A Review: Words and Pictures

As customary, seven faculty members of the Skidmore Jazz Institute offered lessons in sound Sunday to open the Saratoga Jazz Festival’s second day. Playing the Wood stage, the Faculty All-Stars honored saxophone giant John Coltrane with often modernist arrangements of ‘Trane tunes. (Saturday had featured an electric band playing Miles Davis’s most plugged-in music; 1969-’91. Both Miles and ‘Trane would be 100 this year.)

As usual, this 49th festival mixed old and new, jazz and non-, and growing numbers of women onstage. Like Saturday’s first festival day, the weather was more than fine.

Young alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin declared Sunday women’s day and hailed the “legends in the house,” led by Patti Labelle, dubbing her the Queen of Shenanigans. In ten of the two-day festival’s 22 total acts, women led or appeared as featured guests; not quite half, but getting closer. 

The festival presented just one semi-big band, but no modern jazz pop crossover stars to invite young fans, as Laufey did in 2024. She drew such droves that she returned to sing last summer with the Philadelphia Orchestra. 

A stage-ful, a Mouthful: Skidmore Jazz Institute All-Star Band. From left: Miki Yamanaka, Todd Coolman (who noted his name imposes serious responsibility), Dave Stryker, Quincy Davis, Steve Davis, Jimmy Green; Clay Jenkins stands behind Steve Davis

Players AND scholars, the Skidmore cats avoided the obvious at first, revving their trumpeter Clay Jenkins’s chart on Coltrane’s “Just for the Love” to bebop intensity. Arranged by Dave Stryker, and starring his guitar, “Mr. Dave” also felt fresh, off-center funk in a happy tussle. Leader Todd Coolman, wryest bassist around, dedicated “Body and Soul” to Katz’s Deli, mixing the fervent style of its 1930s origin with a syncopated beat, like layers of audio pastrami. Pianist Miki Yamanaka’s kimono-and-obi garb symbolized the band’s approach, bridging styles in distinctive ways. Seeing newly-arrived, black-shirted teenaged Institute kids enjoy their teachers’ playing felt like a fun affirmation of jazz’s future.

Miki Yamanaka, above; Clay Jenkins crouching at center, below

Slim, hyperactive in shiny silver and gold, Benjamin also had ‘Trane in mind and bravely deconstructed his iconic “My Favorite Things” on the Main stage. Dedicating it to Alice Coltrane, she warned it would get turbulent: “Seat belts are required.” She played it straight, blew it up, then repeated. 

Lakecia Benjamin

Her tone was somewhere between Bird’s fluidity and David Sanborn’s rasp, her phrasing fast and sure. She set stuff on fire, igniting beauty in the flames with melodic intent and effect.

Also, like Terri Lynn Carrington and Patti LaBelle Saturday, Benjamin spoke, rapped and played about social justice. After listing treasured virtues, she said her “Ascension” expressed respect, a hymn-like statement in quiet melody. She performed like a fully-formed star; not one in the making but here now.

New Orleans pianist Kyle Roussel exceeded the high expectations those three words before his name automatically conjure. Traditional at first, he expanded Professor Longhair’s classic “Frankie and Johnny” into sound pictures of parades, rumbas, late nights at the club, spinning hot riffs off a steady roll.

Drummer Peter Barnado and bassist Nick Salcido played like reading his mind. In the trio or exploring solo, Roussel put immaculate technique in service of soul, and humor. Relaxed wanderings formed into what fans laughingly recognized as the theme from “M.A.S.H.” “Fur Elise” grew wings, dressed up as a blues, or Beethoven as thunderstorm, with a side of “Georgia on My Mind.”

Once he had everybody in his pocket, Roussel added singer Erica Falls. Precise and powerful as his playing, her voice assured “Nothing Is Impossible,” then “Come Together” added fierce, unsinkable, shared optimism.

Singer-guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram took the music to the people, direct. After hot guitar-blues blasts from the Main stage, he vanished as the band vamped on the defiant “Not Gonna Lie.”

Backstage? Melting from the heat? No, riffing hard, walking the aisle to stop right next to me. That close up especially, he seemed more commanding than in Springfield opening for Buddy Guy a while back. Freed of opening-act deference, he wailed wondrous and wild; a next-gen bluesman for our time.

Here’s his setlist, courtesy of SPAC VP of Communications Kristy Ventre:

Kingfish 

Midnight Heat (live in london album)

Fresh Out (kingfish album)

Voodoo Charm (hard road album)

Empty Promises (single)

Not Gonna Lie (live in london album)

Mississippi Night (live in london album)

Bad Like Me (hard road album)

Outside of this Town (kingfish album)

662 (662 album)

After Kingfish’s happy hubbub on the Main stage (and off), singer-guitarist Sasha Dobson felt unfocused and too quiet on the Wood. Her languid pop-country tunes came to life, though, on the strong wings of Charlie Burnham’s agile, soulful violin.  

Charlie Burnham

Dianne Reeves took over the Main as the queen she’s been for decades. Like her elder Patti Labelle on Saturday, Reeves has her whole voice, profound artistic depth and dedication to soulful song, anybody’s song. Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” hit early, a straight up rendition flowing into skat swing. She added uptempo Brazilian flavor to “What’s New?” – simmering down on a wordless repeating riff, a device she used often to tug tunes back down from the clouds where she rocketed them. She sang of peace, for everyone, her voice lifting to anthemic force; then Jobim’s “Samba de Bahia” flew even higher. 

Dianne Reeves and band, top, Romero Lubambo at right; soaring alone, below. Smiling at Lubambo, below that

Here, Reeves’s decades-deep alliance with her Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo came to the fore, firing her “At Nine,” a hymn to children with bossa lilt and warm compassion. In the emotional, serene “Our Love is Here to Stay,” Reeves nodded at Lubambo and said with a quiet laugh, “I have to listen to him closely because he changes the chords on me.” She gracefully navigated even tricky harmonic detours. Like Lubambo, her band was aces, notably pianist Reuben Rogers and drummer Terreon Gully. And, like earlier words of welcome, she sang her introductions.

Dianne Reeves Digs Cimafunk, above, Cimafunk below

Then, she emerged from backstage to dance in the wings and phone-video Cimafunk tearing it up on the stage she’d just left to huge applause. 

Like a Cuban James Brown, Cimafunk led a big band, got on the good foot and sang up a storm. He also drew the crowd into the music by inviting hordes onstage. So many happy dancers and awed stock-still fans came up that they all but hid the performers.

Singing in Spanish, he ring-mastered a big, joyful beat circus, funky and uplifting in any language, or none. Nobody had to understand the words to jump around happy and sweaty, though fans might parse the meaning from Cimafunk’s manner or how the band’s energy flowed.

