Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street…
Maybe you weren’t alive when Martha and the Vandellas first sang these words in 1964. No matter. The hit has become an American summertime anthem for freedom and joy.
Here in Essex County the music is happening not only on the downtown streets but also in the many parks, an amphitheater and well, indoors, too. It means scores of opportunity to get out and celebrate with your neighbors.
Much of the time it’s your neighbors on stage or on that street corner or behind the scenes. Hundreds of performing artists make the Oranges and Maplewood their home. Some are internationally known, others are local heroes. All ride the energy of performing for hometown audiences. Here are a few of this summer’s highlights and what some of our area-based artists are thinking and planning:
3rd Annual Monte Irvin Orange Park Jazz & Food Truck Festival
Among those who dig the summer vibe is Orange’s blues bassist and producer Mike Griot. He has been bringing major blues festivals to the area for years, first in the South Mountain Reservation and now at Kean College. Griot also produces music events including Blues in the Loft for the South Orange Performing Arts Center.
“Audiences love the combination of great weather, music, and community,” Mike said. “What’s not to like? The environment adds energy to an artist’s show and supports the best experience for performers and listeners alike.”
Mike and Blues People, his longtime band, are coming into the multiband 3rd Annual Jazz Festival at Orange’s Monte Irvin Park on July 20. Food trucks, too. (Rain Date July 21. Details on this and each event mentioned and many more can be found in The Four Oranges Summer Events Guide).
Born in the 19th century, the blues informs most of American popular music, especially jazz, R & B, rock and, well, without the blues, there’s no soul. Joining Griot are stalwart bandmates Kelton Cooper on vocals & guitar, Ron Thompson on organ and Gene Lake on drums.
Here’s Mike talking about his band: “We’re four live blues brothers living in this time in America, while surviving the NY-NJ metro urban landscape.” The group’s Blues People album releases soon, but you can preview its music and more live in the Monte Irvin Orange Park around 2 p.m.
The event is underwritten by the Essex County Parks Commission and presented by Orange Cultural Affairs and Greg Burrus Productions. The commission’s expansive calendar of events throughout its many county-wide parks include opera, classical, rock from oldies to contemporary, Caribbean, Latin, gospel and jazz.
Just as the Essex County Park Commission appreciates the many genres of music beloved locally, the noon to 9 p.m. Orange event showcases many styles of jazz.
I caught up with South Orange’s omnipresent music producer Greg Burrus. Burrus who worked himself up from “the manhole to executive board room” at Ma Bell grew up hearing jazz. “It’s what our parents played. Our mother would take us all dancing. We didn’t know it was jazz. It was our dance music, ” Burrus said.
For years, Burrus has been keeping the jazz flame lit in downtown South Orange and at Clement’s Place in Newark. At Monte Irvin Park, he’s lighting a torch for multiple generations to enjoy the same event. You might come for the famed musicians: South Orange-based bassist and South Orange’s Giants of Jazz producer John Lee coming in with John Lee & Friends, the Nat Adderley, Jr. Quartet or legendary drummer Winard Harper, a featured player performing with progressive jazz violinist Charisa. You will hear what’s going on with younger musicians: Ultra’s jazz-rock fusion, MPACT’s contemporary R & B, or Japanese-born, New York-raised pianist Yayoi Ikawa who works in jazz, gospel, R&B, soul, classical, and world music.
“The day is programmed for wide appeal,” Burrus said. “If one act isn’t your musical style, stick around for the next one.”
I checked in with West Orange’s Grammy-nominated pianist-composer-arranger Nat Adderley, Jr. Nat, the son of jazz trumpeter great Nat Adderley and the nephew of the legendary hard bop alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, made his own name in R &B.
Adderley composed his first recorded song for Cannonball at age 11 and started arranging music for legendary soul and R & B singer Luther Vandross when both were in high school in NYC. He was Vandross’s life-long arranger and musical director, writing many of Vandross’s best-loved songs including “Give Me the Reason,” which earned that Grammy nomination.
When a stroke cut short Vandross’s career, Adderley turned down major offers: “I love Mary J. Blige’s music and got the call to be her musical director. I studied all her charts, and I loved her music even more,” Adderley said. “But I didn’t want to tour any longer.”
“I figured I could become a jazz pianist and perform largely in the city and locally,” Adderley said. “I figured it would take six months to get really good.”
Speaking to the challenges of mastering jazz, he laughed, “After six years I still didn’t feel I had mastered it.” Every jazz musician I know says the same.
