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[SPEAKER_01]: All right, check, check. Can everybody hear me, first of all? Yes, I think so. Welcome to the 2024 Medford Jazz Festival finale, I guess. This is our last of three days. I'm just so excited to be here at the West Medford Community Center, which Terry's gonna tell you a little bit more about that, because it truly is a historic space. There's a lot of history here right on the Mystic River, and we've been doing this festival here for the last three years, though this is actually year five, hard to believe. of this particular kind of configuration of things. It started in 2020 as a virtual festival, and it's just grown a little bit every year. And now there are a lot of people helping out behind the scenes with it. So I just, before we get into anything else, want to take a minute and thank them. Let's just go in order here. We have Galel and Avi Fagan doing the sound today. We have Medford Community Media and Kevin Harrington. We're there, waving to you. At the table, I've had a student, I've been very lucky this year to have a student volunteer helping out every day. So today, one of my piano students, Alex Eckford, is at the table. So ask him for things if you need them. And also, of course, to my partner, Shayla McDermott, who is responsible for the beautiful programs that are finally there this year. Which is great. So if you feel like you enjoy something about an artist that you hear, please just flip to that page in the program. It's got links to all of their websites and bios and other projects as well. And most of all, I think thank you to Terry Carter, who is going to be kind of the master of ceremonies. This afternoon, he works over here at the West Medford Community Center. You may have heard him yesterday as part of the Ally Project. He's the former Poet Laureate of the city of Medford, and has written six books, going on seven at this point. A lot of interesting material about everything from sports to social justice, and I'm sure he would be happy to talk more about that. Okay, and last, just to our organizational sponsors. First of all, to all the individuals who donated, Susan Klein, Steve Shulman, and Ken Krause this year, along with all of our longtime Patreon members. Patreon is a subscription service, you know, we all have too many of them anyway, so what's one more? Just a couple dollars a month, it really does make a big difference. It allows us to put on our jam session series, which has been about once a month for the last couple of years now. It's a good opportunity for student musicians, to interact with professionals, and just to explore this space once again. We're hoping this coming year to do some of them at Arts Collaborative Medford, which is a brand new gallery space that opened up on Mystic Ave. So please check those out if you haven't, and consider donating to that page, because it really does sustain all of the stuff that we do. And last, to our organizational sponsors. Oh, and I should mention along those lines, I'm sorry. there is a conveniently placed donate link at the bottom of your program. One is to that Patreon page, and then also there is a one-time Venmo link as well. So if you like what you hear, it is a free public event, but free events are not truly free, and so consider dropping a few dollars into that. Lastly, though, to our organizational sponsors, first and foremost to the West Medford Community Center. This is an amazing space. They've been so lovely to work with and so aligned with our mission, and we hope that we can be even more aligned with theirs going forward. They're launching some really exciting campaigns coming up. Terry and Lisa can tell you way more about that. To the Medford Arts Council, which has been a huge supporter over the last several years. To the Arts Alive Medford Foundation. To Berkeley's Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, who played yesterday, they were phenomenal. To the West, oh, to Arts Collaborative Medford, that space that I was just referring to. To Morningside Music Studio, who sent a student ensemble. Audience Sound Company, over there. to Members Plus Credit Union, to Triangle Manor, which is a really great t-shirt company in the city of Medford. They made our t-shirts, and they have a lot of interesting stuff, to Nomen Copy and Print, and also to Medford Community Media. So it's been a true community effort to keep this thing going and to grow it a little bit every year. So please check out all of your local businesses. So with that, I'll hand it over to Terry. He's going to tell you a little bit about this group and just about the community