Swinging In the New Year At Dizzy’s Club!
The Joint Was Jumpin!
Dizzy’s Coca Cola Club is arguably the most beautiful jazz club in the world! Like every other performance venue located in the jazz At Lincoln Center complex, The sound in this room is magnificent, because the room is acoustically engineered to capture the true sound of the music in all its splendor. The wall behind the bandstand is all glass provides a stunning view of Fifth Avenue looking over Central Park. The whole experience is magical. With the splendid menu and wide assortment of intoxicating elixers Dizzy’s is the ideal New York Supper club. Jimmy Heath, Saxophonist and composer extraordinaire, led a band that included Terrance Blanchard on trumpet and Cyrus Chestnut on piano. Needless to say, that was a hard swinging affair!
However a highlight of the evening was the band of teenagers who performed a set after the New Year arrived and brought the house down. They were there at Wynton’s request and he sat at the edge of the stage and gave these young virtuosi his undivided attention. It was just another demonstration of what I have witnessed for years: Wynton instructing and encouraging young musicians. It is a recurrent theme in the interviews I have done of all the leading yoing virtuosos on every instrumrnt. Wynton is not only a brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning composer and “the greatest trumpeter in the world,” in the estimation of Gerald Wilson and this writer too, he is also the most influential teacher of the art. A national treasure indeed!
But on this occasion he left his trumpet at the crib and was a fan. I have never seen anyone more devoted to their chosen vocation than Wynton Marsalis. And American culture is all the richer for it. The ambience could not be better when the New Year Arrived…everything was swinging and a vibe conveying joi de vivre innundated the room. It was a jazz bucchanal!
It Was A Big Party!
With Gourmet food And Plenty of Spirits
Everything Was Copacetic!
Wynton Was In the House
Cold Chillin!
Wynton’s Lady!
The Beautiful, Elegant, Trey
These Lovely Ladies Were Hangin Out
Wearing Tiaras The Look Like Crowns
Some Pretty Girls
Brightened The Room With Beaming Smiles
There Were Hugs
And Main Squeezes
Everywhere You Looked folks Were Huggin Up
And PlantingWet Kisses Too!
People Wore Funny Hats
And They Came From Everywhere!
This lady Came all The Way From Japan!
We Had A Ball!
As the Sound Of Real Jazz Filled The Room
As I walked Out Of The Lobby
The Golden Lady On Daili’s “Surreal Piano”’ Kept Watch
Out On Broadway
Peopled Partied In The Street
There Were Families
And Lone Revelers
The Party’s Over!
Strolling Along Central Park West Reflecting On New Year
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Do(uble Click link to see Jimmy Heath in Performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-EIM-lU5xQ
Text and Photos By:
Playthell Benjamin
New York City
Janurary 2, 2011
