What’s cool yet hot at the same time? Jazz!
Live jazz is more than alive in South Florida thanks to the Miami Jazz Cooperative Inc. Its association with the Open Stage Club in Coral Gables makes it the epicenter of the jazz world at 8PM on Mondays as the Miami Jazz Coop Rent Parties host high quality jazz acts and memorable jams. A recent Monday kicked off the beat with jam leader Jaui Schneider on piano featuring his all-star rhythm section including drummer Lenny Steinberg, Kai Sanchez on Bass and guitarist Sandy Poltarack.
One of America’s most gifted composers and lyricists, Cole Porter, who created classics like “Night and day” and the music for ‘Anything Goes’ and ‘kiss me Kate’ was the focus of a recent sold out evening as local jazz Legend Joe Donato kicked off the fun with A unique rendition of ‘Don’t fence me in’ and other favorites. (We recognized him even with the fashionable hat) http://www.joedonatomusic.com
Among the featured artists saluting Porter were Gloria Alford, Debbie Orta, Lucien Williams, Hana Dolgin, Tom McCormack (To be featured on Aug 17th) Wendy Pederson, (To be featured Aug 24th), Daphna Rose, Kevin Campfield, Jack Siegel and a 90 years young Harvey Nevins.
Harvey started playing music at 14 years of age and with a great start to a storied career, went on the road with Louie Prima at 16. He then joined the army and traveled the South Pacific entertaining the troops. When he mustered out, he happened to be in the same place as Louie Prima with whom he reminisced about old times and because Prima’s sax man left, Harvey was offered a position with the band. Still in his army uniform, He got fitted for civvies and took up where he left off. Stints at the 400 Club in Manhattan with the Hal McIntyre band followed. He then worked with the Mills Brothers and recorded the sax part on their hit ‘Glow Little Glow Worm’. Harvey played gigs with notables Vaughn Monroe and the Ray McKinley Band. Today, in South Florida the Harvey Nevins Band plays Benny Goodman, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and ‘lays it down’ with his quite cool Yiddish swing orchestra. http://www.harveynevinsmusic.com
Jazz Mondays happens at the Open Stage Club which supports many types of live music and performance. There are features every night with New Tunes, Karaoke, Latin Parties, comedy and more. Owner Juan De La Torres’ Gastropub Restaurant & Bar enjoys a state-of-art facility for performances. He says, “Our endeavor is to make this the home of everyone interested in developing their performance skill, backed by a great experience with fine dining, a vast variety of wines and great drinks.”
The MJC, led by Rick Katz, Executive Director, is a non-profit, is dedicated to establishing a permanent home for the performance and education of jazz. To build support for their mission the MJC provides master classes with professional musicians to middle and high school jazz programs and presents live jazz throughout the community. They were founded in 2010 by 115 local jazz musicians, educators and broadcasters. http://www.miamijazz.org Dig it!
a 90 years young Harvey Nevins has played with the greats