center as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jonathan, and if you wanna give it up while you're doing it, Jonathan Fagan is the founder of the Medford Jazz Festival. We got together about five years ago. He found me and was interested in that intersection between jazz and social justice and as a poet and him as a composer and arranger and pianist extraordinaire. we were able to kind of figure out what we could do together. And so that's how the Ally Project got started. The big bass back there, that's Greg Toro. He's our bassist, and then John is the piano. And John Dalton, a drummer from Arlington, is our rhythm guru. So that band played yesterday. It was hot, I'm just going to say it, if you missed it. There are CDs, as a matter of fact, on the back table. And if you're interested in the CD of our music, it's called the Ally Project. We released it last year. And it's hot, too. But I'm going to get away from that. In any case, this is the backyard of the West Medford Community Center. And this is an institution of West Medford. Next year, we'll be celebrating our 90th year in existence. Started as a little men's club in the late 30s and early 40s. And in the mid 40s, some men from the community actually trucked over in old army barracks from Charlestown, laid a foundation, put the Quonset hut on top of the foundation, and that became the first community center. This is the second building on the site, but in case you were unaware of it, West Medford is one of the oldest historic African American communities in the country, came into an existence. in the 1890s and has a really, really amazing history of achievement. If you go into the building, there are two rows, an upper and a lower. The upper portraits, there's 28 of them, that is the West Medford Elder Photo Project, and those were shakers and movers and builders of the community. And then on the lower portion is the West Method Afro-American Remembrance Project. And that really traces the contemporary history of an amazing community of doers and builders. So if you're interested in that history, and I hope you are, go in and have a look and If you have any questions, you can certainly hit me up or talk with Lisa Crossman. Lisa Crossman back there in a white sweater, she is the executive director of the West Medford Community Center. And really through her leadership, we've really been able to rekindle a lot of wonderful programs. Our young people's programs are kind of up and running through after school. And I direct elder services, so the older folks, they come and see me three days a week. We have lunch, we tell stories, and we keep the history of the community alive. So if you're interested in any of that, you can see either of us. But you didn't come here to, you know, hear me chat, chat, chat. So I want to get to the rat-tat-tat. That's the drummer, obviously. That's a poet thing. You know, we do that a lot. In any case, Jim Repp has been at a couple of our events. He's been at our jazz jams and, you know, he's been a fixture in the Medford Jazz Festival movement. And he brought A no net, okay? That's not something that the fishermen don't get to throw in the ocean. It's a real thing, right? So there's nine folks back here. We didn't even think we'd be able to fit nine folks in this little area, but they're squeezed and scrunched in there pretty good together, and they sound just as good as they look. So I'm going to let Jim introduce the members of the band because I don't have them all written down here and I don't want to do an injustice to anybody. But in any case, it's going to be a great mixture of jazz classics and standards and new music and I'm sure you're going to enjoy it. So without further ado, the Jim Repa Nonet.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Hello. Thanks for coming, everybody. Yeah, this is Arnonet. The soloists on that were Mark Weissman, who is not on your program. Yeah, this is Mark. Yeah, he's filling in for Ed Harlow. He's doing a great job. And Bob Hallfelder on trombone. And I'll announce the rest of the band later. If you've got the program, we're listed except Mark Weisman instead of Ed Harlow. And the next tune we're going to do was arranged by Bob Hallfelder. And this is The River Man. This is our version of that. Thank you. That was Kathy Olson on the baritone sax solo. And she composed and arranged the next song we're playing, Tigert Valley. So it's funny how that works out. You play a solo and then we play your tune. Here we go, Tigert Valley. And that was Kathy Olson again on her composition, Tigert Valley. Also featured Jonathan Fagan on piano. So we'd like to do a our