Benny Goodman tribute at New Jersey Jazz Fest

Swing jazz is headed for Hackettstown, New Jersey's Centenary Stage in the form of a Benny Goodman Tribute from the Stan Rubin Orchestra.

Stan Rubin will  make his way to the Centenary Stage to lead the Benny Goodman Tribute on Saturday, January 12 at 8 P.M.,  when the Stan Rubin Orchestra arrives with  its 15 piece big band to launch the January Jazz Fest in Hackettstown.

Bandleader, conductor, and clarinetist,  the legendary Benny Goodman is  synonymous with swing and big band jazz orchestra. With a career spanning over 50 years, Goodman worked with such legendary jazz performers such as Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Mildred Bailey, Bessie Smith and countless others. His following of fans and music enthusiasts has kept Benny Goodman’s name and legend an ever-present staple in jazz and swing music.

Celebrating the life and music of Benny Goodman is the acclaimed Stan Rubin Orchestra featuring bandleader, Herb Gardner. Stan Rubin, widely known as the foremost preserver of the swing style, enjoys his strong roots in the state of New Jersey, from his early days at Blair Academy in Blairstown, to his graduation from Princeton University, where the jazz band he started when he didn’t make the basketball team was eventually invited to perform for Grace Kelly’s wedding to the Prince of Moraco, which changed everything for Rubin.

Rubin  has invested $300,000 of his own money into a library of swing, a collection of the arrangements played by the likes of Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Harry James and a half-dozen others who swung America from the 1930s into the early 50s.
"The beauty of big-band swing is that it combines musical structure with improvisation, the hallmark of jazz, but swing doesn't abandon the melody like some modern jazz”– Stan Rubin
Bandleader Herb Gardner has performed with a renown roster of jazz luminaries, including Wynton Marsalis, Doc Cheatham, Max Kaminsky, Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge and more.  He  toured with popular jazz performers Wild Bill Davison, Kenny Davern and Dick Wellstood.    While serving as co-leader of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, Gardner played at George Bush’s inauguration and Bill Clinton’s victory party.

Tickets for the Benny Goodman Tribute with Stan Rubin Orchestra are about $ 27.50 in advance, with discounts for seniors and students.   A January Jazz Fest “Flex Pass”, offered at $66,  is available for all three concerts, which includes The Kathy Kosins Trio tribute “To the Ladies of Cool” on January 19, and  The Hot Club of Detroit on Jan 26.

Tickets are available through the Centenary Stage Company box office at 715 Grand Avenue, open 1-5 p.m. Monday through Friday and two hours prior to each performance. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.centenarystageco.org or by calling the box office at 908-979-0900. The venue is about one hour west of Manhattan via U.S. 80.

Four Freshmen headline New Jersey jazz series in July

The Four Freshmen

The season of swing returns with gusto to Hackettstown, New Jersey, this summer when the 2011 Jazz in July Series  comes to the Centenary Stage with a line-up of Big Band, Dixieland, Swing and incomparable harmonies of The Four Freshmen.  

The series kicks off on July 9^th with the Rob Stoneback Big Band.   Boasting  17 instrumentalists and two vocalists, the Rob Stoneback Big Band  has performed throughout the Mid Atlantic region, often appearing with such luminaries as The Manhattan Transfer, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis, Natalie Cole and Rosemary Clooney, to name just a few.  Playing a program of great standards and current hits, this dynamic band celebrates thirty years in the business this season.   The Rob Stoneback Big Band will perform  on Saturday, July 9^th at 8 PM in the Sitnik Theater of the new David and Carol Lackland Center on the campus of Centenary College.  Tickets are $25 in advance and $30  on the day of performance.

Celebrating the music of the great two-tenor team,  Zoot Sims (‘Brother of Swing’) and Al Cohn, The Al and Zoot Tribute Band will perform on Saturday, July 16 at 8 PM.   It was the appearance of the Sims-Cohn Quintet that is reported to have changed the fortunes of the legendary Half Note jazz club in lower Manhattan.  Lines formed outside the club on Saturday nights to hear the two tenors’ free-wheeling, hard-booting,  joyous brand of music.    Tenors Lew DelGatto & Bob Keller breathe new life into the memory of the popular  group, backed by Jesse Green on piano, Tony Marino on bass, and Tom Whaley on drums.   Lew DelGatto has been a dynamic figure in the music scene for over 30 years, and colleague Bob Keller has been playing in the jazz scene for over 50 years, with such great big bands as The Buddy Rich Jazz Orchestra, and  Chuck Israel's National Jazz Ensemble.  Drummer Tony Marino’s notable performance career includes a musical stint with the late Al Cohn & Zoot Sims.    Tickets are $22.50 in advance and $27.50 on the day of performance.

