Last night's Jersey Jazz Masters concert was truly a kick.

Special thanks go to the entire staff of the Logan Family Center in Hackensack, NJ, led by event producer Mary V. Jones, which sponsored the affair. They threw quite a soiree, and could not have been nicer to all of us in the band.

The music, put together by producer Tamm E Hunt and musical director Kathy Farmer was smokin'. What a great band!

The rhythm section was Kathy (p), Roni Ben-Hur (g), Hilliard (Hill) Greene (b) and Dave Gibson (d). The horns were Bill Saxton (ts), Jason Curry (as), Isrea Butler (bass tr), Dick Griffin (tr) and Mac Gollehon (valve tr, tpt).

The vocalists were Roseanna Vitro, Cynthia Holiday, Marianne Matheny-Katz (up from MD for the event), Tamm E Hunt and myself. We each did two songs in the main program that were connected to Count Basie and either Sarah Vaughan or Frank Sinatra -- Jersey natives, all.

I sang "Fly Me To The Moon" (with a gorgeous break by Isrea Butler), and had a spotlight moment turn with Harold Arlen's "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)." This tune featured beautiful tenor runs by Bill Saxton, which were lightly layered over my phrasing. Sweet.

At turns, it was smooth; it was hot; it was rough; it was loving; but, mostly, it was all smokin'.

Was only able to take a couple of photos, and they didn't turn out too well. I'll work on them, and see if any are worthy of being posted.

Best,

E. J.