Litchfield Jazz Celebrates 30th Year at Gunn

“The cherry on the sundae is that the campus is beautiful, but that’s not all. I’ve never felt so welcome and cared for and appreciated. And that’s the reason we are here,” said Vita West Muir, Executive and Artistic Director of LPA. “I feel like it’s home, I really do. I don’t want to go anywhere else.”
 
The festival began in 1996 with the aid of a small grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and a lineup of stellar musicians that Muir said she wished she could afford today. Among them was a “relatively unknown” vocalist/pianist, Diana Krall – a mega star today, Terence Blanchard – who has scored films for Spike Lee. Ahmad Jamal, and JJ Johnson were there, too. “Everyone was a star or would become one,” Muir recalled. 

One year later, 32 students, ages 13 to 51, enrolled in the first Litchfield Jazz Camp. “Those who could not pay didn’t have to,” Muir said, noting that in the three decades since, the founding philosophy of the camp has not changed. “It admits all comers, all ages, all instruments, but now campers stay overnight for up to a month and there are more than 350 of them at The Frederick Gunn School each July.”

A resurgence of interest in jazz, especially among young people, has been driving an increase in camp enrollment. “It’s also increasing the quality of our enrollment,” Muir said, explaining that when she looked at the camp’s registration this year, she noticed an uptick among students in the 13-16 age bracket — and there were many accomplished players.

“We’ve got a 15-year-old guitarist in the top combo who was with us last year. She won second place in our jazz competition when she was barely 13. We have a 14-year-old drummer now who is just incredible. We’re getting a lot of musical prodigies, because kids come to us largely based on referrals from their teachers and their friends, and that friend is someone who is very serious and, generally, very good.”

“We still have a number of beginners, and that’s great. It all works because we put students in combos based on their skill level,” she added.

Throughout July, Jazz Camp faculty and students have been performing free concerts in the Tisch Family Auditorium of the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center (TPACC) as part of the “Jazz After Work” series. Students will also perform at this weekend’s festival, as they have since the beginning. “They hear and learn from the best artists jazz has to offer,” Muir said. 

This year’s Litchfield Jazz Festival begins with an Opening Night Gala on Friday, July 25, at 5:45 p.m. in the Norman R. Lemcke Community Room of TPACC. The headline performance will be by the Emmet Cohen Trio in the Tisch Family Auditorium at 7:45 pm, with Joey Ranieri on bass, Joe Farnsworth on drums, and Cohen on keys. A former jazz camper, Cohen made his festival mainstage debut in 2013 fresh out of college. This will be his fifth appearance at Litchfield Jazz Festival.

Saturday, July 26, will bring all-day jazz performances to campus, starting with the Matt Dwonszyk Sextet at 3 p.m. in the Tisch Family Auditorium. Hailed as one of the fastest-rising, in-demand bassists working today, Dwonszyk is also a former jazz camper. He will be joined by Kris Allen on saxophone, Tony Davis on guitar, Noah Berman on piano, Jonathan Barber on drums, and Shenel Johns, a regular at JALC, on vocals. 

The festival continues at 4:45 p.m. with a performance by guitar duo Pasquale Grasso, who has performed with Ringo Starr, Madonna, and the Boston and New York Pops, and Frank Vignola, who is in residence every Wednesday night at the world-famous Birdland Jazz Club Theatre and is making his Litchfield Jazz Festival debut.

At 6:30 p.m., Grammy-nominated clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen will take the stage int TPACC with her newest ensemble, Anat Cohen Quartetinho, featuring bassist Tal Mashiach, pianist/accordionist Vitor Goncalves, and vibraphonist/percussionist James Shipp. A perennial winner of awards from JazzTimes, DownBeat Magazine, and the Jazz Journalists Association, Cohen was named the top-ranking clarinetist in this year’s DownBeat Poll, and claimed the highest number of votes cast for any artist in any category. 

The festival concludes on Sunday, July 27, at noon, with a Jazz Brunch in the Bourne Courtyard featuring jazz pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton and her trio of 18 years, with Fukushi Tainaka on drums and Hide Tanaka on bass.

Tickets are still available at this writing; however, these events are expected to sell out. “People who are really seriously interested in jazz know this is the best quality you can get, and they’re telling their friends,” Muir said of the festival’s enduring attraction. Longtime fans also feel like they are part of a family. So, this 30th anniversary milestone? “It’s a thing for the audience as well as it is for us.”

All festival parking is free. Parking is available at Washington Primary School, 1 School Street, Washington Depot. A free shuttle bus will transport patrons to TPACC. Accessible parking for those with a valid permit and shuttle-to-door transport is also available. For more information, please visit litchfieldjazzfest.com.

Photo (top) Anat Cohen Quartetinho and (below) Jazz After Work, courtesy of Litchfield Performing Arts