Jazz fest features familiar faces

Hello, Stowe jazz fans and hepcats. Before things were hip, kids, they were hep. “Hip” ain’t so hip no more, as the term “hipsters” replaces and perhaps surpasses “posers” as a pejorative for people perceived as pretentious with a new, but retro and sullen, singular style, seemingly based on the couture cultivated by the great actor John Cazale as he embodied the doomed character of Fredo Corleone in the first two (and let’s say only) motion pictures in the classic “Godfather” series. It’s a style, though, that is really owing more to the “hep” jazz fans of the ’50s than to those later identified as “hip,” as time helped morph the word into the ’60s and ’70s and up to its current, sarcastic, state of “hipster.”

Bennett or bust

Tony Bennett, at 87 years old, is still singing and headlining at this year’s Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Bennett is an artist who, like jazz itself, has an appeal that goes beyond the passing trends of the decades he has sung through since his first hits in the hep days of the ’50s.

My son Mike was first introduced to Tony by a cassette we had when he was in preschool called “Steppin’ out with My Baby.” Among his first, oft repeated fully formed sentences was: “I don’t like music — I only like To-ny Benn-ett.” Mike has since grown into a more rounded music fan and musician, playing guitar at our town’s venues and taking part in the vibrant local music scene we are currently enjoying in our area.

The Flynn Center currently has no tickets available for Bennett’s May 31 show, but we’d love to go. To borrow from a song lyric phrase and popular plea from fans of another legendary musical act, the Grateful Dead, “We need a miracle,” and some tickets. So please be kind.

Local faces at Jazz Fest

This writer is pretty sure (a slippery phrase for sure) he can take credit for Stowe jazz singer Audrey Bernstein’s first musical appearance here in town. While hitchhiking on Route 108, maybe six or seven or eight or nine or 10 years ago, she picked me up, having recognized me from working on Mansfield’s ski lifts years earlier. That was during the earliest days of the sanctioned use of new devices called “snowboards” on our slopes, and Audrey was among the pioneers.

She had just returned from living on the West Coast and we found a common interest: singing jazz standards. It happened I had an upcoming gig at The Grey Fox and I invited her to sit in. She showed up with a book of standards and arrangements much more thought-out and accomplished than our hodgepodge of tunes. With her talent, craft, hard work and drive, she has since become one of, if not the premiere jazz singer in our area.

With her second album coming out, Audrey will have three performances at the Jazz Fest, with top players such as Joe Capps, Geza Carr and Ray Vega on Wednesday, June 4, at the Hotel Vermont; Thursday, June 5, at Burlington’s City Hall; and Sunday, June 7, at the Daily Planet.

Tayrn Noelle has been charming local audiences with her world-class singing voice for more years than one would suspect for someone her age. A chartreuse with few equals, her talents in many fields of the arts, including acting, dance and choreography, limit her performing schedule in the area, but she will have one Jazz Fest appearance at the Unitarian Church at the top of Church Street with the Blue Gardenias on Thursday, May 29.

Equally adept on guitar and bass, Johnson State graduate Fabian Rainville achieved local notoriety on the town’s scene from multiple appearances at Mountain Road clubs with the Burritos, a rock group self-described as a Sublime tribute band. He’ll be displaying the chops he previously demonstrated in the Dinner Jazz series he hosted in Johnson during a special performance of Herbie Hancock’s classic “Head Hunters” album at Burlington’s Radio Bean on Friday, May 30, at 10:30 p.m.

Stowe jazz

If, for some reason, you can’t make it to Jazz Fest, local options will be available here in town all summer long.

John Cassell is reviving Wednesday Jazz Nights at the Lounge up at Trapp Family Lodge, inviting players such as Will Patton, Clyde Stats and others to join him at the location where he’s played the piano for decades.

Gabe Jarrett, the great drummer from Richmond who has played on area stages for years, will be bringing a rotating roster of players to Sushi Yoshi as another boost for Stowe jazz fans.

It’s gonna be happening, and it’s gonna be hep, Daddy-o.

John Wilson is a comedian, singer and former lift attendant at Stowe Mountain Resort.