Their flow felt mostly happy, relentless; a different sort of force from the electric shock-waves of the Miles tribute Saturday, but just as strong.

The Revivalists seemed an odd non-jazz choice to close on Sunday, but they surprised, as Kingfish had earlier Sunday. 

Sorry to miss bold saxophonist Alexa Tarantino and bluesy soft-jazz singer Eddie 9V (whose new album is titled “Saratoga”) on the Wood, but the Revivalists’ strong set compensated. 

For a proudly New Orleans band, they rocked steady, straight-ahead. Midway, strong-voiced always-in-motion singer David Shaw challenged the crowd to “make this a real rock and roll concert.” This did pump the energy, giving permission get wild; but the bustling band had long since made this intent clear. George Gekas’s bass hit as their loudest sound, pushing a thumping, two-drummers groove under hot electric guitar AND pedal steel, plus keyboards and sax. 

Above. bassist George Gekas, left, and guitarist Zack Feinberg; David Shaw, below

As much as their tight performance, well-made songs impressed. Not what most would consider jazz, or New Orleans style, they engaged on their own terms and grabbed hard; shared fun in the groove, but meaning in the words. Songs from past albums drew recognition applause; “Down in the Dirt” from “Pour It Out Into the Night” cast a menacing mood, and both “Fade Away” and “Need You” from “Men Amongst Mountains” felt desolate, doomed. New tunes including “Razor Blades and Rumbas” (now, there’s a New Orleans title) and “Blood on the River” earned respect for words and music, writing and performance.

Festival producer Danny Melnick announced in one of many band intros that he’s already planning and booking acts for next year: the 50th Saratoga Jazz Festival June 26 and 27, 2027 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Gallery

Lakecia Benjamin, above

5 Kyle Roussel photos below

Nick Salcido, above; Peter Barnardo, below

Kyle Roussel, above; bonkers fans hail his set, below

Kingfish – yeah, he was that close

Sasha Dobson

2 Dianne Reeves photos above

3 Cimafunk photos below

Set list

The Revivalists guitarist Zack Feinberg, left; and pedal steel player Ed Williams

Revivalists singer David Shaw

Review: The Saratoga Jazz Festival Presented by GE Vernova; Saturday, June 27, 2026

The first act at Saturday’s Saratoga Jazz Festival and the last both played “Lady Marmalade” – the Brass Queens in a sassy New Orleans romp and Patti Labelle, recreating her 1974 hit.

A tribute to Miles Davis’s amped electric bands hit just before Labelle; she didn’t remember she and Miles both played here in 1985. 

Tradition, echoes, talents young and older – the usual mix marked the first day of the 49th summer jazz festival (and arguably non-jazz…) get-together; with extra-nice weather that put everyone in a fine mood.

Brass Queens, from left: Stephanie Young, trombone; Jenna Murdoch, tenor; Ally Chapel, alto; Nora Nalepka, Sousaphone; Alex Harris, Stephanie King and Minerva Johnson, trumpets. Drummer Caitlin Cawley is behind the trumpets.

Brooklyn-based, New Orleans in their soul, the eight Brass Queens opened Saturday’s two-stage, 12-act festival at 11 sharp. Their eager opening-act energy pumped up the fun in the Charles R. Wood Discovery Stage. (Formerly the “Gazebo” but hereafter the “Wood,” the amphitheater is “the Main.”) 

Most songs launched from circular Sousaphone riffs locked to march-beat drums, as in “Can’t Let Go,” their opener, borrowed from the New Breed Brass Band. Soon they were putting Second Line spin on the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” AND “My Girl,” David Byrne’s “Strange Overtones” and Prince’s “When Doves Cry”– hot spirited stuff from unlikely,  wonderful song choices. Raucous, rocking, gleeful in their power and pizzazz, they were formidable at full soar.

First Meeting, from left: Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier, Eric Harland

First Meeting, a virtuoso supergroup of Gonzalo Rubalcaba, piano; Chris Potter, saxophones; Larry Grenadier, bass; and Eric Harland, drums, revved up Chick Corea’s “500 Miles High” on the Main as the Brass Queens closed on the Wood. Breezy, punched up by Potter’s burly tenor and Rubalcaba’s pulsating piano, bracelets almost flying off his wrists, this flowed into a yearning ballad, Potter’s lyrical soprano etching a delicate melody.

Avishai Cohen

Curious about Avishai Cohen, I went back to the Wood; one of many tough choices. His bustling band Big Vicious, more like Big Sweet, Big Spacey, Big Strange, set the trumpeter amid two drummers and two guitarists. He also played a tiny keyboard, using effects to bend and stretch notes. The two guitars divided the stringed soundscape, one in conventional range, the other tuned down into bass territory. Cohen shared a mic with guitar-bassist Yonatan Albalak to whistle together in a strange/charming interlude. Their fresh, rich, exhilarating ensemble sound – by turns driving and dreamy – was my best surprise all day, except maybe when Patti LaBelle first opened her mouth. The songs (setlist below) zigged around in abrupt angular detours, or settled sweet and mellow; with some Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” as antique treat.

Big Vicious Setlist, above; full stage below, from left: Uzi Ramirez, guitar; Cohen; drummers Aviv Cohen and Ziv Ravitz, Yonatan Albalak, guitar-as-bass

I hung at the Wood through singer Tyreek McDole’s extra-long sound check, pleased to see the same cats behind him as at A Place for Jazz last fall. They now seem a few months stronger and tighter. His voice soared in fearless Kurt Elling leaps and swung like Mel Torre, with more electronic treatments. But again, I bailed early for drummer Terri Lynn Carrington’s Social Science on the Main.

Tyreek McDole, above; Terri Lynn Carrington’s Social Science, below

Her groove flowed strong, no surprise, but vocal messages dominated, claiming independence and everyone’s rights in words of soaring defiance. Guitarist Matthew Stevens’s rhapsodic “Forest Song” injected an oasis of nature worship into a flow of often rap-sodic urgings, of passionate, compassionate, often feisty words. It balanced, though, as message music sometimes doesn’t. “Solidarity Song” accused, then “Children’s Song” more softly argued the value of all humans. The set gained gravitas after the smooth-jazz lightness of some early tunes, throwing moral punches later. 

Bill Frisell’s Trio plus Gregory Tardy. Tardy is at left here, with Thomas Morgan, Frisell, Rudy Royston; Tardy, below

In the Wood, guitarist Bill Frisell played in a sort of parallel to Carrington. His trio felt compact, contained and cozy-quiet, until guest saxophonist Gregory Tardy exploded things. Ever restless Frisell makes new albums often, new bands to match. He named his new “In My Dreams” well. Its dreamy new tunes flowed easy in Saturday’s warm summer air. “Ishfahan” from the new album settled in, a soothing breeze of trademark treble guitar chords and laid-back drums from Rudy Royston and bass by Thomas Morgan. Then, like a hot gust, came Tardy’s tenor to take it outside, down the road. Tardy played clarinet with the same force, like the refreshing melodic push Frisell’s longtime violinist Jenny Scheinman (not on this gig) provides.

