Escoffery's new band finds him working with a more acoustic sound.
Tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, one of the best and the brightest of New Haven’s major contributions to the international jazz scene, hopes that his many friends and fans in Connecticut will show up to help him celebrate several major milestones in his life and career as he leads his new band in a six-night stint from February 3 to February 8 at the Village Vanguard.
Along with the sheer joy of playing once again at the Vanguard, a jazz shrine located in Greenwich Village, Escoffery, a formidable saxophonist, composer, bandleader and consummate sideman, is celebrating his 40th birthday on every one of those nights in the venerable venue.
Besides observing his birthday a little bit early -- actually, he was born in London on February 23, 1975 -- the New York-based jazz maestro is also celebrating the launching of his brand new band and the upcoming release of a live album on Smalls Live, the label for Smalls Jazz Club. His bandmates in his latest aggregation are pianist David Kikoski, the German-Nigerian bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Ralph Peterson, a triumphant triumvirate that would please any bandleader.
On top of all that good news, Escoffery's super band continues on a roll as it immediately follows up the Vanguard birthday celebrations and performances with a busy European tour, which also marks the dawning of his 40th year.
“After the Vanguard, we head to Europe for two weeks. We’ll perform in Paris, London, Vienna and all over Italy,” said the globe-trotting Escoffery, interviewed just before leaving for weekend gigs in Chile with his longtime employer, trumpet great Tom Harrell.
“After I tour Europe with my new band,” Escoffery adds, “I head to Ukraine on my own as a guest soloist with a big band just outside of Kiev, and also get to play with Ark Ovrutski (the Kiev-born double bassist) in a collaborative quartet. My hope is that this quartet will do a nice studio recording of all originals. We just have to find the right label, and that’s always a challenge,” he said.
Escoffery’s two earlier recordings made just before he formed his present power-packed group were electric sounding and beefed-up with two keyboards, variously pairing Rachel Z, Adam Holzman andOrrinEvans. One of these more electric CDs, The Wayne Escoffery Quintet Live at Firehouse 12, features his group playing in 2013 at New Haven’s Firehouse 12, employing the double keyboard format with Rachel Z on keys and Orrin Evans on piano. The disc was released in 2014 on Firehouse 12’s acclaimed in-house label.
Escoffery and his mother emigrated from a hardscrabble, tough section of London to America in 1983.
Escoffery’s new band finds him working with a more acoustic sound, a change in direction influencing his thinking about writing and arranging for the ensemble. “Over the last few years, I’ve had a larger instrumentation and a much broader spectrum of sound color to work with, due to having both keyboard and piano. It’s inspiring now coming back to this more traditional quartet setting on the new release. I’m rediscovering things and bringing both new and old influences into the music,” he said.
On turning 40, Escoffery said he feels “blessed and humbled by all of the opportunities that I’ve had over the years.”
Those opportunities, facilitated by Escoffery’s own hard-work, determination and talent, go all the way back to when he and his mother, Patricia, emigrated from a hardscrabble, tough section of London to America in 1983.
By age eleven, Escoffery and his devoted mother settled down in 1986 in New Haven, his adopted and musically nurturing hometown. His musical talent began to develop through intensive studies at The Jazzmobile in New York City and The Neighborhood Music School and The Educational Center for The Arts, both in New Haven. In his senior year in high school, he began studying at the Artists Collective in Hartford. There, in a great piece of good fortune, he first met Jackie McLean, the founder of the Collective and himself a legendary jazz alto saxophonist, educator and founder of an innovative jazz degree program at the University of Hartford's Hartt School.
Thanks to McLean, a caring, inspirational mentor and friend, Escoffery became a full-scholarship student at The Hartt School from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1997 with a degree in jazz performance.
Continuing forward with his ambitious dedication to self-improvement, the gifted young man of West Indian heritage, who had survived a Dickensian childhood back in London, graduated in 1999 with a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston.
Since 2000 when he first arrived on the competitive scene in New York City, the epicenter of the jazz world, the six-foot-four tenor titan has toured and recorded with an array of premier performers and celebrated bands: Eric Reed, Abdullah Ibrahim, Lonnie Plaxico, Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy, The Mingus Big Band and The Tom Harrell Quintet. As a leader, he’s made a series of acclaimed recordings and worked in various collaborations, including with his wife, the vocalist Carolyn Leonhart.
A virtually fatherless child (he had no real, supportive bond with his distant father), Escoffery has made giant steps from the worst of times of his childhood in London to the best of times in his adulthood in New York.
New Haven turned out to be an aptly-named city.
Escoffery now has a different perspective on his younger self and the dreams he had back when he was just starting to immerse himself in jazz in his adopted hometown of New Haven.
Fortunately, New Haven turned out to be an aptly-named city with its promise of a new haven, a new life and a new step in Escoffery’s triumphant transatlantic odyssey from poverty in London to celebrity in New York. He said, “I can remember just beginning to get into the music when I was a kid, and making statements like, ‘When I can play 'Giant Steps' like Coltrane on this recording, I know I’ve made it.”
