Event
11TH ANNUAL OSPAC JAZZ AND BREW FESTIVAL.
Bob DeVos
There's a heavy blues and soul element in the jazz guitar stylings of Bob DeVos. He can't help it, as many of his formative years in Paterson, N.J. were spent performing with groups influenced by B.B. King, Otis Redding, James Brown, and other classic blues and rhythm & blues performers. While no one in DeVos' family played a musical instrument, he was influenced by his parents' and his older brother's record collections, which included Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Frank Sinatra as well as King Curtis, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, and other pioneers of rock & roll.
Shortly after making his professional debut playing blues and classic rhythm & blues, New Jersey-based DeVos discovered pure jazz stylists like Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Jim Hall, and Pat Martino. In his early twenties, he chose jazz over rock, realizing he needed more chord changes and the freedom of expression that jazz and soul-jazz offered. In the '80s, '90s, and into the new millennium, DeVos' guitar style in various groups he'd led could best be described as an artful blend of blues, classic rhythm & blues, and straight-ahead jazz.
DeVos began playing guitar in the '60s and was a student of legendary guitar teachers Harry Leahy and Dennis Sandole. In 1970, Sandole sent his best students out to audition for Hammond organist Trudy Pitts, DeVos was hand-picked by Pitts to play with her group. Since making his professional debut with Pitts, DeVos has accompanied all manner of jazz and blues organists including Richard "Groove" Holmes with saxophonist Sonny Stitt, Jimmy McGriff, and Charles Earland.
Through the years, DeVos has recorded or toured with a short who's-who of soul-jazz: saxophonists Hank Crawford, Stitt, David "Fathead" Newman, and vocalist Irene Reid, as well as organists McGriff, Holmes, Gene Ludwig, and Joey DeFrancesco. DeVos has performed at the Kennedy Center and at all of New York City's top jazz nightclubs.
For much of the '90s, DeVos led his own Hammond B-3 trio, and was a member of the New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra under the leadership of Bill Warfield. Aside from teaching privately out of his home in northern New Jersey, DeVos was on the music faculty at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. He has also hosted many jazz clinics and taught at William Paterson University in Wayne. He received a grant for jazz composition from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Through the '90's and into the new millennium, DeVos has worked frequently with Gene Ludwig's Groove ORGANization, the Charles Earland Tribute Band, and the Ron McClure Quartet.
Breaking the IceBreaking the Ice, released by Savant Records, marked his debut as a bandleader under his own name, accompanied by organist Earland, who died a short time afterwards, as well as percussionist Henry Gibson and drummer Vince Ector. DeVos' Groove Guitar, his debut album for the New Jersey-based Blues Leaf label, was released in 2002.
Dave Striker
Dave Stryker is an American jazz guitarist. He has 25 CDs as a leader to date, and has been a featured sideman with Stanley Turrentine, Jack McDuff, and Kevin Mahogany, among others. Gary Giddins in the Village Voice calls him "one of the most distinctive guitarists to come along in recent years." He was recently voted one of the Top Guitarists in the 2013 Critics and Readers Poll of Down Beat, and previously was elected a Rising Star in the 2004-2007 Downbeat Critics Poll.
Stryker grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, moved to New York City in 1980, and joined organist Jack McDuff's group, travelling all over the U.S. for two years (198485). From 1986 to 1995,and 1998-2000 Stryker played with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, performing at all the major festivals, concert halls, and clubs throughout the world.
He currently leads his own group The Dave Stryker Organ Trio, as well as his Blue to the Bone Band. He co-leads The Stryker / Slagle Band with saxophonist Steve Slagle.
Nat Adderly, Jr
Nat Adderley, Jr. was born in Quincy, Florida. The scion of a famed jazz family, he grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, moving to that suburban New York City community with his family when he was five years old. He started playing piano as a child and had his first song, "I'm on My Way", recorded by his uncle Cannonball on the 1967 album Why Am I Treated So Bad! by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet when the young Nat Adderley was only 11 years old. It was at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City that Adderley first met fellow student Luther Vandross, with whom he would later spend much of his musical career. He attended Yale University, graduating with a degree in African American studies.
While living in Houston, Texas, he was the music arranger for the 1981 album Never Too Much which became Vandross's first hit with the title track, which reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and fourth on the dance charts. He continued working with Vandross, whom he called "a hilarious guy, a great employer, a great friend, and an incredible musician", until the singer's stroke in February 2003 that effectively ended his career.
Adderley has returned to his jazz roots, performing his own works, as well as tributes to both his father and uncle. He cites his influences as Chick Corea, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. In a 2009 interview with the Star-Ledger he said pianists "who are killing me" include Kenny Barron, Herbie Hancock, Cedar Walton and Joe Zawinul.
Nat Adderley, Jr, is a resident of West Orange, New Jersey.
The Hendrick Meurken Samba Jazz Quartet
Virtuoso instrumentalist and composer Hendrik Meurkens began his career in Germany playing vibes. At 19, he heard Toots Thielemans play harmonica, which totally changed his musical life. His career has taken him from Brazil to Germany, then throughout the European continent where he became a pivotal force on the studio and jazz scene, performing, composing, recording, and touring extensively with his own ensembles as well as with visiting legends Harry Sweets Edison and Buddy Tate. In 1989, he returned to Brazil to record his first album as a leader, "Samba Importado". In 1992, a trip to California led to his signing with the Concord label, and the resulting six recordings established him as the first major new voice on the harmonica since Toots Thielemans. He moved to New York in 1992 where he has lived ever since. His 24 CDs have received rave reviews and strong airplay, and established his immediately recognizable style of Brazilian Jazz. In 2014 he won the Brazilian International Press Award. Critics and the jazz listening public alike have recognized Meurkens' incredible talent, listing him repeatedly in the Downbeat and Jazziz Polls. Meurkens has worked with Ray Brown, Paquito D'Rivera, Oscar Castro-Neves, Herb Ellis, Herbie Mann, James Moody, Charlie Byrd, Jimmy Cobb, Ivan Lins, Monty Alexander, Manfredo Fest, Herb Ellis, Dori Caymmi, Toninho Horta, Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Buddy Tate, Joyce, Astrud Gilberto, Roberto Menescal, Antonio Adolfo, Emilio Santiago, and many others.
Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes
Pianists and West Orange residents Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes married in 2007, so the had plenty of time to practice for this duo piano date, since they have twin grand pianos in their apartment and have played a few gigs together as well. Both of them have long résumés as leaders and in support of other musicians. Recorded at the 92nd Street Y in New York City (where Charlap took over the reins from Dick Hyman for Jazz in July series a few years earlier), the husband-and-wife team put together a wide-ranging set list. Their arrangement of fusion keyboardist Lyle Mays' "Chorinho" is a brilliant opener, crackling with its infectious Brazilian rhythm. The soft emotional setting of "My Man's Gone Now" proves haunting; the quiet interpretation of Gerry Mulligan's tender ballad "Little Glory" suggests parents watching a sleeping infant; their rendition of Wayne Shorter's "Ana Maria" shimmers with a subtle energy; and Rosnes' "The Saros Cycle" sounds as if it were written for film, suggesting a journey. Although some writers and musicians dismiss two piano meetings as a mere gimmick, this session by proves that two pianists who are in sync with one another's thoughts can produce timeless music. No time should be wasted in scheduling a follow-up.
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LocationOSPAC. The Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center (View)
4 Boland Drive
West Orange, NJ 07052
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 12 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
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