Cecile McLorin Salvant also started sweet and soft on the Main, stretching her voice low to croon the lovely ballad “With Every Breath I Take.” She gradually built force and feeling, waltzing through her “Take This Stone” before going all human trumpet in the brassy Brecht-Weill “Barbara’s Song” – stunning in range and power. Poignant again in her Toni Morrison tribute “What Does Blue Mean To You,” she lamented “unfixable pain,” then bandleader Sullivan Fortier tore up the piano in compassionate underdog rage. A 17th century French chanson learned in childhood charmed like the antique it was. A woman behind me said, “Sounds like opera” – not a good thing, her tone suggested. But it was; so was the Broadway-zesty “If They Could See Me Now.”

Salvant, at right, with Sullivan Fortner

She confessed nervousness at “my hero” Dianne Reeves’s presence. Unafraid, Salvant poured her idealism into a tour-de-force expression of hope for America, tomorrow.

The Dip. above; singer Tom Eddy, below

After Salvant – a solid trio with a superb singer – another trio without one seemed less appealing. I stayed where I was, missing Orrin Evans in the Wood to hang in the Main for the Dip. Liking them less than the crowd did, I stayed, giving the Seattle horn-and-vocals rock band another chance, then another. With Les McCann’s “Compared to What?” in a spirited roll, they managed to burst out of the late-period Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago bag that felt second hand. Their own best songs had melody, punch and cohesion; “Fill My Cup” and “Real Contender” were standouts, as singer Tom Eddy led them well.

A Memorial in Sound, the Miles Electric Band, above; trumpeter Keyon Harrold, below

The Miles Electric Band paid wide-ranging tribute to music Miles Davis made from 1969’s “Bitches Brew” to his death (1991), a mixed bag of milestones “In A Silent Way” and “Jack Johnson,” pop song remakes and amped aggression. (A Bitches Brew band show I saw in Seattle in fall 1970 was an explosive surprise of vivid culture-clash discomfort as folks in suits and frocks fled something louder and harder-hitting than “Kind of Blue.” But I digress.)

The bustling Miles Electric Band started hard and hot Saturday and sampled Miles’s evolving styles of clipped trumpet bursts over knock-down funk, amped (very) hard bop and borrowed pop. 

“Jack Johnson” kicked down the door, “In a Silent Way” and “It’s About Time” charmed,” as did “Time After Time” (a Cyndi Lauper hit ) and “Human Nature” (Michael Jackson), both wistful and low-key. Much else went wild and wilder; challenging, hard-driving and noisy. Up front, trumpeter Keyon Harrold (who played last year’s festival) and saxophonist Antoine Roney brought the melodies while a bristling rhythm section drove the delivery truck: drummer and Miles’s nephew Vincent Wilburn Jr., bassist Darryl Jones (stalwart for decades in the Rolling Stones touring band), guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly, keyboardist Robert Irving II and others. A mighty funk engine, including turntables by DJ Logic. Some had played with Miles, notably Wilburn and Jones; but all had the spirit and brought the sound.

When Patti Labelle closed, also on the Main, her voice rang magnificently; all the way there, not just a condescending “still” there. At 82, overheated in a layered gold outfit, she commanded the crowded stage with voice and presence; saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin would dub her the Queen of Shenanigans Sunday on the same (Main) stage.

Goofing on her age, Labelle said what once was the fire of desire became that of menopause years ago.

She sang lightweight “Beverly Hills Cop” numbers “Stir It Up” and “New Attitude” with the same vocal and emotional investment as more substantial material worthy of her pipes and delivery. “On My Own” packed all the pain and pride of heartbreak, then endurance.

When she remarked on the heat, a woman in a green dress emerged from the crowd and handed her a small battery fan; she loved it. Art imitated life: When LaBelle changed outfits, she emerged in a similarly bright green outfit. 

She tossed flowers to the crowd and band members when they hit a hot lick. She kicked off her glistening high-heels but didn’t stay barefooted long; a natty valet installed another sparkly pair from the rows waiting on the piano. When a fan called out “I love you!” she brought him to a closer seat and spritzed him with the same scent she’d just applied.

She coasted only a little; band-members revved flashy solos after she introduced them, and her four wonderful singers carried generous stretches in some songs. Both horn players came forward to work the crowd as she swapped outfits; but when she came back – wow! – she took over the song they’d been vamping – Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’” – and turned it inside out with sky-splitting high notes. The intimacy of “Only You Knew” hit just as hard, but sweet and sad.

As I drove home, south toward the full moon, a bright meteorite flew straight overhead and right past it. Who could ask for more after a day of sunshine and music and meeting friends in the sounds and the summer glow?

Gallery

Brass Queens, above; setlist below

Gonzalo Rubalcaba, left; and Chis Potter, of First Meeting

Terri Lynn Carrington

Keyon Harrold, left; and Antoine Roney, of the Miles Electric Band

Review: Ambrose, Hearn, Shoudy & Steckler at Jazz on Jay; Thursday, June 25, 2026

The regular working jazz trio of drummer Andy Hearn, bassist Dave Shoudy and guitarist Kevin Grudecki changed things up Thursday at Jazz on Jay; one change by chance, one by choice. When Grudecki  couldn’t make the gig, they subbed in Wyatt Ambrose; and they chose to add saxophonist and flute player Matt Steckler, completing a quartet that had never played together before.

Things worked out.

Veteran players in their prime who’d worked together earlier in different combinations, they knew how to make the pieces fit and swing and rock and charm. Ingenious song choices also helped keep things fresh.

At Jazz on Jay Thursday, from left: Dave Shoudy, bass; Andy Hearn, drums (obscured by music stand); Matt Steckler, alto saxophone; Wyatt Ambrose, electric guitar

Steckler announced early that they wouldn’t play the typical standards and later noted lots of lyrical melodies among their tunes; both proved correct, and effective.

Hearn’s “Drew’s Blues” walked an easy groove through tasty solos. Steckler’s flute ranged from laid-back melodic runs to breathy staccato rasps, Ambrose comped chords supportively behind Shoudy’s muscular bass break, then soloed himself before Steckler took it home. Just as Ambrose finger-picked in accompaniment and soloed with the harder, more emphatic flat pick, Hearn grooved with bushes at times but mostly soloed with sticks.

Matt Steckler, flute, above; tenor saxophone, below

The upbeat, open “Phases” (Dave Holland and John Scofield) also felt mellow at first, then lit up. Shifting to tenor sax, Steckler ran rapid scales, setting a pattern and breaking it to venture outside. Again, Ambrose supported Shoudy, then took the torch himself. 

