Jeff and Joel’s a top East Coast House Party for Trad Jazz

For years I have flown across the country in order to attend West Coast festivals because they are different from the events we have in and around New Jersey, my home. For one thing, they tend to hire organized bands rather than individual musicians. They also have some West Coast Revival style bands, although less of this in recent years. Even their youth bands are exciting, since the schools teach improvisation, not just reading Big Band charts. At Sacramento back in 2001, for example, I saw Bria Skonberg as a teenager sitting in with the established bands as well as her own, and also discovered Dave Kosmyna, then college age, playing some amazing cornet with his friends in the Dixie Squid group. Bria is, of course, now based in New York City, but if Dave has been visiting our area he has kept it a well guarded secret. You can imagine my surprise and delight when I found he will be playing for Jeff and Joel’s House Party in November. I’ve been taking those parties in since they were actually held in Joel Schianone’s house, but they’ve outgrown the capacity of that site and moved to a local Elk’s Lodge, giving them not only a slightly raised band platform and better viewing from the audience, but also adequate parking adjacent to the building. Joel Schiavone, who used to run the truly great Great Connecticut Jazz Festival, has teamed up with pianist Jeff Barnhart (a s