Bo Winiker and Phil Person trumpet, Ted Casher clarinet and tenor sax, Herb Gardner trombone, Bob Winter piano, Jimmy Mazzy banjo/vocals, Eli Newberger tuba, Bob Tamagni drums, Elaine Wu vocals
Eli Newberger
This band is never dull! On this cold and rainy day, Jimmy opened on his renowned one-string banjo singing April Showers. But it soon got HOT in here with two trumpets and clarinet, Eli strolling up front playing tuba.
Eli says “I can’t get over the excitement that Phil and Bo create, individually and together, and the band’s new energy. Add Elaine and our vocal themes and solos, including Bob Winter’s, and we’ve got a joyful evening, full of honest emotion and unexpected brilliance, every single performance.”
They continued with optimistic tunes for better weather.
Bob Winter Sings!
Hope For Better Days– Surprise – Bob Winter Singing!! Wonderful! Followed by band ensemble on Look For The Silver Lining.
Bo Winiker playing flugelhorn
Speaking of Silver Linings, Elaine Wu was back with tunes that help people relate to each other – Carol King’s Music, Ellington’s In a Mellow Tone, and off to Rio for One Note Samba, with Bo on flugelhorn.
Phil Person
Phil Person’s sweet trumpet was featured with Honeysuckle Rose, with Jimmy scatting.
Bob Winter continued in propulsive rhythm and fluid style on keyboard with Without You.
Carolyn Newberger
Carolyn Newberger joined Jimmy singing Coney Island Washboard Rondelay.
Carolyn is usually sitting in the audience drawing pictures of the musicians. She had a successful showing of her art this month at Galatea Fine Arts in Boston.
Elaine Woo rules!
Elaine returned singing Too Marvelous For Words, then introduced a couple of friends to sing a song. This whole evening was about friendships. Belinda sang All The Things You Are, and Nat tried some Jimmy Durante on You Do Something To Me, and with a Jazz Waltz from the movie The Yearling, and I’m All Smiles.
Herb Gardner
Herb Gardner was featured on trombone and vocals with ‘Till We Meet Again.
Jimmy Mazzy
Jimmy dove through his plethora of songs for a 1927 tune played by the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, Slow River.
Ted Casher
Ted was featured on tenor sax with Squattee Roo.
Eli and Jimmy have been a team for many years. Eli backed him on a very slow If You Knew How Much I Love You. The band ramped up with a real barn-burner, South Rampart St. Parade.
Bob Tomagni
Behind the band, always listening, adding emphasizing beats, keeping them in time, Bob Tomagni on drums.
This fine evening closed with Bo back on flugelhorn and Jimmy singing New Orleans.
The large, enthusiastic crowd clapped all night long! This was an exhilarating evening – we didn’t want it to end – but time was up. But…Eli and The Hot Six, with Bo and Phil on trumpet and Elaine and Carolyn will return on May 17th – Join us for an evening full of surprises!
Phil Person trumpet, Ted Casher reeds, Herb Gardner trombone, Bob Winter keys, Jimmy Mazzy banjo/vocals, Eli Newberger leader/tuba, Bob Tamagni drums
Eli & The Hot Six played fantastic contemporary jazz Thursday November 17th at Primavera Ristorante in Millis, MA. They enjoy playing together; it’s always a fun evening watching and listening to this band! Next month they will be the ONLY band playing here – save the Date, December 15th 7-9:30pm
The Front Line enjoyed playing riffs and challenging each other as Eli pointed to each of them. They worked on tunes they have never played before and others they haven’t played for years. It was a revelation!
Ted Casher, Phil Person, Herb Gardner
They began with a song Jimmy hadn’t sung in 20 years, Down By The Riverside, with the others chanting “ain’t gonna” before his every line.
Ted Casher on soprano sax
Ted Casher usually plays clarinet and tenor sax, but this evening he played mostly soprano sax. Tenor sax came out for a very fast Salt Peanuts with Jimmy scatting his chorus. At the end of the evening he played a smoky Where or When on tenor sax, the slowest that he’s played it in years.
Jimmy Mazzy is the only person who can emulate Bessie Smith’s sensual emotions.
Jimmy sang Louis Armstrong’s You’ll Never Walk Alone and absolutely astonished everyone singing the last chorus very slowly in heartfelt Mazzy style. There is only one Jimmy Mazzy in the whole world and we were privileged to hear him on Bessie Smith’s Christmas Songs: Christmas Comes But Once a Year and At The Christmas Ball.
