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.
The instructional format remained as it has been. The faculty opened the first day’s proceedings with a mini-concert. Then the students were assigned to bands with an instructor so that each band had a full, or nearly full, complement of instruments. Over the course of the week they worked on subtleties as well as basics of ensemble playing in addition to honing their own skills, using a playlist that had been distributed in advance. Many of the lead sheets or transcriptions in the fake book were done by Dan Levinson. (Don’t ask me what’s fake about it; I saw one and it was very real.) This culminated in a concert open to the public on the last day at The Cutting Room on E. 32nd Street. A schedule conflict prevented me from being there.
Each day after lunch there was a guest lecturer. This year they included trumpeter Wycliffe Gordon, the singer-dancer team of Brian Newman and Angie Pontani, and the inimitable Catherine Russell. Cat is as formidable a speaker as she is a singer. I’m not a musician but I learn something new every time I listen to her. Her talk featured the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an all-female racially integrated band that existed from 1941 to 1949. Cat’s mother Carline Ray played guitar and double bass in that band. You may know that her father Luis Russell led the big band backing Louis Armstrong beginning in the ’20s.
Every afternoon after classes ended there was a jam at the designated camp hotel, the Doubletree on W. 29th Street. This being New York, there were ample chances to hear world-class pros in the evening. I took good advantage of these opportunities, about which more below. I went to Birdland three nights to hear Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, the Louis Armstrong Eternity Band and the relatively recently established High Society New Orleans Jazz Band. On yet another night I ventured to Brooklyn to see Miss Maybell and the Ragtime Romeos (a recent name change from the Jazz Age Artistes); I interviewed Miss Maybell (Lauren Sansaricq) and her partner/husband Charlie Judkins in the October, 2024 issue. If you know this band, two of its members are Dan Levinson on reeds and Andy Stein on violin. Both of them were with the Nighthawks that night. Rob Hecht filled in on violin, and there was no reed person. Bassist (and frequent tubist) Brian Nalepka was present as usual. His daughter Nora attended camp this year—on tuba. The apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree!
On Saturday afternoon there was an optional trip to the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens. The camp hired a bus to take us there. The museum is the house; the recent (2023) building across the street is considered the Learning Center, where exhibits and Louis’s archives are housed. Ricky Riccardi, the Grammy-winning archivist and author of a three-book biography of Satchmo, happened to be there.
In the Armstrong vein, that evening some of us went to the Broadway show A Wonderful World at Studio 54. This show was reviewed herein by Chip Deffaa in December, 2024. I just reread his review and agree with it. Unfortunately, the show closed the day after our visit. Like Chip, I found the show to be very well done, with excellent musicians, but there were several chronological inaccuracies that Chip did not mention (perhaps because of space limitations?). In Act I, which covered Louis’s life through the 1920s, there were two songs that didn’t appear until the 1950s. Another, “Black and Blue,” was in the 1910s segment, but Fats Waller didn’t write it until 1929. But we were forewarned that the show was not intended to be a factual representation of Louis’s life. I’ll make just one more observation: I’m sure the most authoritative source on Louis Armstrong, Ricky Riccardi, would have made himself and/or the Armstrong archives available to the producers if they were concerned about authenticity. After the show, we were treated to a meet-and-greet with a few musicians and cast members.
Now, a bit about the rest of my evenings on the town. Birdland sometimes live-streams the Nighthawks’ gigs, as well as those of other bands, which I heartily commend to your attention. I don’t recall having to pay to watch these shows, although a charge would certainly be reasonable. I should mention that in every set Vince holds up a copy of this paper and encourages the audience to subscribe. There are always free sample back issues to pick up.
The Louis Armstrong Band had a historic lineup that week. Wycliffe, who was in town, was on trombone; Bria who is often on the road, was in the trumpet chair; Anat Cohen, even more often on the road, made a rare appearance on clarinet; and James Chirillo was on strings. All of them had been regulars in the band at one time during its 25-and-counting-year run at Birdland. What a treat!
Thursday evening was a two-fer. After Birdland I went to a new gig for guitarist Glenn Crytzer at a small cafe on the East Side. He has a quartet there each week with a varying cast. This night it was Dennis Lichtman on clarinet, Jen Hodge on bass, and a new face to me, Brian Mueller on celeste. I’ve put this gig on my to-do list if I’m in the city on a Thursday.
Dennis leads the Tuesday night jam at Mona’s on the Lower East Side, where Jen often sits in. I normally wind up there if I’m in town but I passed this time because I had to work at camp the next day. Several of the campers sat in, and when I watched the video a few days later on YouTube I saw trombonist Riley Baker from California making his Mona’s debut. FYI, the jam is only broadcast when Dennis is there (which is most weeks), and only the first couple hours are streamed. Many previous jams can be viewed, and if you watch please be sure to send a tip electronically. The house band gets paid only through cash and electronic tips from the audience.
When I took the train home Sunday I wasn’t as tired as I normally am after camp week but I was no less exhilarated by the experience.
Bill Hoffman is a travel writer, an avid jazz fan and a supporter of musicians keeping traditional jazz alive in performance. He is the concert booker for the Tri-State Jazz Society in greater Philadelphia. Bill lives in Lancaster, PA. He is the author of Going Dutch: A Visitors Guide to the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Unique and Unusual Places in the Mid-Atlantic Region, and The New York Bicycle Touring Guide. Bill lives in Lancaster, PA.