arrangement of a Cedar Walton composition, Dear Ruth. So yeah, this features some flutes and things. And it actually features Jonathan again on piano. So here's Dear Ruth by Cedar Walton. Okay, again, that featured Jonathan Fagan on piano. Hey, Jonathan. So, I haven't announced the rest of the people. Phil Person over on the end there, he was playing flugelhorn on this. Brian Lewis on trumpet. I've mentioned Bob Howlfelder. Barry Litt on drums. Hey, Barry. Greg Toro on bass. And you've heard from this side of the band. The next piece we've got is Red Dot Trail. This is one of my originals. It's based on, well, The title comes from a trail going up to Mount Monadnock. It actually turns out it's Red Spot Trail. And I named this Red Dot Trail. Somebody wrote me an email and said, you got the name wrong. But Red Spot sounds like something out of Hamlet. So we left it as Red Dot Trail. So here's our original version of Red Dot Trail. Thank you for that. That was Mark Weisman on tenor, Jonathan Fagan on piano. You may have noticed we were missing a few beats in these measures here. That was in seven. Okay, now we've got a Thelonious Monk tune featuring our bass player Greg Toro. This is Ask Me Now. Hey, Greg Toro on bass. Let me sit down so you can see him. There he is. We've got another one of my strange compositions. This one is called Monkfish. And actually, there's a restaurant called that. I wrote this before that restaurant existed. But they haven't given me a gig yet. But I'll keep working on it. So here we go, Monkfish.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As soloists, we're Mark Weissman and me. I'm Jim Ripa, Bob Holfelder, Kathy Olson, Barry Litt, and Greg Toro. Now we've got an arrangement by Bob Holfelder. This is a summer breezy tune. It is summer breeze. So it's Bob Holfelder's arrangement of Summer Breeze. Everybody ready?
[SPEAKER_07]: I hope so.
[SPEAKER_05]: That was Bob Hallfelder's arrangement, and that was Bob playing trombone on that. Actually, another soloist was Phil Person, who's over there playing cornet and flugelhorn. He's got his flugelhorn now. So we've got a composition by Phil. This is called First Love. Yeah, that was Phil Person playing Flugelhorn, and his composition, First Love. Okay, yeah, we'll do Minha Sodaje. Okay, next piece we've got is a Brazilian piece by Jao Donato, Minha Sodaje, it's our arrangement of that. I think it means something like my nostalgia. Does anyone speak Portuguese out there? Anyway, Minha Sodaje.
[SPEAKER_07]: Three choruses on this, right? Three people playing? Yeah. What's going on at B?
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's do alto, bari sax, and do piano? The piano's at D, I think. Oh, OK. Let's not do piano there. Want to play one song? OK. OK. So why don't we do alto, trumpet, and bari? OK. Okay, great. That was Phil Person on cornet, Kathy Olson on baritone sax. And we've got our arrangement of a Tom Harrell composition called Train Shuffle. And this is train as in the traveling thing, and not coal train. There's a lot of things called train in the jazz world are spelled T-R-A-N-E. This one is not. This is train, T-R-A-I-N, as in the thing you ride in. So this is Train Shuffle by Tom Harrell. Thank you. Kathy Olson on baritone sax. Mark Weissman on tenor sax. Bob Hallfelder on trombone. Brian Lewis on lead trumpet. Phil Person on cornet and flugelhorn. Barry Litt on drums. Greg Toro on bass. Jonathan Fagan on piano. I'm Jim Ripa. Thank you for coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ladies and gentlemen, give it up once again for the Jim Ripa Nonet. All right, all right. I got to get away from them speakers before Abby kills me. Thank you all for coming out. We've got one more act. They're going to go on at five o'clock. It's Kevin Harris's project and it's going to be a smash. If you're around, you're going to stay in the neighborhood. You can keep your chairs. You can go and come back. We've got snacks in the back. We've got t-shirts for $25. We've got that beautiful Medford Jazz Festival logo on it, designed by Shayla. We've got drinks, water, and sparkling beverages. And we've got ice cream inside. We've got Icee's and we've also got ice cream sandwiches. So if you're interested in any of that stuff, you can come see me. But we're gonna be here, so come on back. And we're happy to be hosting the Medford Jazz Festival at the West Medford Community Center.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: This is one of the best sounding horn mics I have ever heard. Between that and the Warrior 121, which is a... How are they getting feedback on this kind of thing? Wow, this is... Wow, that is...
