From the First New York Hot Jazz Camp

The first-ever New York Hot Jazz Camp is now in the books. It was conceived, organized, and overseen by my good friends Molly Ryan and Bria Skonberg and took place last week at the Greenwich House Music School in the Village—that's Greenwich Village for out-of-towners. Something like 40 adult campers from all over the country attended, and they were instructed on their respective instruments (including vocal chords) by some of NYC's finest trad jazz musicians. As soon as I heard about this I jumped on board. Knowing the talent, brains, and charm of Molly and Bria, I had no doubts that this would be a first-class event. I was not disappointed. I'm not a musician, so I wouldn't be enrolling as a student, but I welcomed the opportunity to be a volunteer. I could only work the first two of the five days of camp due to other jazz gigs I had plans to attend outside NYC. Then I returned yesterday as the culmination of all the work that went into camp came out at the student concert in the afternoon at Iridium followed in the evening by the faculty concert at Birdland. Both were viewed by packed houses and justifiably well received. The camp opened on Tuesday with a jam by the faculty. Then the students were assigned to groups of about six or se