On A School Night:

SUNY Schenectady Jazz Faculty Combo with Guest Delfeayo Marsalis at Music Haven, Monday, Aug. 5

When Delfeayo Marsalis came to town, the music and menu changed.

Guesting with the SUNY Schenectady Jazz Faculty Combo Monday at Music Haven, the trombonist brought New Orleans tunes while the school’s food truck served gumbo, muffulettas and beignets.

Scion of jazz royalty back home – son of pianist-teacher Ellis, brother of trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford and drummer-vibes player Jason – Delfeayo fit well with the locals Monday.

Delfeayo Marsalis

Christopher Brellochs

Inspired as if working with an eminent visiting professor, the SUNY Schenectady music teachers played at their best. Dean-saxophonist-host Christopher Brellochs hoped the show would “prove we know what we’re doing.” It did, in top music-making by everybody including four young grads.

Marsalis brought expert trombone work, top tunes, amusing, song introductions and a supportive attitude.

Mia Scirocco

Each of the two sets (the first ran 55 minutes; the second, 45) began with strong, uptempo vocals from Mia Scirocco. Marsalis came on after her upbeat “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” and framed his original “Jazz Party” in a family tale: His grandfather built a music club in his New Orleans motel. Coincidentally called Music Haven, it lasted just one night. Nobody came, so he closed it. 

At Schenectady’s Music Haven, pre-show rain may have reduced the audience early, then clearing skies brought in normal numbers. 

Brian Patneaude

Marsalis soloed impressively in every tune; our guys had their shots, too; saxophonist Brian Patneaude* and guitarist Kevin Grudecky (almost invisible behind a big music stand and the curve of David Gleason’s grand piano) in the rambunctious “Jazz Party.”

They slowed the pace in “If I Have You,” then came “Softly As In a Morning Sunrise,” a deja vu moment for Gleason and anyone who saw him play the same song on the same stage Sunday with the Art D’Echo Trio. As on Sunday, this flowed faster than most play it, with lively cross-talk.

David Gleason

Next, Brellochs summoned four music school grads: tenor saxophonist Awan Rashad, vibraphonist Niko Nieman, bassist Nelly Cordi and drummer Rocco Gigante. Each soloed in the hard bop “Cedar’s Blues.” Rashad and Patneaude (Rashad’s teacher) both played Jazz on Jay earlier this summer, as did Jarod Greico (one of two bassists, alternating with Eric Johnson) who played in Patneaude’s quintet.

Awan Rashad

Marsalis cued the set closing “When the Saints Go Marching In” with wry mentions of New Orleans decadence and Saints football; then played a happy aggressive solo in the almost unavoidable New Orleans classic. Patneaude and trumpeter Dylan Canterbury followed; and Canterbury conducted much of the second set.

Dylan Canterbury

Marsalis followed Scirocco’s second-set-opening “Orange Colored Sky” with an adventurous excursion through his respectful/lively “Raving On the Mingus House Party.” Citing the brilliant/cantankerous Charles Mingus, he echoed his composing style, stacking melodies in colliding combinations. Grudecky’s guitar cut through this note-crowded number beautifully.

Marsalis often acknowledged  hot or sweet riffs by his one-night band mates. On his “pit stop in Schenectady,” as Brellochs noted, Marsalis detoured into Music Haven en route to New York with his big band. Knowing he was in good company here, he fist-bumped Canterbury in “Mingus” and pointed to players who’d uncorked extra-cool solos, with Patneaude in “I Found a New Baby,” for example.

This worked both ways: Patneaude smiled wide when Marsalis’s solo peaked in “Mingus,” then repeatedly tapped his heart at the trombonist’s tender melodic grace in “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans.”

In Gleason’s quiet “Four Moral Freedoms,” Canterbury and Marsalis both played with mutes as everyone went softly expressive.

Delfeayo Marsalis and Dylan Canterbury

Marsalis introduced his “Valley of Prayers” citing an initially unsuccessful visit to his bank, a frustrating episode redeemed by meeting there the minuscule (and ironically named: he’s 5’2”) Jerome “Big Duck” Smith – a revered Civil Rights hero. In this hearty funk march, drummer Bob Halek released his inner Shannon Powell and the thing swung like mad. Its middle section had the freshness of something invented on the spot, Marsalis repeating a two-note figure behind Patneaude and Canterbury.

The SUNY Schenectady Jazz Faculty Combo: Christopher Brellochs, tenor and baritone saxophone; Brian Patneaude, tenor and alto saxophone (he played alto when Brellochs played tenor); Dylan Canterbury, trumpet; Kevin Grudecky, guitar; David Gleason, piano; Bob Halek, drums; Eric Johnson or Jarod Greico, bass. Guest artist: Delfeayo Marsalis, trombone.

Bet these guys could hold their own in a battle of the bands with the Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars, who played the last Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival in late June. (The Festival continues – don’t worry – Freihofer’s has ended its decades-long sponsorship.)

Rain dotted my windshield, driving home; nice timing, like when it stopped before show time.

More Marsalis music: Saxophonist Branford’s quartet plays Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Jan. 16 – and Jason played the Saratoga Jazz Festival in June.

Set List

You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To (vocal, Mia Scirocco)

Jazz Party 

Love for Sale

If I Have You

Softly As in a Morning Sunrise

Cedar’s Blues

When the Saints Go Marching In

Orange Colored Sky (vocal, Mia Scirocco)

Raving On the Mingus House Party

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans

I Found a New Baby

Four Moral Freedoms

Valley of Prayers

Jarod Grieco

Bob Halek

Marsalis, Canterbury, Patneaude, Brellochs

Christopher Brellochs