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, they make them in England. They make them in England, yeah. It took about six months for them to do it. I mean, I ordered them in 2000 when everybody was doing it.
[SPEAKER_07]: But there's a guy in London named Michael Barton. It's a cold 40-30. Batman, let's just do the A part.
[SPEAKER_04]: One, two.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's how it works. Say the same thing about us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, everybody. We are so happy. I know some of you have stayed, and we appreciate your continued patronage. Jim Reaper's group was fantastic. absolutely i mean nine pieces that's about as much as we've ever fit in this area musically and they had a real big band sound it was very very engaging um and we so appreciate them coming out and playing for us today and now we have with us we have See, I'm like really, really geeked up because world-class players, you know, don't come to West Medford all the time. Now, we birthed some world-class players. Terry Lynn Carrington, hint, hint. And we're fond of world-class players. Don't get me wrong. Boston Jazz Society used to have meetings here in Medford. And some of the best jazz musicians in the world used to hang out here and play sets down at Sonny Carrington's house and over at Jimmy Williams' house on Monument Street. So we're used to world-class players. Don't get me wrong. But in contemporary times, to have a Kevin Harris and a Jason Palmer come through is just not going to happen every day. So we are so glad to have them here. The Kevin Harris Project featuring Jason Palmer presents lines, colors, shapes, and spaces unfolding a collage of compositions composed by Kevin and Jason that invite the listener, that's y'all, to explore the power and beauty of seeing the world from different perspectives. And we've actually had a whole weekend starting over at ACM of different perspectives. So Kevin and Jason et al are gonna continue that direction. Joining Kevin and Jason for this musical expedition, Yoni Ben-Eri on acoustic bass. and the esteemable Tyson Jackson on drums. Okay. You are here live and in living color at the West Medford Community Center. Consider yourself privileged and welcome the Kevin Harris Project.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Check, check. Thank you all so much. It truly is a privilege to be here at this festival. This is, as Terry was kind of saying earlier, we don't take for granted when it comes to playing live music, and I certainly don't take for granted when it comes to playing for audiences like yourself, and especially with musicians like these. Y'all please give it up. That's Jason Palmer on the trumpet. On the acoustic bass, that's Yoni Ben-Ari. Y'all give it up one more time. And on drums, holding it down over there, that's Tyson Jackson. Yeah. So one of the very special things about being able to play this music is the fellowship. And there's some history, definitely, that I'd like to share with you all. We all kind of know each other. from overlapping at a jazz club, historical institution in Boston called Wally's Jazz Club. And I think the history kind of starts with Jason playing. Jason, what year did you start playing there, man? 97. Jason started playing at Wally's Jazz Club in 1997. And then at that time, both Jason and I were at the New England Conservatory. And so I was coming down to check the band out. And sometimes it was inspiring, so other times it's intimidating. It was both at the same time a lot. And I had the opportunity to just eventually start playing a lot of the music with those musicians. And then fast forward a few years, we started to play in Jason's band. And then after that, after Jason stopped playing at Wally's, I started playing a lot with these guys also at Wally's. So this is kind of the, you're looking at that kind of Wally's tradition, that swinging tradition that we do not take for granted again. Today, the thought that I had in mind is that in playing this music, I wanted to feature some of the music that Jason has written and also that I have written. It being kind of called, you know, having to deal with lines and colors and spaces. One of the beautiful things we do as human beings is we can accept certain shapes and colors as they're put in front of us. But the beautiful thing about what we do as human beings, we can redefine those shapes and colors. When people put it in front of us, when they tell us life is supposed to be this way, we can redefine it on our own. And so when I kind of put that idea past Jason, Jason already has plenty of tunes. He truly is a consummate composer in his own right. But he just kind of said, hey, man, I got some tunes in the spirit of that vibe. And I did, too. So the tunes we're playing today are kind of in the spirit of redefining. The great Frederick Douglass kind of talks about that. One of the things he says, he considers us poets and prophets that kind of look at reality as it is. And as artists, we get to show the world what it could be and the reflection of what it thinks it is. That's how Frederick Douglass kind of puts it. So we're kind of playing in that spirit. That's what we're going to be doing. We'll play another tune. That first tune that we played is a composition of Jason's called Belmont Stakes. And I'm going to let Jason talk just a little bit about it, and then we're going to do a little bit more playing. I just want to introduce you to this special artist.