Ken Krause, who runs an amazing calendar as part of Cache. It's got all of the different arts things that are going on across the city. So if you're looking for things to do, there's never a good reason to be bored around here, especially now. To all of our Patreon members who have just continued to donate. Patreon is like a monthly subscription, but even a couple dollars goes a long way. We do jam sessions almost every month, and those are the people that allow us to make that happen. Last, organizational sponsors. We've got the Medford Arts Council, the Arts Alive Medford Foundation, who have both provided us grants of the support this year, to Berkeley's Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Arts Collaborative Medford, which is this space, the West Medford Community Center, and then last, to Members Plus Credit Union, to Triangle Manor, the t-shirt company that we used this year, to Gnomon Copy and Print, which helped us create these beautiful programs. And two, of course, Medford Community Media. So it really, it takes a whole community to run an event like this. And we've had a lot of support this year, which is exciting. So I'm going to turn it over to these guys. These musicians are all part of Morningside Music Studio, which is run by Dan Fox. Dan is taking a well-deserved vacation. right now. But he is quite busy. Many great jazz ensembles with some really amazing creative voices. And so I'm going to turn it over to them. They can introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about what they're going to play, if you like. I looked at the set list they sent me last night, and it looks really interesting. So the Morningside Music Studio All-Stars.

[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you, Jonathan. It's an honor to be front-ending this fantastic festival. Third year now, or second? Well, more than that, but it's been virtual. It's been virtual, and rising up after the pandemic. So we're going to play, what, seven or eight tunes tonight, and I'll introduce the group a little later on. Thank you. That was a tune called Biru Kirisai by the great and unfortunately late Jim Rotondi, a great jazz trumpet player who passed on July 8. Yes, unexpectedly. I'm going to take us back in time a little bit with a standard. You're my everything, everything, everything. Hey, we're starting to fill out. Almost standing room. We have Santiago Hernandez on the drums, hailing from Weymouth. Mike Travisano on the bass from Carlisle, with a significant representation in the audience. Thank you. Jeff Hopwood. from Norwood, Needham on keys. Mike Zack from Belmont. Oh, Watertown? I thought it was Belmont on tenor. And I'm Peter Oren on trumpet from Belmont. All right. I'm going to go back in time. You can't do a set these days without a Wayne Shorter tune. And this is called Backstage Sally. I suddenly didn't need the light on my stand for some reason. I thought we were in a dark and intimate jazz club. Anybody know who wrote some other time? Leonard Bernstein. I could do it all. Until we get the hook, we're going to keep playing. I know he's got a big hook somewhere. Another great tune by Jim Rotondi, great trumpeter, called Pete's 32. One, two, one, two. Thank you. Pete's 32. 32 bars.

[SPEAKER_06]: Sounds like what I did last night. 32 bars in one night.

[SPEAKER_07]: Good thing his son isn't here.

[SPEAKER_06]: It is mid-August.

[SPEAKER_07]: Best thing for you. Is it the best thing for you or the best thing for you is me?

[SPEAKER_06]: Best thing for you is me. Thank you. Well, depends on the context, I guess.

[SPEAKER_07]: Irving Berlin. All right, we're going to wrap it up with a little New York attitude here on a steamy evening in Medford. New York attitude by Kenny Barron. Kenny Barron. And again, Santiago Hernandez on the drums. Mike Travisano on bass. Jeff Hopwood on the keys. Professor Mike Zach on the tenor. Master's degree on the trumpet, Peter Horn. Thank you. We are the Morningside All Stars. We made the big journey over from our Arlington hub. Thank you so much to Jonathan and his team and the festival for having us here tonight.

[Fagan]: Oh, that's a wonderful mix of tunes, you guys. Thank you so much. Again, the Morningside All Stars. You said it a little questioningly. I wouldn't put it that way. You guys sound great. So we have some time before the Achilles Heel Sax Quartet is going to close things out. Why don't we take another 5, 10 minutes now just to refresh, grab a beverage or a snack or something if you want, and then we'll do a little bit of jamming. I know, for right now, I just see a bunch of other piano players in the audience, which is not exactly a shock, knowing that it's me who's organizing this. But yeah, we'll have some time to just have a few people sit in, and then we'll be back for the Achilles Heel Sax Quartet. All right. Yeah, so I think we're going to start with Gail here, sitting in with the rest of the band. And actually, Joe, do you want to play melodica?