Ambrose paid tribute to a now-departed guitar mentor in “Waltz for Ed,” introducing its warm melodic feel with quiet finger-picking, then soloing more aggressively with flat pick as Steckler’s sweet soprano sax went warm and gentle.

Wyatt Ambrose, above; Andy Hearn, below, at left foreground

Ambrose admitted some hesitancy at playing “Bright Size Life,” protesting “It’s PAT METHENY’S song!” before leading the band into it anyway. This required, and rewarded, tight ensemble playing in tricky beats at a spirited tempo. Steckler’s tenor flowed just as hot as Ambrose’s guitar, both rising to the occasion. Hearn and Shoudy confidently navigated its tricky beats.

The bright sun dimmed some then as a breeze rose. Steckler hailed it as refreshing but everybody on the bandstand jumped fast to clip to music stands paper charts trying to fly away. His alto sax led in “A Lark” (Fred Hersch), slow and sparse, introduced by Ambrose’s guitar over nice swing by bass and drums. His solos book-ended Ambrose’s and likewise sandwiched quotes and scales between chord changes. Cool, propulsive vamp here.

Announcing a two-fer of “Kathelin Gray” (Ornette Coleman) and “Magnolia Triangle” (James Black, made famous by Yusef Lateef), Steckler’s alto lent a stately grace to the former but he revved his flute to its most percussive syncopated blues intensity in the latter. If “Gray” felt like a solo showcase, “Magnolia” rocked with unified ensemble fire. Hearn’s tom rolls packed both rhythmic and melodic force while Ambrose wove a solo of both fiery single-note runs and chord chops, like those he often slid into Shoudy’s solos.

Dave Shoudy

“Tom Thumb” reminded us, in its funky groove and soprano sax scalar runs, of what an ingenious and resourceful composer Wayne Shorter was before Weather Report. This really crackled, Shoudy and Hearn clearly enjoying its fun feel.

The guys needed a brief discussion to plan out “Kind Folk” (Kenny Wheeler), bass and guitar seething together in a jittery intro that settled into passages so relaxed a couple rose and slow-danced to it. Episodic, it shifted to a more rollicking feel (the couple sat back down), then a hot scramble. Ambrose used reverb in a mysterious, moody stretch before Steckler’s alto ran scales, then burst out, recapped the head and set up a soft coda that repeated as if they just didn’t want to let go.

Everybody climbed on “A Shorter Form” (John Scofield) at first a spry bossa, then trick beats under burly tenor sax, and guitar again mixing chords with single-note runs. Hearn’s solo here on cymbals and snare pushed the groove, everybody settling into rapid, precise repeats before assertive freelance breaks.

In “Black Nile,” another mellow-swinging Wayne Shorter number, they swapped riffs in that spirited more-than-the-sum-of-the-parts way, gusts of tenor sax flying high, just-as-fast guitar, running scales, a short bass break, then everybody linked up in the coda.

“Nile” ended almost exactly at the 90-minute mark, but the quartet was happy to oblige with just one more. Hearn’s original “Funkt If I Know” wrapped up with a happy funk groove, equal parts James Brown funk romp, with Ambrose emulating Brown’s rhythm guitar ace Jimmy Nolen, and “Watermelon Man.” Agile alto sax surfed on the funk, and everybody gave it a standing ovation.

Jazz on Jay continues Thursday, July 2, with singer Shiri Zorn. Show time is noon in Jay Square opposite Schenectady City Hall. The rain site (where seating is provided) is in Robb Alley at Proctors.

If every New Orleans kid grows up in a houseful of music, the sheer variety heard in his home enabled pianist Kyle Roussel to architecture a distinctive personal style. His precocious talent, listening in all directions and deep training bring him to Saratoga Sunday for its Jazz Festival; training that included what Art Neville called the “secret groove.”

Kyle Roussel. Photo provided

“They all were into listening to music but it was all different types,” said Roussel of his family from New Orleans Monday. His father liked straight ahead jazz. “I didn’t like it, but I still heard it.” His mother preferred old school R&B and funk, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. “Oddly enough,” Roussel noted, his grandfather liked the Beatles, BeeGees and Beach Boys. “Whether I liked it or not, I knew all those songs.”

Most useful of all, career-wise, “My grandmother was heavy into Gospel, so I knew every Mahalia Jackson song…as a teenager,” he said. “All that came in handy,” he said. “When I was 19, I went to Europe for the first time doing a Mahalia Jackson gospel tribute show.” Altogether, “I went all over with musical influences when I was coming up, whether I liked them or not.” Born in 1988, “my own music was rap and hip-hop” – but soon all music was his own.

“I started off playing classical (piano) at age 9 and playing in church at 12, and I got to NOCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) around 15,” he said. “I didn’t want to do any more Chopin and Beethoven, so that was really when I started jazz.”

Back when he’d started piano, “I was in the (school) marching band, playing the drums,” winning spots in the State Honor Band and the Junior Philharmonic. “There wasn’t any piano in the symphonic and the concert band and the marching band, so I grew up playing the drums in those bands in school.”

Playing piano in church, starting at 12, he earned $100 per service. “That’s, like, rich for a 12-year old!” – four or five services a Sunday. He started playing clubs in his mid-teens while studying jazz at NOCA with bassist Chris Severin, who played Albany’s Alive at Five with the Neville Brothers. 

One day a fellow student said, “Mr. Severin, I’m not going to be in class next Sunday because I’m going to Japan.” Roussel said, “As a 15 year old kid, your mind just explodes! So I can play music and go to Japan and make money?”

This revelation may have lingered in his exploded mind as he sidestepped a possible career detour. Intrigued by design and fashion, “I wanted to go to school for architecture and I showed up the first day” (at the University of New Orleans), thinking he’d minor in music.

He auditioned, that first day, and was told, “We won’t pay for you to be an architect, but we’ll give you a full, paid scholarship to be a musician. It was at that point that I became a musician and haven’t looked back since.”

However, he did scan his past to report, “I think there have been countless signs in my life since then that – ‘You’re supposed to be a musician…You were put here on this earth for that and this is supposed to be your profession.’”

Right place, right time. 

At 23, he scored his first album credit, of 48, with the Headhunters, touring often with them, and with the Preservation Hall touring band. He’s recorded and performed with various Marsalises and other artists on SPAC’s Jazz Festival past and present including Ana Popovic who plays this Saturday. Credits also include the Soul Rebels who sold out Caffe Lena last Sunday, and Irma Thomas who returned the favor, singing on Roussel’s Grammy-nominated “Church of New Orleans” album, his third.