Bob listens and accentuates Eli’s tuba
Eli and Bob Tamagni have lively exchange on a rambunctuous South Rampart St. Parade
They paid tribute to W.C. Handy on his birthday with a stunning Saint Louis Blues, with Phil’s fine solo on trumpet with the band in stop time. Eli held long difficult notes on tuba, Piano trading fours with tenor sax. They were having a ball!
Bob Winter enjoys being with this band. It’s a break from the Boston Pops.
Bob Winter was featured with deep, lush sound on a tune written by Charlie Chaplin, Smile
Phil Person filled in for Bo Winiker on trumpet
Guest trumpet Phil Person was featured on a soulful I Want a Little Girl, with band backing him in stop time. (Herb took the vocal!)
Herb Gardner played at Eddy Condon’s in NY
Herb Gardner was featured on vocal and trombone, extending the slide to its maximum length in Dixieland Style for Write Myself a Letter.
Bob Tamagni keeps the beat with many tricks
Tamagni has a minimalist Trad Jazz drum set, keeping time with tambourine on the banjo player’s national anthem, Waiting For The Sunshine. It was one of those never-ending tunes with each musician taking a final solo, Bob finally closing it on drums.
Their lyricism and expertise shaped the festive mood this evening. They closed with Eli leading on China Boy. It shows how they enjoy being together!
Eli and The Hot Six will be the only Thursday Jazz Band at Primavera in December – on the 15th at 7pm. Mark your calendars!.
by Marce
Tunes:
Down By The Riverside
Salt Peanuts
Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
South Rampart Street Parade
Saint Louis Blues
Lover
Christmas Comes But Once a Year
At The Christmas Ball
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
The World is Waiting For The Sunrise
I Want a Little Girl
Washington and Lee Swing
I Cover The Waterfront
China Boy
SWINGIN’ GERSHWIN
with
Eli & The Hot Six + Rebecca Sullivan
Bob Winter, Bo Winiker, Jimmy Mazzy,
Ted Casher, Herb Gardner & Jeff Guthery
Monday, June 22, 2015 | 8:00 pm
Pittsfield, MA–Barrington Stage Company will present Swingin’ Gershwin with Eli & The Hot Six + Rebecca Sullivan on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, Monday, June 22 at 8:00 pm. Eli & The Hot Six are a fabulous jazz group just formed by the world-renowned tuba player and keyboardist, Eli Newberger and the band has a superb new CD, titled Eli & The Hot Six LIVE Contemporary Classic Jazz.
The group’s approach honors the New Orleans tradition of ensemble improvising while featuring the solo brilliance of its distinctive, contemporary musical personalities. Jazz singer Rebecca Sullivan adds an additional instrumental voice to the ensemble, in addition to her own deeply-felt interpretations of iconic vocal masterpieces, from “Honeysuckle Rose” to “Perdido.” The new disc and show at Scullers also feature some of Boston’s finest, legendary musicians: Eli Newberger on tuba, Bob Winter on piano, Herb Gardner on trombone, Bo Winiker on trumpet, Ted Casher on clarinet, soprano and tenor saxes, Jimmy Mazzy on banjo and vocals and Jeff Guthery on drums.
Barrington Stage Company and its Boyd-Quinson Mainstage is located at 30 Union Street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts 01201. Tickets at $45 and $35 go on sale now at www.BarringtonStageCo.org or call 413-236-8888. Eli Newberger is a famed musician. Classically trained at Juilliard and Yale, he is a virtuoso jazz tuba and keyboard player who has cut more than 40 records with the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, which he co-founded in 1970. Dr. Newberger also won three national readers’ polls for best jazz tuba player! Often with banjo player/singer Jimmy Mazzy, he delights his audiences with musically illustrated lectures on character building.
Eli Newberger is also a highly-lauded and world-renowned pediatrician affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital in Boston. Known for his ability to apply good sense and up-to-date science to unresolved issues of family life, he has been a pioneer in identifying and treating child abuse and family violence. He is often called to testify in legal cases and is a high profile media personality, having appeared nationally on The Today Show, ABC World NewsTonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Nightline, CNN News, The Oprah Winfrey Show, 60 Minutes and National Public Radio programs such as Here and Now. In the Boston market, he has appeared on The Connection and Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon, CBS News Boston, WCVB 5 News, 7News Boston, NECN News, NECN’s Broadside with Jim Braude, Boston Public Radio, Greater Boston with Emily Rooney, WBUR FM’s Radio Boston, WCVB TV’s Chronicle among others.
