Local Jazz Scenes: The View From Central New York

[Jagsu]

The state of Utica's jazz sceneBy CASSAUNDRA BABER
Observer-Dispatch
Posted Dec 25, 2008 @ 06:00 AM
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It’s a Friday night in downtown Utica — a couple hours after happy hour, but several hours before closing time. The area around Devereux and Charlotte streets is quiet. Snowy footprints, illuminated by the hazy glow of a streetlight, are the only evidence of activity.


But a muted beat, a muffled tune, a hushed harmony slips through the cracks of The Devereux, where The Devin Garramone Trio seduces listeners with a shot of jazz/funk that jolts the soul.
That soul-stirring is what jazz scenes are made of, say local jazz musicians, but Utica doesn’t seem to be developing a jazz scene that’s on par with its musicians’ talent.
Why the void?
The reasons range from poor marketing to struggling bars, they say.
“Devin (Garramone) really is the only guy that’s carrying anything in terms of jazz in the area,” said longtime jazz trumpeter John Piazza Jr., who regularly performs with Sal Alberico at Tiny’s Bar and Grill on State Street. “Every once in a while I get a gig, but the thing is (club owners) aren’t going to risk the chance and hire (musicians) that aren’t going to bring in a following of people, because they lose money.”
Piazza remembers a time – during the ’70s and ’80s — when the local jazz scene thrived. He points to the late Sal Amico as a major force.
“Sal had this personality and ability – he was just electric. If you want to say single-handedly that he was the scene you could almost say that,” Piazza said. “He worked in restaurants as a maitre d’, and because he was a musician, he convinced the club owners to take chances on musicians.”
Changing times
Fast forward 30 years; taking a chance is something that club owners and audiences seem unwilling to do, said Garramone, a saxophone player. He correlates that to Americans’ declining music literacy and, subsequently, their lack of appreciation for music at its best.
“In the ’60s and ’70s, almost anything you heard had a saxophone solo – it was like a guitar solo in today’s music,” Garramone said. “That’s all changed with the advent of technology. People are able to create music just because they’re creative, but a lot of them don’t have the technical ability. That also leads to the music being primitive on some levels – |a lot of times in a harmonic sense.”
“Nowadays, what is left of the Utica scene is often run by the most inexperienced players performing badly for free at our most prominent jazz clubs,” Piazza said. “The result is the listeners — sometimes first-time listeners — are hearing substandard music.”
Piquing interest
But talent is only one side of the equation, said Michael “Doc” Woods, a jazz bassist and professor of music at Hamilton College.
“When you have a scene that is alive and healthy, you have exceptionally creative and talented musicians. … People have to be interested, and musicians pick up on that interest, then they come out with new tunes and new grooves that fit that energy,” he said.
Many who might be interested, however, are too young to come into the venues, said Garramone.
“The 18-to-21-year-olds, they’re still around. They just graduated high school,” he said. “(but) between 22 and 30 they’re not here. They’ve left the area for college, for better jobs, other opportunities, a different scene.”
Pair that with the financial struggle faced by most club owners and all the entertainment people have at home, and it doesn’t matter how talented the musicians are.
That’s why jazz singer Julie Falatico is dedicated to marketing herself to restaurants and club owners.
“As far as places to play, it’s about making it happen,” Falatico said. “When I came back to the area, I was told ‘good luck getting gigs,’ … but if you feel called to do something, you’ll create something.”
Movement on the scene
Some musicians define the quality of the jazz scene in different terms than bustling clubs.
“A group of musicians trying to support each other – I feel like that’s the jazz scene,” said Matthew Vacanti, a bassist who plays regularly with the Julie Falatico Trio. “It’s not a building. It’s a collection of musicians.”
And Utica has that — as evidenced by uticajazz.com, where almost 100 Utica jazz artists are represented, said Monk Rowe, who plays mostly jazz, but performs other styles also.
“I’ve been very satisfied, for the most part, with the musical opportunities that have presented themselves to me, and finding a way to take advantage of them,” he said.
The jazz scene, however, he said, has shifted from the clubs to the campus.
“Jazz, now — not just here — has moved into academia. It keeps it alive,” said Rowe, who, along with Woods, interviews jazz musicians from around the world for Hamilton College’s Jazz Archive. “Jazz has become very big in colleges, universities, high schools. It’s changed the way music is learned. Jazz has become music not so much for the casual listener.”
The clubs are still important, Piazza said, suggesting Varick Street as the perfect place for a jazz club with a house rhythm section and weekly guest musicians that would create a buzz that would attract young hipsters.
‘I’m going to keep on writing’
Even if that doesn’t happen, it won’t stop these musicians.
“As long as I live, I’m going to write charts,” Woods said. “I’m going to keep on writing just as if the scene was alive and bustling. … so if this situation ever comes, I’m ready — that’s the only thing that makes me practice night after night. I got nothin’ else, that’s all I got.”