“My album features about 37 different New Orleans musicians,” said Roussel, name-checking singers Irma Thomas, John Boutte, Ivan Neville and Erica Falls. Falls will perform with him Sunday at SPAC, along with drummer Peter Barnado and bassist Nick Salcido, all New Orleans residents since Salcido moved down from Philadelphia.

“The first third is usually the trio,” Roussel said of his show. “Then Erica will come on and sing, and I might play a song solo. It will be mostly originals and mostly the music from my latest album…maybe one solo song but I’ll also be putting a personal spin on some jazz classics or maybe a cover song by the Beatles just to throw in a little bit of this and a little bit of that.”

Roussel’s other regular drummer is Herlin Riley, whom he credits with teaching what Art Neville calls the “secret groove.”

“I learned from some really great musicians,” he said gratefully, noting Riley, Zigaboo Modeliste and Shannon Powell. “They are masters of groove. A lot of times, it’s what they didn’t play that made the music groove so much.” 

Playing in church, he said, “doesn’t call for that.” He said, “Sometimes you’ve got to flow in the spirit, in the spirit of the music. Most of the time, it’s what you don’t play that makes the impact, more than what you do play. There’s a lot of power in the silence. I learned how to do that from some great masters.”

“The drummer is the most important member of the band,” Roussel said when I noted his groove examples were all drummers. “He’s really the conductor, he determines the energy. I’ve been fortunate to learn from some really great and legendary drummers.” 

He said, “I was very fortunate to have the type of musical education that I had,” citing formal classical training, then playing in church with “some guys who were really great musicians but they didn’t read any music, they didn’t know any theory.” For them, “It was all based on feeling and based on the spirit and the religion and them being self taught.” 

After noting NOCA training in jazz, he summed up. “Whatever I do will have some jazz influences, some gospel influences, some classical influence, some R&B influence, some New Orleans influence – whatever I play, whether it’s the Beatles or (Professor) Longhair – you’ll probably hear that in there.”

“Up until I was about 19 or 20, (different musical styles) were different arenas,” he said, so he’d play them differently. “At a certain point I think you practice enough and you learn enough and you have your own life experience that you’re able to put your own spin on it.”

That was his breakthrough. 

“As I developed that, it all became the same. It’s all spiritual to me, and it still has the same effect on people. My church members love my albums just as much as people who are atheists.”

“It’s just going to be me, wherever I am,” he said.

Kyle Roussel will be at SPAC’s Saratoga Jazz Festival presented by GE Vernova on Sunday at the Charles R. Wood Discovery Stage from 1:10 to 2:10 p.m.

Roussel has played in 48 states and more than 50 countries and may have played Saratoga but doesn’t remember. He’s sure this is his first here, billed under his increasingly well-known name.

Set times (artists, lineups and set times subject to change)

Saturday – Gates open at 10 a.m. 

Amphitheater Stage

12-1:15 p.m.: First Meeting featuring Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier & Eric Harland

1:45-3 p.m.: Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science

3:30-4:45 p.m.: Cécile McLorin Salvant

5:15-6:30 p.m.: The Dip

7-8:15 p..m.: Miles Electric Band: Celebrating Miles Davis’s Centennial

9 p.m.: Patti LaBelle

Charles R. Wood Discovery Stage

11 a.m.-12 p.m.: Brass Queens

12:20-1:20 p.m.: Avishai Cohen Big Vicious

1:40-2:40 p.m.: Tyreek McDole

3-4 p.m.: Bill Frisell Trio featuring Thomas Morgan & Rudy Royston with special guest Gregory Tardy

4:20-5:20 p.m.: Orrin Evans Trio featuring Luques Curtis & Mark Whitfield, Jr.

5:40-6:50 p.m.: Ana Popovic

Singer Patti LaBelle Headlines Saturday. Photo provided

Sunday– Gates open at 10 a.m.

Amphitheater Stage

12:15-1:30 p.m.: Lakecia Benjamin

2-3:15 p.m.: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

3:45-5 p..m.: Dianne Reeves

5:30-6:45 p.m.: Cimafunk

7:15 p.m.: The Revivalists

Charles R. Wood Discovery Stage

11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars Celebrate John Coltrane’s Centennial featuring Jimmy Greene, Clay Jenkins, Steve Davis, Dave Stryker, Miki Yamanaka, Todd Coolman, & Quincy Davis

1:10-2:10 p.m.: Kyle Roussel

2:40-3:40 p.m.: Sasha Dobson

4:10-5:10 p.m.: Alexa Tarantino Quartet

5:40-6:55: p.m.: Eddie 9V

The Revivalists Headline on Sunday

Review: Marcus Benoit at Jazz on Jay; Thursday, June 18, 2026

“Just like we rehearsed it!” proclaimed Marcus Benoit with mock smugness after leading his quartet through “All Blues” at Jazz on Jay Thursday.

The truth/joke was; they hadn’t rehearsed it at all. Saxophonist/flute player and leader Benoit called it as an audible early in their 90-minute set, and later said they’d rehearsed mostly by phone. Nonetheless, their rendition never felt like a joke as they managed a mellow, smooth cruise through the Miles Davis classic. 

Marcus Benoit Quartet, above: from left: Benoit, flute; Joe Finn, guitar; Mike Benedict, drums; Pete Toigo, bass

Below, from left: Joe Finn, guitar; Benoit, tenor saxophone; Mike Benedict, drums; Pete Toigo, bass

Stuffing their 90-minute show with tunes every jazz player has performed many, many times; rehearsal or no rehearsal, their challenge was to find something new to say. They mostly managed this, too, with veterans’ assurance and fresh invention well within the songs.

Benoit mostly played tenor saxophone, launching a vigorous run through “All the Things You Are” to start before going off-script (or set-list) into “All Blues,” his fleet flute leading. They mostly followed straightforward theme and variations development; guitarist Joe Finn sometimes setting the rhythm before drummer Mike Benedict and bassist Pete Toigo filled in the groove and Benoit climbed on board with a familiar statement of the head, then ran changes. While Benoit cued Benedict and Toigo to solo at times, mostly he and Finn led. Finn built single-note solos with flat-pick and comped chords under everything else with his thumb, unifying things. 

While Benoit said he’d hit his speed limit in “All the Things,” he revved into pulsating velocity in “A Night In Tunisia.” Everybody plays this, but they refreshed it with Benedict’s hi-hat going double-time, Toigo ably having his say and Finn underlining everything, right up to a unison hard stop after Benoit built energy with repeating riffs.

“Watermelon Man” felt a bit less focused, its mid-tempo funk feel gaining momentum before Benoit simmered things down, like a studio fade. He returned to flute for “Killing Me Softly,” crisp and cool, before “Caravan” loosened things up as Benedict used mallets on his toms to push from the start. 

