The 10th annual (except for 2020 when it was cancelled by Covid) New York Hot Jazz Camp convened at its regular home, the Greenwich House Music School at 46 Barrow Street in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The camp was founded and is run by my good friends, the musical sisters Bria Skonberg and Molly Ryan. I’ve been a volunteer there every year but one.
This year the dates were changed from April to February 17-23. This was necessitated by the public school vacation schedule in New York City that governs availability of the GHMS. There’s a spring break, usually in mid-April, and a winter break during the week of President’s Day. In 2025 spring break ends at Easter, which threw a monkey wrench into the past practice of coordinating camp with the annual one-day Gotham Jazz Festival. Something had to give, and the camp was moved to February.
For whatever reason, camp attendance was not quite at capacity this year. There seemed to be fewer young students from the NYC area and more older people from elsewhere. There was a faculty of eight: Evan Christopher, reeds; Mike Davis, trumpet; Dion Tucker, trombone; Conal Fowkes, piano; Jen Hodge, bass; Alex Raderman, drums; Justin Poindexter, strings; and Molly Ryan, vocals. There were also two adjunct faculty: Dan Levinson and Dan Block on reeds. Campers could sign up for a private lesson with an individual faculty member.