Adderley and his ace band of Montclair’s Mike Lee on tenor sax, Paul Beaudry on bass and Earl Grice on drums will be kicking off around 6PM. What will you be playing? “Jazz standards, some of my uncle’s and Dad’s tunes, and some R &B too, Nat said. “I’m still R&B to my soul.”
Popular West Orange songbird and music and mental health advocate Lynette Sheard will be introducing each act. Count on her contributing some songs. Event honoree, the 2020 NEA Jazz Masters fellow (and East Orange’s) Dorthaan Kirk will share her insider’s view. Kirk was a major force at Newark-based WBGO Jazz88.3FM from the station’s inception in 1979 to her retirement in 2018, presenting Jazz for Kids and decades of memorable free concerts. Kirk knew and knows everyone on the scene and will be sharing great stories. (Full disclosure: My husband Bob DeVos was the first-call jazz guitarist playing with the Hammond B-3 organ greats that Kirk presented.) Executive Director Wayne Winborne of the prestigious Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers-Newark rounds out the hosting and storytelling.
Volora! at Newark’s Independence Park
Come evening on August 6, vocalist and dynamo Volora Howell takes the stage at Newark’s Independence Park as Volora! The exclamation point punctuates her years performing along marquee names worldwide. “There have been magical evenings singing for royalty in Morocco,” the glamourous Howell said in wide-ranging conversation. In addition to her music, Howell is a writer, hosts her own cable interview program, produces original television programming, and is a business and arts entrepreneur.
Crowned Orange’s “First Lady of Jazz” by the city’s Cultural Affairs Director Campanella Godfrey, many know Volora from past performances at Trumpets Jazz Club (now closed) and the Priory’s Friday Night Music Series.
Howell engages her five-octave range with her wide-ranging repertoire of jazz, American Songbook, R&B, and Pop. “I am a modern singer,” Howell said. “I love the music of Angela Bofill and sing my interpretation of her works.” At Independence Park, count on hearing “Under the Moon, Over the Sky” and “Time to Say Goodbye, ” as well as her fine band: Issa Ben Ayala-piano, Cleave Guyton-reeds, Belden Bullock-bass, and Ocie Davis-drums.
Howell grew up in Newark, playing cello and first bringing the house down as a nine-year old singer. She flourished at Newark’s famed Arts High. How will it feel playing in Newark again? “Exciting. It will be a homecoming,” Howell said. “I will be back in my old stomping ground. It feels full circle.”
Theater-Lovers: Take Note at West Orange’s Luna Stage & Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center
The Theater Project will be presenting famed playwright Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists at the celebrated Luna Stage Theater in West Orange. Peripatetic, TTP had been putting on their prize-winning seasons at Maplewood’s Durand Performing Arts Center.
I fast bought my ticket; prices are very reasonable with packages and pay-what-you-can tickets. The serio-hilarious The Revolutionists will be directed by TTP founder and Artistic Director Mark Anthony Spina.
Here’s the synopsis: “Four beautiful, badass women lose their heads in this irreverent, girl-powered comedy set in the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.” Here’s a fragment of one of the play’s rave reviews: “A sassy, hold-on-to-your seats theatrical adventure.”
I called Director Spina: “I have long wanted to present The Revolutionists. It becomes timelier every day,” Spina said. “The chaos of the French Revolution presages the noise of our current social media. The characters fight to prevent their voices from being drowned by violence, sexism, and racism. All this while making us laugh.”
Luna Stage’s own, exciting regular season opens in the fall. I wrote Artistic Director Ari Laura Kreith to ask about this year’s summer youth production. “We are doing an original piece by the Teen Conservatory students, directed and mentored by Luna’s Julia Murphy. The public is welcome!” Kreith responded.
Murphy, who lives in nearby Bloomfield, and I chatted. “The students devise the piece, develop the characters, and we work together on all the technical aspects—light, sound, sets, costumes,” Murphy said. “They come up with much better ideas than adults can bring to the class.”
Students come from throughout Essex County. The Teen program runs July 8 to August 4. Performances are Aug 2, 3 with a Sunday Matinee on August 4.
And if you love both theater and music, Lynette Sheard returns in Sister Act, a Tony-nominated musical spin on the beloved 1992 film. It comes into West Orange’s Oskar Schindler Performing Art Center weekends July 12 through July 20. Again, low-cost ticket prices.
And, this one is outdoors, under the stars.
A final recommendation. Check out some area-based jazz veterans clue you in on jazz listening in my Arts Beat column from summer 2023. There are audio links to the music, too.
THE FOUR ORANGES SUMMER ARTS GUIDE
ARTS GUIDE: WHAT’S HAPPENING IN JULY AND AUGUST?
This summer brings jazz, theater, comedy, and art to the Oranges.
