In the News

“A Language We All Speak”

August 4th, 2014

Jazz Haven launches fest, honors Jeff Fuller

Reflecting on his role as a jazz instructor and mentor, Fuller also listed members of the younger jazz generation New Haven has produced, such as Wayne Escoffery, Ed Cherry, the Sands brothers and Julian Reid, who was standing off to the left of the crowd.

Elm City jazz enthusiasts gathered at Briq Thursday evening not just to honor Fuller, but to kick off New Haven Jazz Fest 2014, presented by Jazz Haven with support from the city. Jazz Fest officially starts on Saturday, with a free concert on the Green from the Hew Haven Symphony Orchestra Jazz Ensemble and the Brubeck Brothers Quartet. (Jazz has also assumed a regular place in the weekend schedules of downtown clubs like Cafe Nine and the new Lucky Chao’s on Temple and 9th Note on Orange.)

Jazz Haven honored Fuller, a prominent jazz musician and teacher within the New Haven music community, with the third annual Unsung Heroes Award.

Attendants of the rooftop reception mingled in the slanting evening light to the sounds of local fingerstyle guitarist Glenn Roth. The bar bustled as people ordered drinks and servers continually refreshed plates of tapas. Briq owner Leon DeMaille said he hosted the Jazz Haven reception last year as well; this year had a turnout about three times as great.

While specifically a celebration of Fuller and the start of the August Jazz Fest, the evening likened a celebration of not only jazz’s place in New Haven culture, but New Haven culture’s place in jazz.

“The history of jazz in New Haven,” Fuller said when accepting the award, “shows that jazz is at the very roots of the cultural life of New Haven through its many performing venues, individual artists and the great, warm human feelings the music inevitably brings with it.”

Full full article go to: The New Haven Independent