Benoit took the mic to wind things down before Toigo reminded him the gig was 90 minutes, not 60; and the show took its second wind with John Coltrane’s “Equinox.” Here Finn echoed  Benoit’s whirlwind runs, Benoit quoted “Eleanor Rigby” and its stop-and-go cadence built the energy. The soul groove of “Mercy Mercy Mercy” had a laid-back charm, Finn especially eloquent here. The samba “I Remember April” had good lift-off, flute flying over a solid groove. 

They slowed for a fervent “What a Difference A Day Breaks,” Benoit name-checking Dinah Washington among the artists he’d heard and learned from over Radio Free Europe in his Army Brat youth in Germany. You could hear his reverence for her, and fondness for those formative years, in his tender phrasing.

Benoit had prematurely begun to intro their finale of Sonny Rollins’s playful calypso “St. Thomas” around the 60-minute mark, but used it to close with upbeat happy force, inventive peppy variations racing around before he brought it home with repeating riffs up high.

Thursday’s show was actually “Jazz Near Jay,” fleeing dire weather warnings into Proctors GE Theatre where some fans toted in their portable chairs. Good move: The place was dry, calm and cool, unlike the wet fury outside.

Jazz on Jay continues next Thursday, June 25, with the Ambrose, Hearn & Shoudy Trio featuring special guest Matt Steckler.

Jazz on Jay shows are presented free in Jay Square opposite Schenectady City Hall on Thursdays at noon. In wild weather, the customary rain site is Robb Alley at Proctors.

The Set List, above; as seen before the show

Actual:

All The Things You Are

Kind of Blue

A Night in Tunisia

Watermelon Man

Killing Me Softly (With His Song)

Caravan

Equinox

Mercy Mercy Mercy

I Remember April

What a Difference a Day Makes (Benoit announced it first this way, then amended to “Made”)

St. Thomas

Preview: The saxophonist leads a veteran quartet Thurday

If variety is the spice of life, saxophonist, flute player and occasional pianist Marcus Benoit leads a very spicy musical life. Beginning in Germany, he’s played soul, funk, jazz, rockabilly and Americana.

Today, it’s jazz, with improvisation – “the whole point of jazz,” he said. 

With Joe Finn, guitar; Pete Toigo, bass and Mike Benedict drums, he’ll “try to find an arrangement that will make (a song) unique,” he said – to “ride the path between musical territory I am familiar with, and…explore things that happen in the moment, on the bandstand.”

Marcus Benoit; photo from his Bandcamp Page

Benoit’s musical territory expanded from school ensembles and horn bands playing James Brown funk to hits for GIs at on-base clubs and off-base bars in Germany. “I was an Army brat and lived in Munich,” he said, learning from sax players he heard over Radio Free Europe and on his parents’ records. 

Following his father into uniform, he later joined the Air Force and played in its Field Band. He also followed the bar-band footsteps of uncles who played as the Bewa Brothers in the 1950s. After studies at the College of St. Rose and SUNY Albany, he became an Albany schools music teacher; now retired.

He also learned from area jazz giants saxophonist Nick Brignola and pianist Lee Shaw; also jazz pianist Walter Bishop Jr. and woodwinds player Joe Allard, both in New York.

His longest steady jazz gig was with pianist Cole Broderick’s Quartet, live and on Broderick’s four “Seasons of Saratoga” albums (1994-’98); Benoit also released his own album, “Round One” (2003).

“We will do some jazz standards and some more blues/funk oriented songs,” said Benoit of today’s show. Undecided about what originals they might play, they’ll surely perform some standards; likely the spry bebop “Well You Needn’t” (Thelonious Monk), the romantic rocker “Summer Rain,” best-known in Johnny Rivers’s hit version; Roberta Flack’s soul-pop smash “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” and “St. Thomas, the swinging Sonny Rollins calypso.

Next up, Benoit said, “My entire summer is mostly booked up with dates with the Lustre Kings” – guitarist Mark Gamsjager’s long-running rockabilly band.

Jazz on Jay continues next Thursday, June 25, with Grudecki, Shoudy and Hearn with Special Guest Matt Steckler.

Jazz on Jay is presented by the ElectriCity Arts and Entertainment District. 

Sponsors are the New York State Council on the Arts, a Schenectady County Legislature Arts & Culture Grant, Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation and The Schenectady Foundation. We also receive support from Schenectady City Hall and Hoke’s Jukebox. 

Show time is 12 noon at Jay Square opposite City Hall. Rain site: Robb Alley at Proctors.

Review: Bohdan Kinal Quartet at Jazz on Jay, Thursday, June 11, 2026

College students all, the skilled young players of the Bohdan Kinal Quartet coupled respect for the styles and songs of jazz giants with fresh invention Thursday in a sweltering Jazz on Jay show.

Starting with standards “Star Eyes” and “Let’s Cool One,” they settled into the episodic, theme-and-variations approach they then applied to the eight other tunes in their 90-minute set. They also changed up this conventional dynamic by altering players’ places in the arrangements. 

The Bohdan Kinal Quartet, from left: drummer Kiemon Noel, alto saxophonist Bohdan Kinal, bassist Vinny Marotta, and guitarist Sam Wagner

While leader-alto saxophonist Bohdan Kinal’s song choices, original compositions arrangements and vivid playing shaped the show, hyperactive guitarist Sam Wagner likely played the most notes. His fluency and freedom, the graceful way he phrased and always knew where things were going, all supported others’ solos. Actually, they all did that, and it worked well with standards and originals.

Bohdan Kinal, above; Sam Wagner, below

The classic melody of “Star Eyes” charmed right out of the box, giving everybody a chance to shine in solo passages then come together at the recap. The easy swagger of Monk’s “Let’s Cool One” featured Kinal’s fast Charlie Parker-like runs, just as Wagner’s guitar went all Wes Montgomery in “Star Eyes.” Kinal played his first break in “Let’s Cool One” for sheer melodic grace, the second for fun.

At times, the quartet played a bit like a pair of duos; the often syncopated beats team of drummer Kiemon Noel and bassist Vinny Marotta; and the melody guys up front: Kinal and Wagner. But things never separated for long as listening and commenting pulled things together.

Kiemon Noel, above; Vinny Marotta, below

Bud Powell’s “Strictly Confidential” stood out, mid-set, with Kinal and Wagner playing in harmony – different notes, in the same places. In Kinal’s original “St.,” he introduced the main melody with everybody rolling strong on it, then launched his solo with a repeat, then a leap. 

They put a peppy hard-bop spin on “In the Still of the Night,” perfect for drummer Kiemon’s at first unaccompanied solo, teasing with a phrase on the toms that mutated into hot stuff on snare and cymbals and a quote of “Salt Peanuts.” Kinal and Wagner shared the spirit as Marotta set a repeating figure into the song’s seams. 