With girlish sophistication, gleaming intelligence and three-octave range, jazz singer Rebecca Sullivan, a Pennsylvania native, is at 31 already a full-blown original—someone who stands apart from all the standards singers now crowding the field not only with her distinctive style, but also her eagerness to take risks. Rebecca received her Masters of Music Degree in Contemporary Improvisation and Voice from New England Conservatory of Music in May 2014. In a quirk of circumstance, she and Eli Newberger were assigned to one another as mentee and mentor. After sitting in with his band in 2012 at their gig at the Sherborn Inn, the Hot Six and fans wanted her back! She’s now based in New York, works in the offices of the Metropolitan Opera and shows up in Boston for gigs with the Hot Six. Rebecca has a fine website,http://www.rebeccasullivanjazz.com.
Bob Winter, unassailable dean of Boston jazz pianists, is a veteran performer in all manner of musical situations and styles, in solo, duo, trio and small group settings. Since 1980, Bob has been the pianist with the Boston Pops and Pops Esplanade Orchestras, with Keith Lockhart and John Williams, conducting at Symphony Hall and for many tours and recordings. Bob joined the faculty of Berklee College of Music in 1972, where he is still a professor of piano.
Bo Winiker, a graduate of New England Conservatory, plays trumpet, flugelhorn and vibraphone. Bo recently fulfilled his lifelong dream of conducting and soloing at Boston Symphony Hall, where he led the Boston Pops Swing Orchestra during the opening night of both the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Symphony Orchestra seasons as well as the sold out 2013 and 2014 New Year’s Eve galas. He toured worldwide with the NEC’s Grammy® Award-winning Ragtime Ensemble, under the direction of Gunther Schuller as well as with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. In addition, Bo has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra and has also recorded on the movie soundtrack A League of Their Own with Billy Joel. Bo performed at the White House for President Ford and at two Presidential Inaugurations, for Presidents Carter and Clinton.
One of the busiest jazzmen in New England, clarinetist and saxophonist Ted Casher grew up in Skowhegan, Maine in a family of musicians. Ted’s career spans studying and teaching at the Berklee College of Music, clarinet performances with front-rank traditional jazz stars like Louis Armstrong, starring as solo clarinetist in bands that revive the legacies of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw and playing tenor sax in big bands from the legendary Duke Delaire Big Band at Bovi’s Tavern in East Providence and Peter Duchin’s Orchestra performing everywhere at society dances. Ted is renowned for his fluent improvisations, exquisite sound, klezmer inflections and boffo sense of humor.
Jimmy Mazzy enjoys iconic status as both a banjoist and vocalist on the American jazz scene. For more than forty years, this consummate musician has delighted followers of traditional jazz with his uniquely lyrical banjo style and his wonderfully haunting vocals. He is featured on more than 30 albums, many of them on the famous Stomp Off label including the Paramount Jazz Band and his own Jimmy Mazzy & Friends. In a New York Times review of Jimmy and Eli’s Stomp Off recording, Shake It Down, critic John S. Wilson wrote: “Mr. Mazzy sings with husky-voiced intensity and a sentimental enthusiasm that sometimes suggests a cross between Ted Lewis and Clancy Hayes. His banjo-playing is relaxed and flowing, providing light lines that help the tuba rise up and shuffle around.”
Drummer Jeff Guthery won the “fastest hands” division of the World’s Fastest Drummer competition at the Anaheim Winter NAMM Show in 2007. He has been playing drums for ten years and performed traditional and bebop jazz in Kyrgyzstan and South Korea for five years prior to coming to Boston, where he is currently a student at Berklee College of Music’s Percussion Department, majoring in Jazz Drum Set Performance.
Soon after moving to New York in 1963, trombonist Herb Gardner began touring with Wild Bill Davison, Kenny Davern and Dick Wellstood as well as becoming a regular at the Metropole, Jimmy Ryan’s and Eddie Condon’s nightclubs. During the ‘60s and ’70s, he appeared with virtually all of the classic jazz musicians in the New York City area such as Roy Eldridge, Gene Krupa, Henry “Red” Allen, Bobby Hackett, Jimmy Rushing, Doc Cheatham, Max Kaminsky and even Wingy Manone.