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, thanks, Kevin. OK, I'll give you my 30-second pitch on that tune. I just wrote it. And I live in a small town about an hour and a half north of here in New Hampshire called Belmont. And I had a dream that I was having a cookout, and Dizzy and Freddie Hubbard were lost. And they got lost, and they just happened upon my house. And they were hungry. And so I was in the middle of cooking, and I was so you know, surprised that they were there. And I told them about my composition woes because I was having writer's block, and they said, okay, let's sit down, I'll help you write this tune. And so what I did is I took the bass line from Manteca, some of y'all probably recognize that, and I put it on this tune, and then there was a blues form that came from a Freddie Hubbard tune called For Spee's Sake, within the form of the improvisational section. So that's the name of the song, Belmont Stakes. So it's kind of a play on words. There's nothing equestrian about it, but yeah, that's that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to play it.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you all. That was a composition of mine called The Lonely Strength. The Lonely Strength. Let me also say that it's also a privilege to play with Tyson and Yoni. We played trio on a few different occasions. So that I'm kind of used to. But when you add Jason to the mix, it's like the amount of trouble, good trouble, good trouble. The amount of good trouble we can get into is just abundant. So it's amazing that we get to do this as professionals. But we still get to call it play. We still get to call it play. So it's definitely a privilege. This next tune we're going to play is a composition of Jason's called, Do You Know Who You Are?
[SPEAKER_06]: speaking of getting in trouble I wrote this song Not too long ago, but it is inspired by an experience I had about 15 years ago. I was walking down the street on Huntington Avenue in Boston. I was going into a market called Thornton's over near the Christian Science Center. And as I was walking in, I thought I heard somebody call my name. And so I turned around. I didn't see anybody. So I continued in the store. And then I bumped into somebody. And I looked. And it was Dr. Cornel West. And at the time, I was really into his books and everything, and been checking out some speeches and everything. So I looked at him, and I was starstruck. And I looked at him with my mouth wide open. I said, do you know who you are? And he looked back at me, and with this big smile, he said, of course, my dear brother. But the question is, do you know who you are? So that's the name of the song, Do You Know Who You Are, a line for Dr. C. West. Right on it, maybe?
[SPEAKER_02]: This next tune we're going to play is a composition of mine called West Bend Prophecies. West Bend is a It's in Kentucky, West Bend, Kentucky. This past weekend was my 160th family reunion. So we go way back, and as you can imagine, just the amount of history, kind of the good, the bad, and the ugly that are told are kind of unsurmountable when it comes to kind of realizing where we come from. And as the great Maya Angelou said, we've already been paid for. And this song is dedicated to the spirit of the family that came before me and before us that allowed us to kind of be where we are right now. So this is West Bend Prophecies. Hope you enjoy it.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, again, give it up for the Kevin Harris Project. Jason Palmer. I'll let these guys close it out in a second. But first, just wanted to say another thank you to them, first of all, for coming and being here with us. I've had the pleasure of knowing Kevin since I was in middle school. Kevin was actually my first jazz piano teacher. And I can't think of anybody better, really. And he's just continued to grow. And I love seeing the projects that he puts together. So this is a real treat for me. And I'm glad that I get to share it with you. On another note, I also want to thank some organizational sponsors too who've made this possible. First of all, the people behind the scenes, Galelle and Avi doing sound and Medford Community Media. over there. We have Terry Carter who's been doing a lot of work to host us here at the West Medford Community Center and also our executive director Lisa who is just wonderful. To all of our volunteers who have helped