Like the Central Pennsylvania Ragtime and American Music Festival that I reported on last month, Jeff and Joel’s House Party is a small event in Connecticut and is intentionally going to remain so. It was set up to take the place of the defunct Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival, and more recently, the Hot Steamed Jazz Festival in Essex, CT, which ended in 2014.
JJHP is the creation of pianist and entertainer extraordinaire Jeff Barnhart, and Joel Schiavone, who was involved in the trad jazz scene for many years as a banjoist and, more importantly, the founder of the Your Father’s Mustache franchise, which provided a venue for trad musicians to ply their trade at a time when there were few places. Joel now lives in Connecticut, as has Jeff for his entire life.