Swingin’ Gershwin Eli & The Hot Six + Rebecca Sullivan
Barrington Stage Company’s
Boyd-Quinson Mainstage
30 Union Street,
Pittsfield, Massachusetts 01201 Monday, June 22 at 8:00 pm
Tickets:$45 and $35
BarringtonStageCo.org
Call: 413-236-8888
Bo Winiker trumpet/flugelhorn, Rebecca Sullivan vocals, Ted Casher cllarinet/tenor sax, Herb Gardner trombone, Jimmy Mazzy banjo/vocals, Bob Winter keyboard, Eli Newberger leader/tuba, Jeff Guthery drums.
by Marce
Eli & The Hot Six is a powerhouse group of accomplished musicians playing music to warm the heart and melt the snows! They are spontaneous, inspiring one another, weaving around each other, with gentle sparkplug Bob Winter of the Boston Pops on keyboard, Jim Mazzy banjo and Jeff Guthery’s masterful drumming.
This was a celebration of the release of their first CD. It is extraordinary in that it contained sketches of each musician by Carolyn Newberger. Fans bought them quickly to obtain autographs of the musicians, at a special discounted price of $10.
Purchase here.
Oh, and the Contemporary Classic Jazz was incredible!
Muscat Ramble kicked off this evening, with Jeff Guthery playing a solo on graduated temple blocks.
Rebecca Sullivan
Rebecca Sullivan warmed the crowd with Gershwin’s Summertime, an upbeat I’ve Got Rhythm. Embraceable You, a tune from the new CD, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.
She drove from New York to get here, and returned afterwards to get to work in the morning at the NY Metropolitan Opera Guild!
Duke Ellington’s Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me, played very slowly, Bo leading with Ted’s clarinet and Herb’s trombone in the background.
Eli Newberger, the roaring tiger
The growl of the rip-roaring tuba-tiger on Tiger Rag. Eli’s dedication and devotion to this music are apparent on his face!
He jumps up and leads the front line parading through the enthusiastic audience; they love this music and enjoyed becoming part of it.
Parade of the Tigers
Carolyn Newberger is usually sitting quietly, drawing sketches of the musicians. They are works of art, and available with the CD. Tonight she let loose and joined the band on washboard for an energetic Miami Beach Rhumba – fun tune, and they all had fun playing it.
Carolyn plays washboard
Jimmy Mazzy feels the pain
Jimmy agonizes with the blues, almost reading the words of a man who searched for his loved one and found her body at St. James Infirmary. The instrumental solos build powerfully, with Jimmy ending in heartbreaking a capella, sadly, mournfully.
Perdido: Eli says it all in his Notes on the CD: Eli & The Hot Six LIVE, Contemporary Classic JAZZ. “Ted Casher’ eloquent solo tenor sax builds a rhythmic foundation for this splendid song written by Juan Tizol, a trombonist in the Ellington band. Rebecca jumps in almost as an instrumental voice, extending chorus after chorus of melodic variations, counter rhythms, and little conversations with clarinet, trumpet, and trombone. One can hear why Bob and the horn players, steeped in this music and, indeed, knowing the passing harmonies and final ensemble riffs like the backs of their hands, love her so much. “
Ted Casher, Bo Winiker, Herb Gardner
They closed with Bye Bye Blackbird, first recorded by Gene Austin in 1926. It’s not bye-bye for this band, just the beginning. They will return often, we hope, before their official CD release at Sculler’s Jazz Club on May 21st. Hope to see you there??
Scullers Jazz Club at the Doubletree Suites by Hilton Boston-Cambridge,
400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston, MA 02134
May 21st – Show: $30, Show & Dinner: $70, Show Time: 8pm 617-562-4111
Recorded live at the Sherborn Inn, Sherborn MA December 2013 through May 2014
Honeysuckle Rose Rebecca Sullivan
St. James Infirmary Jimmy Mazzy
Oh By Jingo Bob Winter
Perdido Rebecca Sullivan
Chinatown, my Chinatown Jimmy Mazzy
Body and Soul Ted Casher
I Can’t Give You Anything… Rebecca Sullivan
Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen Ted Casher
Just Squeeze Me Rebecca Sullivan
Them There Eyes Rebecca Sullivan
Charlie on the MTA Ted Casher
Tiger Rag Randy Reinhart
