Driven by NJPAC Community Engagement as part of the TD James Moody Jazz Festival, the annual NJPAC Jazz Crawl returns to Newark for a free evening of live jazz that moves through the city itself. The crawl begins at the TD Store on Mulberry Street, continues to WBGO Headquarters on Park Place, then to Legacy 27 Kitchen & Cocktail on Central Avenue, and ends at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies Clement’s Place jazz club on Washington Street — four stops, four rooms, one night of music, people, culture, and community, ending where Newark gathers to listen, with John Lee and Friends paying tribute to James Moody.
Newark has always been James Moody’s town, and on the night of the NJPAC Jazz Crawl, that history comes home. As you see the crawl moves through Newark — stop by stop, room by room, the city itself becoming the venue — and it ends where it should end: in the listening room at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies Clement’s Place jazz club, 15 Washington Street, with a band led by a man who actually played with Moody. This is not a tribute in name only. It is a tribute played by friends, by musicians who carry Moody’s sound in their hands, in the room where Newark gathers to listen.
Presented by Rutgers IJS and Gregory Burrus Productions, John Lee and Friends brings together five musicians at the top of their game for one night of swing, soul, and straight-ahead jazz — music that honors Moody the saxophonist, Moody the flutist, Moody the Newark son who joined Dizzy Gillespie in 1946 and stayed close to him for the rest of his life, and Moody the composer of “Moody’s Mood for Love,” one of the great melodies in jazz.
John Lee — bass, leader
John Lee is the heart of this band, and the reason this tribute rings true. A Grammy-winning bassist, producer, and audio engineer, John was Dizzy Gillespie’s bassist from 1984 to 1993, touring and recording with Dizzy’s Quintet, his Big Band, his Grammy-winning United Nation Orchestra, and the Back to the Future Band Dizzy co-led with Miriam Makeba. He also toured in James Moody’s own band, and played with Moody in the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars.
Since 1996, at the request of Dizzy’s wife Lorraine Gillespie and the Dizzy Gillespie Estate, John has been the director and bassist of the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars, the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, and the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience. His career, which began in 1970, has also taken him into the bands of Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Heath, Joe Henderson, Aretha Franklin, and Gregory Hines, among many others. In 2009 he co-founded the jazz label Jazz Legacy Productions, and he has produced more than 100 recordings. When John Lee leads a band, the music is grounded, swinging, and steeped in the tradition — and nobody in this room knows Moody’s music from the inside the way he does.
Alex Collins — piano
Alex Collins is a New York City-based pianist, composer, arranger, and vibraphonist who brings brilliance and lift to everything he touches. He made his debut at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival with the Brandon Wright Quartet in 2010, and he is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, with a master’s in Jazz Composition, and the Eastman School of Music, with a bachelor’s in Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media. He received the Wynton Kelly Jazz Foundation Award for Jazz Achievement in 2003 and took part in the prestigious Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead program in 2006.
Aside from leading his own trio, Alex has performed in the bands of Ronnie Burrage, Michelle Coltrane, Gerry Gibbs, Karl Latham, John Lee, Lonnie Plaxico, Lenny White, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars, and he has played New York’s great rooms — the Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club, Smalls Jazz Club, and the Plaza Hotel among them. Expect piano that is melodic and daring at once, full of color, rhythm, and surprise.
Freddie Hendrix — trumpet and flugelhorn
Freddie Hendrix, a Teaneck, New Jersey native, has over the past two decades become one of the most in-demand trumpeters in jazz, and beyond. Also an accomplished composer, arranger, and educator, his skill and versatility have taken him from the Count Basie Orchestra and the Christian McBride Big Band to the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, the Roy Hargrove Big Band, and stages with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Alicia Keys.
A multi-Grammy winner, Freddie has forged his own sure-footed, full-toned sound out of the tradition of Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Lee Morgan, and Clifford Brown. His first recording as a leader, Jersey Cat, is a scintillating septet debut. A product of the esteemed jazz program at William Paterson University, with a master’s in Jazz Studies and Performance from New Jersey City University, he also shares his knowledge as a faculty member at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, The New School, and Jazz House Kids in Montclair. When Freddie steps forward, expect power, warmth, and a sound that fills the room.
Don Braden — saxophone
Don Braden is a world-class saxophonist, flutist, composer, and educator whose jazz career has spanned more than 45 years. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began playing tenor saxophone at age 13 and was playing professionally by 15. He studied engineering at Harvard University, then moved to New York City in 1984, where he played with the Harper Brothers, Lonnie Smith, and Betty Carter — appearing prominently on her Grammy Award-winning album, Look What I Got.
Don toured with Wynton Marsalis in 1986–87, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s toured internationally with Freddie Hubbard. He has also played with Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, J.J. Johnson, Tom Harrell, Art Farmer, and the Mingus Big Band. He has played on more than 100 CDs as a sideman and produced 25 as a leader, most recently his critically acclaimed Earth Wind and Wonder Volume 2, which reached No. 1 on the JazzWeek national radio airplay chart, and Joris Teepe / Don Braden At PizzaExpress Live – In London. He has served as music director of the Litchfield Jazz Camp since 1998, and he currently runs the Jazz Combo Initiative at Harvard College. Don Braden plays with soul, sophistication, and swing — a master storyteller on the saxophone.
John Iannuzzi — drums
John Iannuzzi is a New York City-based drummer and musical artist who studied at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music on a scholarship, as a protégé of the great Ralph Peterson. He has been hired by luminaries including Curtis Lundy, Craig Handy, Bruce Williams, the Curtis Brothers, Don Braden, and Justin Kauflin, as well as leading his own groups.
In demand for his feel and musicality, John plays with a rhythmic energy and a musical sensitivity that give a band both drive and lift. He listens as hard as he swings, and in a room as intimate as Clement’s Place, that is exactly what you want behind you — a drummer who makes the whole band breathe.
The final leg of the NJPAC Jazz Crawl
We are happy to host the final leg of the NJPAC Jazz Crawl here at Clement’s Place, and proud to do it. The crawl is Newark at its best — music, people, culture, Newark — moving across the city from stop to stop, and ending in a room built for listening, for community, and for jazz. Come early, settle in, and stay for the whole set. This is a night to celebrate James Moody during the TD Moody Jazz Festival in the city that shaped him, with friends who knew him, played with him, and carry his music forward.
Free, RSVP required: bit.ly/JazzCrawl26
See everything coming up at gregoryburrusproductions.com/event/
Jazz Crawl Overview
Jazz is taking over downtown Newark in celebration of the TD James Moody Jazz Festival. Including free live jazz sets at select Newark venues! Most sets are about 35-45 minutes long to account for folks ability to travel to the next location.
Stop 1
Time: 5-6pm
Location: TD Bank Store
105 Mulberry St Suite 3, Newark, NJ 07102
Stop 2
Time: 6-7pm
Location: WBGO Headquarters
54 Park Pl, Newark, NJ 07102
Stop 3
Time: 7-8pm
Location: Legacy 27
27 Central Ave., Newark, NJ 07102
Stop 4
Time: 8-10pm
Location: Clement’s Place
15 Washington St.Newark, NJ
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Thank you for joining us from the NJPAC CE Jazz Advisory Council
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Check out the livestream on the Clement’s Place Jazz and IJS Facebook pages and on our YouTube channel –
https://www.facebook.com/events/407513298157352/?ref=newsfeed
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf8W7q1qlz0yt5Ebcn4tkSQ
https://www.facebook.com/InstituteJazzStudies
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