August is shaping up to be a pretty hot jazz month in the Orange County, NY, town of Warwick, NY, just over the border from Vernon, NJ.
On Sunday afternoon, August 11, the Albert Wisner Public Library will be presenting a trio from the Hudson Valley Jazzwomen, a collective of female jazz musicians appearing throughout the Hudson Valley. On piano is Sarah Jane Cion (photo above), who according to a January 2010 article in the Star-Ledger, took a hiatus from her jazz career to raise a family. But she’s apparently back, making occasional performances. A couple of recent engagements, posted on her Facebook page, were at the Dobbs Ferry, NY, Waterfront Park with saxophonists Mark S. Kaufman and Tim Armacost, bassist Harvey S, and drummer John Clay; and at The Green Growler in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, with drummer Paul Francis, trumpeter Freddie Jacobs, and bassist Mike McGuirk.
Cion has a quite impressive resume. In 1999, she won the Great American Jazz Piano Competition. Judges were Horace Silver, Kenny Barron, Ellis Marsalis, Benny Green, and Bill Charlap. She has performed with Clark Terry, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Don Braden, among many others. In a review of her 2001 Intakt Records album, Summer Nights, C. Michael Bailey of AllAboutJazz wrote about “the tremendously high level of her playing and composing. She is a pianist very much in the tradition of Bill Evans, Alan Broadbent, and Fred Hersch, with a bit of Erroll Garner and Kenny Barron thrown in. Having said that, she really sounds like no one other than herself. Her music is sumptuously melodic, cleverly harmonic, and intelligently lyrical.”
The 2010 Star-Ledger article was a review by Zan Stewart of her appearance as co-leader of a quartet with flutist/clarinetist Audrey Welber at the former West Orange jazz club, Cecil’s. She talked about the influence of Evans. “Bill was very exciting, melodically and rhythmically,” she said. “He kept his left-hand accompaniment simple, and his voicings were really cool. I want to play like that.:” At the Albert Wisner Library, Cion will be joined by drummer Kim Peralta and bassist Linda E. Brown.
But that’s not all that’s happening in Warwick during August. There is a “Saturday Afternoon Jazz” session at The Last Whiskey Bar featuring drummer Art Lillard, trumpeter Rick Savage (photo below), guitarist Jeff Ciampa, drummer Pete McDonald, and pianist Frank Petrocelli.
The Albert Wisner Public Library is located at One McFarland Drive in Warwick. The Hudson Valley Jazzwomen concert begins at 2 p.m. on August 11. For more information, log onto albertwisnerlibrary.org or call (845) 986-1047.
The Last Whiskey Bar is located at 45 Woodlands Way in Warwick. The August Saturday afternoon concerts begin at 2 p.m. The schedule is: August 3, Art Lillard Trio; August 10, Rick Savage Quartet; August 17, Jeff Ciampa Trio; August 24, Pete McDonald Trio; August 31, Frank Petrocelli Village Jazz Quartet. For more information, log onto lastwhiskeybar.com or call (845) 986-7851.
