When trumpeter/bandleader/vocalist Danny Jonokuchi (photo above) takes the stage at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert on June 8 at the Madison (NJ) Community Arts Center, he will lead his quartet in tunes he recorded on his last two albums, A Decade (Bandstand Presents: 2024) and Voices (Outside in Music: 2023). Plus, he’ll add some originals.
A Decade intermingled some American Songbook standards such as Rodgers and Hart’s “This Can’t Be Love” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark” with jazz classics such as Kenny Barron’s “Voyage” and Tadd Dameron’s “Lady Bird”.
Reviewing the album for AllAboutJazz, Jack Bowers wrote that “Skylark” was “taken at a brisker than usual pace,” adding that “Lady Bird” was played by “a superb ensemble that swings its backside off.” He also gave a shout out to Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Like Someone in Love.” The chart, he wrote, was “radiant and charming.”
Jonokuchi first appeared in Jersey Jazz as our March 2021 Rising Star after his virtual big band won the Count Basie Great American Swing Contest for its 15-piece version of Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump”. One of the judges, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, said, “There was a clear-cut winner. All the judges took a look at the videos independently, and it was a unanimous decision.”
Originally from California, Jonokuchi majored in Jazz Studies at Temple University’s Boyer School of Music and moved to New York after graduation. “I would look up where the big bands were playing,” he said, “and introduce myself. I went to the Village Vanguard on Monday nights. After a couple of years of going and learning, I had a last-minute opportunity to play with the band.” Luis Bonilla, who was second trombonist in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra for nearly 20 years, calls Jonokuchi “a young performer who has an insurmountable amount of talent.”
In Madison, Jonokuchi’s quartet will be doing “an intimate breakdown” of his big band arrangements. He will be joined by pianist Hyuna Park, bassist Liany Mateo, and drummer Kevin Congleton.
Mateo, who grew up in Jersey City, was Jersey Jazz‘s Rising Star in October 2023. She received her Bachelors Degree in Jazz Studies from Michigan State University in 2020, and, during her senior year, was recognized as the Outstanding Bassist at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s inaugural Jack Rudin Championship, a competition among students from 10 nation-wide colleges and universities. Mateo has recorded or performed with such artists as pianists Arturo O’Farrill and Matthew Whitaker, violinist Regina Carter, and vocalist Catherine Russell.
Reviewing O’Farrill’s 2023 Blue Note album, Legacies, Frank Alkyer of DownBeat wrote that the rhythm section of O’Farrill on piano, his son, Zack, on drums, and Mateo on bass “cook through Herbie Hancock’s ‘Dolphin Dance’ with surprising angular twists and turns. On O’Farrill’s own ‘Blue State Blues’, you can practically hear the smiles from the trio as they rip through these blues with a sense of pure joy.”
Park won First Place in the International Women in Jazz Festival in 2018. She has played with bassist Linda May Han Oh, trombonist Bonilla, and alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, among others, and performed at such venues as Birdland, The Django, and Joe’s Pub. Herring calls her, “a beautiful new voice on the piano. She plays with a feeling and maturity that is rare.”
Congleton, a regular in Jonokuchi’s big bands, graduated from the University of North Texas and was the drum chair in its prestigious One O’Clock Lab Band. He has performed with pianist Gordon Webster and tenor saxophonist Joe Manis and has appeared at such venues as Birdland, The Blue Note, and Mezzrow.
On June 8, the Danny Jonokuchi Quartet will be preceded by a Rising Stars opening act featuring a trio led by trombonist Alex Marichal (photo below), a senior at Mount Olive High School. Marichal has been a member of the New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble and is currently part of the Jazz House Kids Big Band that is competing in May at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition. He will be joined by fellow Mount Olive student, bassist Ansh Parikh, who is also part of the JHK Essentially Ellington Big Band, and Montclair State drummer Alex Kavlakian, a graduate of Rahway High School and winner of the 2025 James Moody Jazz Scholarship.
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission is $15 for NJJS members and $20 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets in advance, log onto ticketleap.events/tickets/newjersey- jazz-society/jersey-jazzlive- danny-jonokichi-quartet.
: Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding has been provided by NJJS member Lynnne Mueller.
DANNY JONOKUCHI PHOTO BY LOVE IMAGERY
