This year’s festival was memorable for many reasons, the beautiful weather, the large crowds, and primarily for the great music. Things started off on the wrong foot, when heavy rain on Thursday forced the move of the hospitality tent from its customary spot on the water-logged north lawn, to the south parking lot. This was soon forgotten, when we were greeted with perfect weather on Saturday morning. A small army of volunteers and staff got everything set up quickly as music fans began to trickle in. By the time Sharon Lasher took the stage to sing the National Anthem, a sizable crowd was on hand, and it only grew larger from there. The Sweet Academy Youth Band followed with a set that showed these kids are going to be the torch bearers of Jazz for the next generation.
Next up, Jane Stuart and her band drew from several styles of music with the common denominator being her silky-smooth voice over great arrangements, which was a delight to the audience.
A visit from the New Orleans based Soul Project, was a contrast in styles with their signature funk and leader Christian Duque’s singing and guitar playing. A disciple of the late Walter “Wolfman” Washington, the influence is there, but Christian has grown it into his own signature sound, and with the addition of longtime Marcia Ball band member Eric Bernhardt on sax, and Grant Barras on the keyboard, they turned Long Branch into NOLA for an hour!
Mike Kaplan has been a fixture on the local jazz scene for many years with his Nonet, and on this occasion gave us his current version of that nine-piece ensemble, the Nth Degree. With their precision playing, they took the audience on a musical journey through the world of jazz. Prior to the next act, board member Christine Zemla awarded two of our three scholarships to the students who were present, Oliver Schrenk and John Lemanowicz, and later the 50/50 was drawn.
Jersey Blues featuring Sharon “Pipes” Lasher,another nine-piece band featured a full horn section, lead by Musical Director, Damian Cremiso, reprising a role he held for twenty years with Andy Williams. Sharon never sounded better and had the crowd in the palm of her hand. Christian Duque was invited up by Sharon to do a tune with the band as well. Don’t miss them at the JSJBF local IBC on October 11 from 1-4pm at McCann’s in Lake Como, where they will square off against four other bands for the right to go to Memphis in January. Before the headliner, Tina Clark, from our stage sponsor Citizens Bank addressed the crowd.
Our headliner was a band I had been chasing since 2019 when I saw them at Roxy & Dukes. The Jimmys hale from Madison Wisconsin and their leader Jimmy Voegeli is a seventh generation dairy farmer, but don’t let that fool you. These guys are the real deal. They haven’t come East since that gig, because they are in such high demand back home. They had been doing an annual trip with Marcia Ball to Jamacia up until this year, when medical issues forced her into retirement. Because of the Marcia Ball connection Jimmy invited Eric, Grant Barras and Christian Duque of Soul Project for a couple of tunes, including a rousing version Willie Dixon’s “Three Hundred Pounds of Heavenly Joy,” as fireworks over the ocean signaled the end of one of the best days in the festival’s history.
Check out the video highlights of the day by going to this YouTube link. https://youtu.be/kJtna4rdUVc