[SPEAKER_05]: I think the chorus and the harmony. Apparently, ever since like the 40s or 50s, it was like a really popular educational tool in Japan. Like every single child got one. Oh, that's great. Because it teaches you keyboard skills.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, it's fantastic. I'm not sure. Yeah, we have this great song. We have song flute. Yeah, I had a recorder. A recorder was like a dumbed-down recorder. It was like a ten-whistler. So she's making sure when she does it, I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's a B-flat.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, that's a B-flat. Uh-oh, okay. This is a bass.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's so great. do

[SPEAKER_05]: And I think when they get out of tune, they get in there and file the reads and stuff. The key has a reed, and when you press the key, it opens a hole so that the air can vibrate the reed. Oh, that's right, because you're blowing into it. Yeah, right.

[Fagan]: You know there will never be another you? Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: OK. I was just practicing that this week.

[Fagan]: Oh.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just going to give this to you? Sure. Here.

[SPEAKER_06]: I'm going to do like three tunes that I know by heart in my life, and you've got to be one of them.

[SPEAKER_03]: Is there another pianist? Okay, okay. John, you play.

[Fagan]: Alright so thank you again to the Morningside All Stars for serving as our house band. And to everybody who sat in, it's always a great time, it's part of our tradition, well I guess a tradition we started with the Medford Jazz Festival of hosting jam sessions every Well, not every month, but every month that we can, usually at the West Medford Community Center, so I'm very excited that we've gotten to get a taste of that here. Let's take 10 or 15 minutes, just reset for the Achilles Heel Sax Quartet, and then I'll be back to introduce them in, well, in 10, 15 minutes. So now, I'm really glad to introduce Kathy Olson and this group, the Achilles Heel, H-E-A-L, right? Okay. Quartet, see, so there's a little bit of wordplay that I have to acknowledge right off the bat. It sounds like they're going to do a bunch of interesting saxophone quartet arrangements, and they are featuring Diane Wernick, Rick Stone, and Sean Berry, and along with Kathy Olson. So please, a warm Medford welcome to them, and I'll let them tell you what they're going to play.

[Achilles Heal Saxaphone Quartet]: All right, that first piece was standard, actually. I think it's the only one we're doing tonight, but it was called Did I Do. That was one of my arrangements. This group actually plays music by both folks in the group and also by some of our favorite friends and composers. So this next tune is written by a friend of mine, Dylan Foley, who I used to play in a band with for quite a long time. And I just really love his writing. So he wrote this one for us. It's called Rally the Synesthetes.

[SPEAKER_03]: do do do do

[Achilles Heal Saxaphone Quartet]: All right, next up we have a tune by a friend of mine named Tom Hoyt-Natsky. He actually wrote us a whole suite of pieces. We're just gonna play sort of one from the suite, and this is called Chick Cotta. It's spelled like Chick Corea. Okay, here we go. Oh, and let's applaud Diane for switching back and forth between soprano and alto. All right, next up we have another one of my tunes. This is actually called Achilles Heel, which I guess is where we got our name. And I hope you enjoy it. It's got kind of an interesting groove. It's a little like lopsided, like if you had ruptured your Achilles. But yeah, it's gonna feature, or that last one featured Rick and Diane. And this one's gonna feature me and Rick. So this next one is written by my dear friend Ein. And we haven't actually played it in a while. This is one of the first pieces that we played many, many years ago when we started the group. But we're going to kind of revisit it today for the first time in a while. I think this is Diane's first time performing this one. Anyway, the name of the tune is called The Wrath of the Seagull, and it's a little bit programmatic. So Ayn is a great traveler. She loves traveling the world. And this kind of came from a little visit to Venice. So I'm just going to read a little bit about what she said. So from Ayn's perspective, she says, we were walking into Venice along a small canal. It was a very beautiful morning, very sweet and pretty. We were walking over a bridge when I saw a pigeon fly into a wall. It tumbled down into the canal, and I went over to the edge to take a look at it. Then, out of nowhere, the seagull went over my head, swooping down on the pigeon. The seagull grabbed the pigeon's neck with its beak and started suffocating it. The pigeon was thrashing in the water, and the seagull had the beadiest, most evil eyes I've ever seen. Then the pigeon stopped, uh, thrashing and the seagull dragged it away into a hole in the side of a building and began to consume it. Okay, so that's, that's kinda... Okay, so you can imagine that story as you're listening to it and see if you can figure out where the seagull and the pigeon come into play. Gone. Forever. okay it's it sounded like you figured out who was the pigeon at least so okay next up um we're gonna do a piece uh by a wonderful musician named randy pingray who's also my husband so i might be a little bit biased but uh he writes great music for this group for all sorts of other groups i have a also a a group where he plays trombone and I play bari sax and we have bass and drums and he writes for that. And he has a big band actually, he's got a concert coming up in the... in a few weeks. So anyway, this piece is called Parfrees Glen. He's from Wisconsin, and this is sort of a place that his parents would kind of bribe him to go by calling it the gummy bear forest. Anyway, but he kind of didn't like to go hiking as a kid, but he loves it now. And anyway, this piece for him kind of brings up nice memories of going for hikes with his family growing up. All right, here we go. Okay, so this next piece is by another friend of mine, Danny Fratina. He's also an excellent composer. He has kind of been living in another city at this point, but he wrote this piece for us. And it's also in kind of an interesting time signature. And yeah, we just really love playing Danny's music. So I hope you enjoy it. This is called Hebdomad.