Another standard followed, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” in an easy-swinging groove, Marotta’s bass again hitting just right, between riffs, then setting up Noel’s solo with long snare rolls before snare-and-cymbals bursts and unified alto and guitar coda.

Wagner introduced “I Should Care” – another antique, awakened and energized – jumping off from Wagner’s fast guitar bursts and Kinal edging his phrases with vibrato, then playing them straight, unadorned; then Wagner pulsating just as fast. Kinal’s original “Passerby” rode a mellow Latin feel, Marotta’s bass strong in the intro, Kinal’s alto on top through a happy melodic ride and Wagner’s guitar, which flowed fairly sparse early on, going strong at the end.

Like Kinal’s blues “Pensativa” and the cozy “St.,” this original closing number felt melodic, inventive and with a pleasing distinctive energy.

Steve Nover was nowhere in sight; maybe Thursday was just too hot to dance.

As a feel-good bonus, Jerry Gordon of the Swingtime Jazz Society hailed drummer Evan Frenyea, who sat in with the quartet for a song, as winner of the 27th Lee Shaw Memorial Scholarship. Saxophonist Bohdan Kinal, guitarist Sam Wagner and drummer Kiemon Noel are all recent past winners.

Evan Frenyea sits in with the Bohdan Kinal Quartet, above; Evan Frenyea, below

Kinal will soon be scarce hereabouts, spending the summer studying and performing in Michigan and Colorado.

Jazz on Jay continues Thursday, June 18 with Marcus Benoit. Jay Square opposite Schenectady City Hall hosts Jazz on Jay shows; rain site for the free concert series is Robb Alley at Proctors.

Set List? Right here, on Kinal’s phone:

Bohdan Kinal gets around.

The saxophonist first played Jazz on Jay in 2021 when he and most of his bandmates in the Center Square Jazz Collective were still in high school; and he returned last year in bassist Nicholas Dwarwika’s Quartet.

Thursday he leads his own quartet with Sam Wagner, guitar; Vinny Marotta, bass; and Kiemon Noel, drums.

Bohdan Kinal plays tenor sax with Center Square Jazz Collective at Jazz on Jay on July 15, 2021

“Sam, Kiemon, and I have played together since high school,” said Kinal. “We’re all going into our senior year of college now; Vinny is new to our lineup.” (Marotta’s quartet opened for the Van Dyck’s recent all-star centennial tribute to Miles Davis and John Coltrane.) Past jazz giants have long inspired Kinal, plus family, friends and teachers.

His father played sax in middle school and his mother played trumpet and piano and sang through high school, then took up the banjo in college. His grandmother played stride piano for area silent films. “I aspire to have ears like her,” said Kinal.

When Eric Walentowicz brought his sax into Kinal’s third grade classroom, “I remember… being immediately drawn to the sound,” said Kinal. “I think that was the moment I was inspired to pick it up.” (Walentowicz played Jazz on Jay last Thursday with the Union College Jazz Ensemble.)

Kinal said Sonny Rollins’s “Sunny Side Up” album, plus Joe Henderson on both Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder” and Horace Silver’s “Song for my Father,” gave him “a concept for the sound of the music early on.” He learned with peers Josh Klamka and Aidan Doyle and from teachers including Walentowicz, Brian Patneaude, Jim Corigliano and Gary Bartz. At the highly selective Oberlin College and Conservatory, Bartz told him, “If I listen to the notes closely enough, they will tell me where they want to go and want to be.”

Doyle played with Klamka and Doyle in their first band after high school. On their first gig, they played the Guilderland Farmer’s Market for tips and a $30 fee.

Kinal played lead alto sax in the 2023 NAfME All-Eastern Jazz Orchestra, with the 2022 and 2023 New York All-State Jazz Orchestras and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Big Band. He won the Lee Shaw Memorial Scholarship, an award for best student jazz composition from the University of Denver and a Flint Initiative Grant.

“We’ll be doing mostly standards…but are playing a few originals as well,” he said, listing “Star Eyes,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” and “In the Still of the Night.”

“I like to approach standards by honoring the melody, and making it the foundation for soloing,” Kinal said. “Jazz, to me, is just spontaneous themes and variations, and these melodies are the keystone to the themes that are developed during solos.

“There is a lot of room for improvisation and interaction between us. Our music is a space to share and collectively develop ideas.”

Jazz on Jay continues next Thursday, June 18, with Marcus Benoit.

Jazz on Jay is presented by the ElectriCity Arts and Entertainment District. 

Sponsors are the New York State Council on the Arts, a Schenectady County Legislature Arts & Culture Grant, Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation and The Schenectady Foundation. We also receive support from Schenectady City Hall and Hoke’s Jukebox. 

Show time is 12 noon at Jay Square opposite City Hall. Rain site: Robb Alley at Proctors.

Review: Union College Jazz Ensemble at Jazz on Jay, Thursday June 4, 2026

Setting an attendance record – audience AND artists – and adding a bonus performance by the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, Jazz on Jay began its new season with the extra-large Union College Jazz Ensemble Thursday in Schenectady’s downtown Jay Square.

Above: Lanaea Bailey of Proctors Collaborative introduces the Union College Jazz Ensemble at Jazz on Jay; below, Tim Olsen; still lower, students file in.

Maroon T-shirted Union student players and singers sheltered from the sun under a tent and the adjacent  permanent orange-roofed gazebo while blue-T-shirted young charter school students swelled the crowd out front. The Ensemble numbered 31, with more singers than any instrument section. Vocal numbers mixed with instrumentals early, then vocals dominated late, singing chorus style. 

Music Professor and Ensemble Director Tim Olsen seldom sounded academic in intros of songs and performers, starting with Wayne Shorter’s “One By One.” Alto sax “ringer” Eric Walentowicz, a respected saxophone pro Olsen later predicted would return to Jazz on Jay with other crews, energized this hard-bop classic, cranking up a busy, fluid alto break. Then “Boplicity” by the Miles Davis Nonet set a cool-jazz vibe featuring trumpets and baritone sax.

Evan Schieren, above, set aside his trombone to step front and sing “Mack the Knife,” Thursday’s first vocal, and a strong one. Adrianna Miles also sang well, in “Hey Big Spender” – another show-tune favorite. Generally, section playing impressed more often than instrumental solos, showing the ensemble is both well-rehearsed and inclusive, staffed with players of varying skills and experience. The same with vocals; soloists were uneven, but the seven vocalists massed at the end sang cohesive and crisp.

Like a jukebox with deep inventory, well-known numbers dominated. Early vocal tunes “Danke Schoen,” with wobbly vocal, and “I Will Survive” by the all-women trio Debi and the Tri-Tones, spanned Vegas pop and NYC disco, respectively. Olsen gleefully grabbed up a bass drum for the New Orleans parade instrumental “Second Line,” Walentowicz’s alto again soaring over sharp section play. 