Looking back on his days at the New England Conservatory, he said he remembers “opening Downbeat magazine or JazzTimes one day, and being mesmerized by a big photo of (saxophonist) Mark Shim standing and taking a solo with The Mingus Band. I remember saying a small prayer that one day I would be able to play with them.”
Going all the way back to his formative teen years, his creative imagination was already being fed with dreams of jazz glory inspired by pilgrimages to mythic Big Apple clubs, including the jazz “holy of holies,” The Village Vanguard, where, at this point in his successful career, he has already played two dozen times.
“I can recall long rides from Connecticut to New York City with high school friends to see Tom Harrell at Visiones and The Vanguard. One of my dreams back then was to play in Tom’s band. I’ve now been a member of The Mingus Band for 15 years, and a member of Tom Harrell’s quintet coming up on nine years.
“It’s gratifying knowing that my hard work has paid off,” he said, grateful that many of those old dreams became reality and, along with new dreams, continue to promise even more, expansive possibilities with the coming of each year.
While dreams are fine—most especially, of course, those that come true—Escoffery is also very much a realist and a pragmatist. For all his artistic gifts, he’s certainly anything but the classic ivory tower poet far remote from the world, wrapped serenely in the glory of past accomplishments.
“I’m honestly amazed at how much I still feel I need to learn and accomplish,” he said, reflecting on his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and undiminished inner-fire to become even better.
“Turning 40 creates a certain urgency,” he said, “not only to set new goals in life, but also to meet the goals that you have yet to accomplish. Now more than ever, I feel the need to consistently make music at the highest level as a side-man, leader and featured guest. I’ve established who Wayne Escoffery is, and now I have to work diligently to maintain the standard that I’ve set for myself…and then surpass it.”
Another goal Escoffery sees is to devote himself increasingly to being an educator. Big on expanding his mind and musical horizons, Escoffery appreciates the rare opportunity to have played, recorded, and learned first-hand from jazz masters. It’s a feeling, heightened a bit perhaps by the imminence of turning 40, that inspires his desire to share the time-honored jazz tradition of passing on knowledge hands-on from one generation to the next.
“What I’ve learned from Jackie McLean, Ben Riley, Barry Harris, Tom Harrell, George Coleman, Ron Carter…and the list goes on and on… has been invaluable in my development. I continue to reflect on those teachings, and they are a source of inspiration as I mature both as a musician and a man,” Escoffery said.
Asked to name his greatest accomplishment in his 40 years, Escoffery’s immediate response: “My son is my favorite and biggest accomplishment for sure. He has an amazing mind, and I feel deep down that he will grow up to be a brilliant man.”
Escoffery also gives heartfelt thanks to his loving, strong, resilient mother, and the way she raised him, preparing him for challenges in life. “I also have to say that being a young man of color, raised by a single working woman of color in this country, and managing to make it to adulthood with a successful career is a huge accomplishment. That alone is a big source of pride for me. It was a difficult journey.” Information on Wayne Escoffery Quartet Celebrating 40 at the Village Vanguard: villagevanguard.com and (212) 255-4037.
From Diva to Diamond
Whether soaring majestically on operatic arias, heavenly hymns and celestial spirituals or grooving on jazz, blues, bop, pop or soul, vocalist Jolie Rocke Brown, a great diva of diversity, sings with amazing grace.
Using her lofty, nearly five-octave range and crystal clear articulation, the classically-trained singer can put her classy imprint on just about anything from Mozart to Motown and more. Alphabetically, this genre-crossing traveler can, more than likely, cruise with the greatest of ease through everything from art songs to zydeco.
Brown, a world-traveling lyrical coloratura soprano from Wethersfield, performs at 3:00 pm on Sunday, February 1, at the Hartford Public Library’s admission-free Baby Grand Jazz Series in the library’s atrium at 500 Main Street. She’ll be accompanied by her frequent collaborator, pianist/composer Joel L. Martin.
Creator of what he calls “jazzical” music --his own creative synthesis of jazz and classical -- Martin has been music director for the Cab Calloway Orchestra, toured as a duo with opera star Kathleen Battle and performed as a featured soloist with symphony orchestras around the country. Information: hplct.org and (860) 695-6300.
Middletown’s Buttonwood Tree features Ricky Alfonso, a versatile, expressive jazz trumpeter who can swing hard or transform even a shopworn ballad into aria-worthy material, leading his group at 8:00 pm on Friday, January 30, at the performing arts and cultural center, 605 Main Street.
On the next night, Saturday, January 31, the Buttonwood presents guitarist Greg Diamond and his combo, also at 8:00 pm, mining the Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer’s innovative concept of Latin fusion in a modern jazz context. He and his band have played at venues ranging from The Blue Note to the Zinc Bar. Diamond’s Buttonwood concert showcases gems from his original work, standards and improvised pieces inspired by the moment. Tickets for each night are $10.00, and are available at the door. Buttonwood Doors and its Café/Bookstore open a half-hour before downbeat time. Information: buttonwood.org and (860) 347-4957.
Please submit press releases on upcoming jazz events at least two weeks before the publication date to omac28@gmail.com. Comments left below are also most welcome.
