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When you visit the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, you’re met with all sorts of jazz ephemera: Lester Young’s saxophone, a green Miles Davis trumpet, a miniature statue of Louis Armstrong, documents from various music luminaries.

(Continued from the January-February issue of Jersey Jazz)

Art Blakey was a mentor and inspiration for many jazz players who played in the Jazz
Messengers and then went on to individual prominence — players such as Lee Morgan,
Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Horace Silver, Walter Davis Jr., Cedar Walton, and Hank
Mobley.

This past October, producer, composer, keyboardist, and vocalist Sérgio Mendes and singer/songwriter Bebel Gilberto presented a special “60th Anniversary of Bossa Nova” concert at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown.

Alto saxophonist Richie Cole, a Ewing, NJ, native, will bring his Alto Madness Orchestra back to Ewing on Saturday, December

Each year the Christmas Season brings a new influx of holiday music. Here are the new releases from the current crop that I found most appealing.

Baritone saxophonist Frank Basile was called a “prized sideman” by The New Yorker. That’s because he has appeared with a wide range of prestigious bands including the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars Big Band, and a Bill Charlap-led salute to Birth of the Cool at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. At 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 3 …