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One of the pieces by Vincent Quattroche that will be on display at the show. COURTESY JOAN BEHAN-DUNCAN
Project 464, who will be performing on June 19. COURTESY JOAN BEHAN-DUNCAN
The “Jazz Loft @ Southampton Concert Series” continues with the “Long Island Jazz Legends & Local Juke Joints” concert on Thursday, June 19, at 7 p.m. at the Avram Theater, a night that will pay tribute to jazz musicians who once called the East End home.
Performing at the show is Project 464, a six-piece band whose name refers to the collective age of the members. The group features tenor saxophonist Houston Person, bassist Bill Crow, pianist Tardo Hammer, cornetist Warren Vaché, drummer Steve Little and trumpeter Tom Manuel, the latter of whom is the founder of the Jazz Loft @ Stony Brook and curated this series.
The members of Project 464, who started performing together two years ago, have worked with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.
“We have these incredible jazz legends that are kind of similar to World War II veterans,” said Manuel. “The window is closing where we have access to these first generations, first source artists that were there when this music was created.”
The group will be performing the works of Teddy Charles, Teo Macero, Hal McKusick and The Heath Brothers, who all lived on the East End at various points in their lives.
Charles, who lived in Greenport, led his own ensembles and worked with artists such as Charles Mingus, Artha Franklin and Thad Jones. Macero, who lived in Quogue and died in 2008, was a saxophonist and producer who produced Miles Davis’s seminal 1969 jazz fusion record “Bitches Brew.”
Manuel performed with Charles in Greenport for many years before his death in 2012. Manuel recalled one instance of when he and Charles stopped at Macero’s house and noticed a painting that he recognized as the album cover of “Bitches Brew.” When Manuel asked him about this, Macero responded with a quick “yes” and went back to his conversation with Charles, something that Manuel still laughs about to this day.
The show also features a visual component consisting of paintings by Vincent Quattroche, a Greenport-based artist who died in 2011. Manuel explained that these paintings were included to show the expanse of the creative scene on the East End.
“Quattroche would hang out with Jackson Pollock out in Springs and East Hampton,” he said. “There were writers out there, people like Arthur Miller and David Avram, classical composers, sculptors. There was this wonderful spirit of hanging out and getting inspiration from each other.”
During the show, Person will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Jazz Loft and be recognized the NAACP Eastern Long Island chapter for his 60-plus year career.
Born in South Carolina, Person was raised on a variety of music, including country and western, blues and gospel, before picking up tenor saxophone as a teenager after initially starting on piano.
“I’ve always loved music, all music,” said Person in a recent phone interview. “And the tenor saxophone I think is the closest instrument to the human voice, you can really express yourself with the tenor.”
While he was stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, in the late 1950s during his time in the Air Force, Person spent his weekends jamming with a group of jazz musicians that included pianist Cedar Walton and saxophonist Eddie Harris.
In the early 1960s, while studying at Hartt College of Music, now known as Hartt School, in Hartford, Connecticut, he met Johnny “Hammond” Smith, a jazz organist known for playing the Hammond B-3 organ. After being invited to join Smith’s band, Person appeared on nine albums of Smith’s from 1963 to 1970 and toured with him.
Person’s most notable and frequent musical collaborator was singer Etta Jones, whom he worked with from 1976 until her death in 2001. Jones was Person’s closest musical partner, recording 16 albums together and touring for years.
“We had a nice relationship,” he said. “No attitudes, no egos got in the way of anything. We just wanted to play good music and have a good time, and that’s what we did.”
Person has also recorded six albums with Ron Carter, the legendary jazz bassist most known as a member of Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet of the mid-1960s. The albums feature only Person on tenor saxophone and Carter on bass, with the two weaving their sound together to create a rich blend.
Now 90 years-old, Person admits that he’s “getting a little tired, but the music keeps me going.” He’s kept busy recording albums with newer jazz artists like Joe Alterman and Emmet Cohen and still playing shows.
Project 464 performs at “Long Island Legends & Local Juke Joints” at the Avram Theater at Stony Brook Southampton on Thursday, June 19, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 to $36 and are available online or at the door. Avram Theater at Stony Brook Southampton is at 39 Tuckahoe Road in Southampton.
Additional Concerts in the “Jazz Loft @ Southampton Concert Series”
“The Spirit & Soul of Latin Jazz” — Thursday, July 24, 7 p.m., Under a Tent on the Athletics Fields
This concert will focus on the rhythms and cultures of Spain, Cuba, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil and beyond and will emphasize the art of collaboration and explore how Latin rhythms have shaped American popular music through the decades. The concert will coincide with an Avram Gallery exhibit displaying the archives of pioneering Latin Jazz legend Xavier Cugat. Performers will include Carlos Jimenez and Mambo Dulcet.
“Abstract Angularity” — Thursday, August 28, 7 p.m., Avram Theater
Exploring the relationship between artists and musicians, this concert will join the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in a collaborative presentation to celebrate the vibrant East End artistic scene heritage. The Jazz Loft Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece ensemble, will present a program celebrating creative voices in jazz who pushed and challenged boundaries in American popular music.
A gallery presentation curated by the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center will also serve as a backdrop for a preconcert reception and lecture. This concert will also bring into the fold painter/artist Kevin McEvoy who will be commissioned to create a new work in honor of the concert series first season.