Headlining the 2011 Series on July 23^rd will be the incomparable ensemble, The Four Freshmen, the group which pioneered a revolutionary new style of close-harmony vocals that set the stage for bands like the Beach Boys, Spanky & Our Gang, the Hi-Lo's, the Manhattan Transfer and countless others.   The Freshmen’s characteristic sound married tight harmonies with a lush improvisatory style, and while the names and faces have evolved along the way,  the legendary sound has continued, winning the group a ranking of #1 in both  the Downbeat Magazine and Jazz Times poll (2007)for “Best Vocal Group. ”  

With  smooth vocals and the musical mastery of nearly a dozen instruments between them, the contemporary group not only preserves the Freshmen sound, but enhances it with youth, vitality and talent,  giving a new treatment to the Great American Songbook.     The Four Freshman features Curtis Calderon (vocals and trumpet), Vince Johnson (vocals and bass), Bob Ferreira (vocals and drums), and Brian Eichenberger (vocals and guitar ).  At this performance, the group will also be backed by five swinging trombones.   Tickets for the 8 PM performance of The Four Freshman are $35 in advance and $42.50 at the door, on the day of performance. 

The high-energy, toe-tapping sound of New Orleans jazz will fill the Lackland Center when Clarinetist Dan Levinson leads a Dixieland Bash on Saturday, July 30 at 8 PM.    A specialist in traditional jazz and swing,  Levinson is one of the most prolific musicians on the contemporary scene, equally at home as a leader and sideman.   During a twenty-year career, he has appeared alongside such prominent artists as Dick Hyman, Mel Tormé and Wynton Marsalis.   The Dixieland Bash band includes Levinson on clarinet, Randy Reinhart on coronet, Jim Fryer on trombone, Mark Shane on piano, Brian Nalepka on bass and special guest Stephane Seva on washboard.    The band will perform on Saturday, July 30 at 8 PM.  Tickets are $22.50 in advance, and $27.00 at the door on the day of performance. 

A special subscription package, which includes all four concerts in the festival, is available for $95 and can be purchased through the Centenary Stage Company Box office at 908-979-0900, or online at www.centenarystageco.org.   Patrons may also purchase tickets directly at the Carol and David Lackland Center Box Office, located at 715 Grand Ave in Hackettstown.     Students under age 18 receive a special discounted ticket price for all jazz events.

Jazz in July is made possible through the leadership of Ed Coyne (Chair of the Centenary Stage Company Advisory Board) and Coyne Enterprises, with the additional support of Heath Village and Skylands Community Bank.   The Centenary Stage Company is a not-for-profit performing arts series, in residence at Centenary College, dedicated to serving as a cultural resource for audiences of the Skylands region with professional music, theatre and dance events and arts education programs throughout the year.   All programs at the Centenary Stage Company are made possible in part through the visionary support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, as well as CSC sponsors Heath Village (platinum sponsor),  Panther Valley Pharmacy, Skylands Community Bank, and Hackettstown Regional Medical Center. 

NEW THEATRE:  Performances at the Centenary Stage Company enjoy their new residence in the state-of-the-art theatres of  the new Carol and David Lackland Center, opened just 9 months ago in Hackettstown.  Hailed as the most sophisticated performing arts venue in northwest New Jersey, the center includes the new 500-seat Sitnik Theater,  The Edith Bolte Kutz black box theater, a dance studio, as well as  WNTI, the College’s NPR affiliate station, and CCTV, Centenary’s Comcast-licensed television studio.   Named in honor of Carol Burgess Lackland, A Centenary graduate (Class of 1954), and her husband, David A. Lackland, a Centenary College Trustee, The David and Carol Lackland Center, has been designed to enrich student life and bring new cultural opportunities to northwest New Jersey.

Guitarist Jack Wilkins plays Van Heusen's "Here's That Rainy Day"

Guitarist Jack Wilkins plays Jimmy Van Heusen's great American songbook classic "Here's That Rainy Day."

Centenary Stage Company will  present a special Valentine’s Day treat when guitarist Jack Wilkins performs with his Trio in the new Edith Bolte Kutz Theater of the David and Carol Lackland Center on the campus of Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, Sunday, Feb 13 at 2 PM.


     A legend amongst jazz guitar fans,  Wilkins’ career spans several decades, performing with everyone from Sarah Vaughan to Mel Torme, Phil Woods , Bob Brookmeyer and Charles Mingus to the Brecker Brothers. He is known for a flawless technique and imaginative chordal approach.

Wilkins is one of the most accomplished guitarists around, playing with such angularity as to stay on the edge, as well as  creating fluid lines that seem to flow from a horn rather than a stringed instrument. Wilkins has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts for his work and contribution to the guitar.

JACK WILKINS

 The Centenary Stage Sunday  performance will feature special guest Tony Signa on flute, with Steve LaSpina on bass and Jeff Hirshfield on drums.  Signa has been on the jazz scene in and around N.Y.C. for over 30 years, and in addition to performing at places such as the Blue Note, the "new" Birdland, and the "old" Village Gate, he has been a featured performer on live broadcasts on WNEW and WBGO Radio.
LaSpina has toured and recorded with Phil Woods, Stan Getz, Clark Terry and Chet Baker, and traveled the world with legendary guitarist Jim Hall.  Hirshfield, who is said to “dance on the drums” [ Boston Globe], has performed with the Woody Herman Orchestra, and enjoyed extensive touring throughout  the U.S., Europe, and the world, performing in many of the major jazz and music festivals around the world.

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