[SPEAKER_03]: do do

[Achilles Heal Saxaphone Quartet]: Okay, next up we have another one of my tunes. This is called Reverie. It's kind of makes you feel a little bit like you're in a dream. And it's going to kind of feature us soloing sort of together, which is kind of a nice thing for this group. Everyone is so sensitive and listens to each other. And I hope you enjoy it. This is called, again, Reverie.

[SPEAKER_03]: do do do do do

[Achilles Heal Saxaphone Quartet]: Okay, next up we have another tune by Randy Pingray. Actually, it's sort of a reimagination of the tune I Love You by Cole Porter. So, let's see if you can hear the tune at all. But I just wanted to say again how much fun it is playing with this group, such great saxophone players. And we have Rick Stone on alto saxophone. He also wrote some of the tunes. I think we haven't done one of Rick's yet, but we're gonna do a few of Rick's tunes later today as well. Also Sean Berry on tenor saxophone. And Diane Wernick doing double duty on soprano and alto saxophone.

[Elton]: Kathy Elton.

[Fagan]: All right, I know these guys have a couple more tunes for you, but in the meantime, just wanted to give you a preview of what's coming up tomorrow at the West Medford Community Center, the Ally Project, and Berkeley's Institute of Jazz for Gender Justice. It's gonna be great shows featuring poet Terry Carter and great piano player Anastasia Petrova. So please come out if you're, oh, someone knows her. There we go. We all know her. Okay. Right. And see, Berkeley seems to be the unifying force. Second, please, I know this is a free event to the public, but if you like what you hear, please consider dropping a few dollars into our donation bin. There's also conveniently a Venmo link in your program this year. So if you prefer to donate that way. really it does take an entire community of support in order to sustain what we're doing here. But with that said, thanks again to Achilles Heel. These guys are great, right? We like them? Yes. And thank you also to Arts Collaborative Medford for hosting us tonight. It is really special to be in this space. hoping many more jazz concerts to come here. So with that said, I'll turn it over to them, play a couple more tunes for you.

[Achilles Heal Saxaphone Quartet]: All right, so as before mentioned, we're going to play one of Rick Stone's tunes. This is called Reunion. And this group, actually, since Sean kind of lives in New York, and we have, you know, gigs kind of sporadically throughout the year, and all of us play in lots of other groups. But this is a group where we all get to play together, and it always kind of feels like a little reunion whenever we do have a concert. Here we go, Reunion. Okay, and in the audience, actually, we have one of our friends and composers who wrote this next piece that we're gonna play. Jim Ripa is here. He's also a saxophone player, and he does a great job writing for Saxophone Quartet, and it's our pleasure to play this piece called Stone's Love Away. It's actually a contra fact on sweet and lovely, and we hope that you enjoy it.

[SPEAKER_03]: do do

[Achilles Heal Saxaphone Quartet]: Okay, so we have two more, I guess, for you. This one is another one of Rick Stone's. Did you have anything you wanted to say about that? He's consistent. I always ask him at least once during the concert if he wants to say anything, but this is a really fun tune. I always kind of think of like Mortal Kombat or something when we're playing this. But anyway, I hope you enjoy it. It's called Repetition, and again, it's by Rick Stone. Okay, so we have one more piece for you. This is another one of Rick's tunes. It's called, Everything's Fine, or you could also interpret it, Everything's Fine. So, however you're feeling at the moment.

[Elton]: There's some things coming up that might determine that feeling.

[Achilles Heal Saxaphone Quartet]: Hopefully everything's fine, right? Everything's fine, okay. And again, I'd just like to introduce Rick Stone on alto saxophone. All the way from New York City, Sean Berry on tenor sax. Diane Wernick on soprano and alto saxophones. And I'm Kathy Olson playing bari sax.

[Fagan]: All right, the Achilles heel saxophone quartet. And I'll assure you that no real pigeons were harmed, by the way, in the creation of this particular program. But no, thank you all seriously. Such a delight to have you open the weekend for us. And please come back on Saturday or Sunday, or even both, if you can. Thanks again to our sponsors, to everybody who helped out behind the scenes tonight, to Arts Collaborative Medford. Have a great night, and I hope to see you again soon. There's actual quartets.



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