Matty Stecks (born Matt Steckler in Schenectady) savored pleasanter weather Thursday at Jazz on Jay than recently at storm-battered Alive at Five. The saxophonist, flute player, composer and bandleader also sailed past a bump in the road when bassist Rich Syracuse had to bow out Thursday morning. 

Matty Stecks and the 518, from left: Mike Lawrence, Bob Halek, Stecks, and Wayne Hawkins

(Deservedly busy) Mike Lawrence filled in more than ably, after a five-minute phone call. “He didn’t know he was playing until this morning,” Stecks explained gratefully. 

Mike Lawrence

The weather welcomed a sizable crowd to Jay Square, though a wind gust toppled a stroller whose young passenger seemed more amused than scared, and collapsed the info and hospitality tent near the end of the 90-plus minute set. The sun shone bright or hid in fast-moving clouds, and a passing freight train early on didn’t distract, as State Street sirens often did in previous locations further south on Jay Street. 

From left: Wayne Hawkins, Matty Stecks, Bob Halek, and Mike Lawrence

The quartet’s first tune cited the weather, Stecks’s vintage “March Nor’Easter” setting a Latin beat under his agile alto sax and everybody confident and strong. The players all know each other well and Stecks has led various bands in playing the all-original repertoire, so he knows what he wants from his players.

Matty Stecks (aka Matt Steckler)

He knows when he gets it, too: “Tearin’ it up, tearin’ it up!”  he exclaimed happily after “Show Some Class,” a happy, top-down blues-cruise perfect for a sunny summer afternoon. 

He switched to soprano sax in “”I’d Know It If I Heard It,” shifting roles a bit from earlier tunes. Here he played only a short intro before pianist Wayne Hawkins stated the melody and elaborated on it with the same imagination he displayed throughout.

Last-minute bassist Lawrence and always-solid drummer Bob Halek, a marvel of calm consistency and drive, got fewer solos than Stecks and Hawkins but earned their applause whenever Stecks cued them to lead.

Early on, they set a pattern: Stecks, intro and first statement and some exploration; Hawkins, more explanation, and plenty of swagger; Lawrence, rhythm and thoughtfulness in equal measure; and Halek – as the slogan of the great New Orleans radio station WWOZ states – the guardian of the groove. Then Stecks would cue a recap and lead both more exploration and a coda. These varied some; “Chrysalis,” a sweet tenor ballad with a repeating-riff coda; “Forgive” a flute feature built on a bossa vamp, “Prince Eleventy” a fun rip whose groove power made its complex beats compelling; and “Listen Linda” surfing on a playful funk beat.

From left: Mike Lawrence, Matty Stecks, Bob Halek, and Wayne Hawkins

After the fade-and-repeat coda of “Listen,” Stecks noted the band likes its endings unscripted, but nothing felt ragged. Everything fit and everybody knew their place and how to listen and bounce with it.

In “Vegas Mode,” a mutation of “East of the Sun,” as Stecks explained, Hawkins most closely echoed the song’s antecedents while Stecks went furthest outside with it, all in a flow of gliding swing. In this, and other late-in-the-set songs, the band swapped riffs in short exchanges, revving and rolling.

After the show, fans trooped into the orange-sheltered bandstand space to congratulate the players. When I asked Stecks about the (unannounced) flute number, he said the original title was “For Kyiv,” but I’d mis-heard that some time ago and listed it as “Forgive” in my review. So he adopted that title, he said, seeking to express something more universal. That expansiveness shone in all his tunes Thursday, and in how his slightly shuffled band played them. Afterwards, Lawrence told me Rich Syracuse was his bass teacher at the late lamented College of St. Rose…

Aromas in stereo greeted fans: barbecue from the Executive Suite at house left, and the Moroccan buffet at Tara Kitchen across Liberty Street from house right. Omnipresent super fan Steve Nover danced nonstop, even in the tricky rhythms of “Prince Eleventy.” When Stecks quizzed the crowd on the song’s title, singer Maggie MacDougall correctly answered, “Because it’s in 11” – that is, bars of eleven quarter notes. She plays Jazz on Jay on Aug. 22 with her Latin combo Bossamba. Jazz on Jay takes July 4th off then resumes July 11 with MC*2.

The Songs (all originals)

March Nor’Easter

Show Some Class

I’d Know It If I Heard It

Chrysalis

Forgive

Prince Eleventy

Listen Linda

Vegas Mode

Nunavit