us throughout the weekend and all of the organizations that have given us grant funding, Medford Arts Council, the Arts Alive Foundation, Berkeley's Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Arts Collaborative Medford, which is where we were on Friday night, along with Morningside Music Studio and Members Plus Credit Union, Triangle Manor, which is another local t-shirt company that's done our t-shirts this year, and Nomen Copy and Print as well, who's helped us with these beautiful programs. So please, if you enjoy what you see, consider donating to support live music and events like this. We should have plenty more coming up in the fall. And also be sure to sign up for our email list. I will put you on there and probably bother you a little bit more than you'd like, but it's still worth it, I assure you. So I'll hand this back over to Kevin. Thanks again for coming. And yeah, stay tuned for more.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you all again for being such a wonderful, beautiful, sincere, intimate audience. I feel like we all in the living room just kind of hanging out, playing some tunes. Again, that's Tyson Jackson on drums. Y'all please give it up. You all can catch many of Tyson's projects. Make sure you follow him. Just kind of be curious. He has a lot of great projects that he's leading in his own right. On the acoustic bass, now residing in New York, as of recent, that's Yoni Ben-Ari. Y'all give it up. Yes. Y'all make sure y'all follow Yoni, too. Yoni's playing with a lot of great musicians and also a great composer in his own right, too. This very special guest and brother of mine, y'all make sure y'all give it up for this wonderful trumpeter, Jason Palmer. Jason Palmer. To keep it short, it's nice to have had fellowship with somebody who just inspires you for so many years, man. This is a very special brother right here. Very special. Very. We're going to play one more tune for you, a composition of Jason Palmer's called Moonlighting.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, yeah. Here's a 20-second elevator pitch on this one. OK, so this one harmonically is inspired by a Moonchild song called The Cure. It was one of my favorite R&B groups. And my daughter, she said to me about a year ago, she said, Daddy, you know, you can read a book by Moonlight. Did you know that? I was like, yeah, I should try that. And so yeah, I kind of put those ideas together and came up with this tune. So yeah, thank you, Kevin. Thank you, everybody here. We love you dearly. And yes, it's been a pleasure. Shout out to Frank Kazira, my college roommates in the house, wonderful saxophone player and his wife. Yes, yes, thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you all. so do do
[SPEAKER_02]: Jason Palmer, Jason Palmer, Tyson Jackson, Yoni Ben-Ari. My name is Kevin Harris. Thank you all so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so did I lie when I said world class? Did I lie? All right, all right, all right. Once again, Jason Palmer on the horn. Kevin Harris on the keys. Yoni Ben-Ari on what I refer to as the big sexy. All right, all right. And Tyson Jackson back here beating those drums like Mike Tyson used to beat up on cats back in the day. Well, that was the heat up. Y'all can go home and cool down. Thank you so much for coming out this early afternoon. We really, really appreciated having you here at the West Medford Community Center where the music and the magic comes together. I wanna thank my friend and my bandmate, Jonathan Fagan. He's gonna come up and he's gonna thank everybody else. But I just wanted to let you know that we really, really appreciate you coming here. We appreciate you. getting a sense of the history and we hope that we've done enough tonight to get you to come back again. Jonathan Fagan, the founder of the Medford Jazz Festival.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Terry beat me to it, really. It's such a pleasure to see everybody. This has grown in so many ways over the last few years. This is our third year doing it here at the Community Center, and every single time I meet so many great people, some of whom say they live so close by, and there's such world-class talent around here. There truly is. Thank you so much to Kevin and Jason and Tyson and Yoni. This has been really special to have you guys here. Always love hearing what you do and just kind of bringing together a community around this music, which is such special. Yeah, it's just such special work. It reflects Well, it reflects so much about what this community center is about and what you're about. And it's just very inspiring for all of us. So thank you. And stay tuned, please, for more events upcoming from Medford Jazz. And we'll hope to see you sometime again soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right. As they used to say after the party, y'all ain't got to go home, but you got to get the heck up out of here. Thank you. Thank you again.