Above, Director Tim Olsen, center, in red cap with bass drum, leads the Union College Jazz Ensemble; below, Eric Walentowicz solos

Olsen’s solo piano framed the vocal in Abba’s punchy-pop “Winner Takes It All” before a cozy trio formed to add heft. Chris Tompkins left the brass section to take over the mic up front in the Sinatra signature croon “The World We Knew.” Walentowicz’s alto co-starred with Rosi Lampert’s voice in Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” soloing sweet and punching short phrases in the song’s seams.

Neal Hefti’s “Cute” faltered a bit from relaxed into languid in its middle section, but things sharpened up at the end. The PMW Trio’s original “Block A” had an easy bossa charm and conventional development. But then they rode a smooth segue into Dave Brubeck’s familiar “Take Five” in a muscular glide without the trademark saxophone; Walentowicz could certainly have handled that.

Grace Schultz

Grace Schultz left the drums and percussion section at the rear for the vibraphone up front in the Lionel Hampton/Benny Goodman upbeat classic “Flying Home;” this faltered some on tentative sax playing but recovered its energy and cohesion.

Then Olsen summoned seven singers up front, all women, for the Andrews Sisters’ swing time staple “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me,” sung both straight and with counterpoint. This voice-dominant version of the Ensemble stayed put for Raye’s peppy “Where’s My Husband?” – alternating sung and rapped verses. Behind them, the instruments shone strong, too, a fine, big finish.

Let’s give the stage crew some: Balancing inputs from dozens of microphones, and likely direct inputs for electric instruments, didn’t faze the sound engineer, who delivered clarity and kick. The crew helped the Ensemble strip down the stage for the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company to take over. 

Jazz on Jay continues through Aug. 27. Next up: the Bohdan Kinal Quartet on Thursday, June 11. The Jazz on Jay weather haven is Robb Alley at Proctors.

Bonus 1 – The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company presented an impressive, varied and condensed (30 minutes) recital that began with the four dancers assembling their own dance-floor of interlocking rubber panels where the Union College Jazz Ensemble had just performed. This was both efficient and performative; music played as they worked. Sinopoli explained this was part of a 35-show summer series celebrating her company’s 35 years. She chose mostly jazz music, including works by local or regional artists, in a fitting and courteous choice.

Ellen Sinopoli, above; dancers below

Bonus 2 – Maestro Olsen, above, provided the full Union College Jazz Ensemble roster. He also noted Thursday’s show was the swan song of seniors soon to graduate. The ensemble will fire up after Labor Day. Thursday, it comprised:

Jonathan Deitchman, clarinet

Lily Eagen, soprano sax

Ryan Fusco, tenor sax

Zachary Lipyanskiy, bari sax

Angelina Martinelli, flute/alto sax

Eric Walentowicz, alto sax

Kent Angert, trumpet

Gael Landa, trumpet

Oliver D’Anna, trombone

Sammy Fenigstein, trombone

Evan Schieren, trombone/vocals

Chris Tompkins, trombone

Ryder Mollo, piano

Zion Schlussel, piano

Diego Fuentes-Alvarado, guitar

Jack Gold, guitar

Leo Weisberger, guitar/bass 

Nate Feinfeld, bass

Owen Santora, bass

Francesco Ciaramitaro, drumset/percussion

Ben Pistiner, drumset/percussion

Grace Schultz, drumset/percussion/vibes

Mollyjane Boyle, vocals

Ashley Callery, vocals

Sofia DeCola, vocals

Strahlia Durr, vocals

Georgia Keleki, vocals

Rosalind Lampert, vocals

Adrienne Long, vocals

Adrianna Miles, vocals

Melanie Thomas-Denaxas, vocals

Tim Olsen, onstage, left of center, asks students who plays instruments

Union Professor and Ensemble Director Tim Olsen Leads Student Musicians

Six sax or clarinet players, two trumpeters, four trombonists (one also sings), two pianists, two guitarists (one also plays bass), two bassists, three drummers/percussionists and nine singers. That’s the Union College Jazz Ensemble, kicking off the Jazz on Jay season Thursday with the largest crew ever in this free series.

At 31 players and singers strong, the ensemble numbers nearly as many years as its director Tim Olsen has taught at Union as professor, composer, conductor, trumpeter, pianist and trombonist.

“I knew I wanted to be a musician from middle school onward,” says Olsen, citing trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Maynard Ferguson as inspirations, also composers, arrangers and bandleaders Duke Ellington and Oliver Nelson. Olsen formed his first band in high school, earning his first fee of $50 playing a St. Paul wedding. 

Tim Olsen plays a trumpet solo while leading his Big Band to open the 2024 season of A Place for Jazz. He also played piano and conducted the ensemble, which filled the stage at SUNY Schenectady County Community College Carl B. Taylor Auditorium.

Training intensively and at length, he earned his bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition at Washington University in St. Louis, a master of arts from the University of Minnesota (his home state), several more masters and a doctorate from Yale. After studying organ at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen as a Fulbright Scholar, Olsen found his place teaching and performing at Union in 1994.

He teaches in classrooms and practice rooms, directs a quartet, a quintet and a big band, records and performs original music. His 18-piece Tim Olsen Big Band, co-starring singer/wife Susie Olsen, opened the 2024 season at A Place for Jazz. He’s also launching Jazz on Jay’s season today, leading his students.

“I don’t really have an audition process the way a traditional orchestra, concert band, or choir might,” Olsen said. “Students show up at the beginning of the term. They sit in, and if they’re comfortable, they stay. If not, they go back to the practice room and work on technique and sight-reading.”

At Jazz on Jay Thursday, “We’re playing a wide spectrum of jazz and related pop music,” including the big band swing of Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home,” the Andrews Sisters’ “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” cool jazz of Miles Davis and Gil Evans in “Boplicity,”  pop standards “Mack the Knife,” “Danke Schoen” and “Big Spender” – plus Raye’s contemporary sound in “Where Is My Husband.” In addition, Olsen predicted some groups in the Ensemble would play originals.

“We’re featuring our (nine!) vocalists at the end,” said Olsen. “There should be close to 30 people on the stage.” He checked the Jazz on Jay stage recently: “We think we can fit everyone.”

Jazz on Jay is presented by the ElectriCity Arts and Entertainment District. 

Sponsors are the New York State Council on the Arts, a Schenectady County Legislature Arts & Culture Grant, Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation and The Schenectady Foundation. We also receive support from Schenectady City Hall and this blog.

The series comprises 13 concerts, all presented free. 

Show time is 12 noon Thursdays at Jay Square opposite City Hall. If the weather turns too wet or warm, Jazz on Jay concerts move indoors to Robb Alley at Proctors.