Jazz Scene 2017/2018 by Jim Woodford

      Many of you know that after 4 decades, the downtown Dayton jazz & blues iconic club, Gilly’s closed its doors on 12-31-17. This follows the heavyhearted news of the passing of the founder of Gilly’s, Jerry Gillotti. Very sad news for music fans in the Dayton area and beyond. Jerry, you will be missed. But as I lament Jerry’s passing I also have to point out that many spirits were lifted with the standing-room-only tribute to Jerry on 12-27-18 with all the musicians and all the music fans that showed up for Jerry’s Last Jam! They play the funeral dirge going to the graveyard in New Orleans but they play joyful, uplifting music on the way back. They do this for a reason obviously, life goes on and we celebrate that good things from a life well lived. Thank you Jerry for all that you did for the music scene in Dayton!

      With the joyful march back in the New Orleans funeral procession in mind I am going to take this opportunity to point out that the Dayton area is lucky enough to have other music venues that will hopefully help take away the pain of the closing of Gilly’s. Followers of the music scene in the Dayton area know that there is an ebb and flow of these music venues. A few years ago, Cincinnati musicians were commenting about how vibrant the jazz scene was in Dayton and now maybe that mantle has moved back down south but you can still hear jazz in the Dayton area. Bands play certain venues for a period of time and then those situations come to an end. The Generations Big Band was playing Friday nights at the Mandalay for quite a while as well as Jazz Central one Thursday a month. Both of those situations have changed and now it looks like The Generations Big Band will be playing at least once a month at the Milton Club in Dayton. Followers of the Jazz Central Big Band over the past 4 decades know that this band ebbs and flows as well. Early on it was made up of a bunch of hot young players who blew the roof off at Jazz Central but many of those players moved on to other opportunities, some out of the state entirely. The most recent iteration of the Jazz Central Big Band was managed by Linda Landis, trombone player of Columbus Jazz Orchestra fame but it was recently announced that they will be on indefinite hiatus. The Dayton Jazz Orchestra has also had their time at Jazz Central but most recently they are holding court at the Dog’s Breath Tavern in Kettering [just a few blocks from the Wilmington Pike/Whipp Road intersection] every third Tuesday of the month.

      I have mentioned Jazz Central a number of times thus far and there is a reason for that. Jazz Central has the longest running jazz jam in the Dayton area. I can tell you personally that there has been a Sunday night jazz jam there since I started attending in 2001. The thing about a jazz jam is that it is always different, it is always interesting and you never know what you are going to get and sometimes it is way beyond your expectations. I felt this way recently. Sunday night, 1-7-18 saw some of the same jazz jammers that show up most Sunday nights. I have been there when the stage is full of musicians playing just about every type of jazz instrument you can think of. But I have also been there when there was a core set of jazz jammers and while you may not get the wild and sometimes exciting swings that you get with a variety of jammers, when you have 5 or 6, they can get into a groove that is memorable. This was one of those nights, Kenny Baccus on Hammond organ, King Koeller on tenor sax, Ron Appleberry on bass, Craig Saunders on drums and Jeff Slinker on jazz guitar. You can see these fellows most Sunday nights at Jazz Central. There was a special guest this night, Berkeley College in Boston student Craig Jackson. Regular Jazz Central attendees pretty much saw Craig grow up on this stage right before their eyes and this night he came back to show us what else he has learned.

And what a night it was. Here are some of the songs that were played:

Softly As in a Morning Sunrise

Lullaby of Birdland

Blue Train

Corcovado

Tenor Madness

Impressions

Scotch and Soda (this following a crowd request for some Zoot Sims)

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Take 5 (this after a crowd request for some Paul Desmond)

Let it Snow

All Blues

Autumn Leaves (another crowd request)

Chameleon

      King Koeller and Craig Jackson tore it up on Blue Train. I only regret that I was not recording. And when tenor sax player Craig Jackson switched to drums, he was challenged by the crowd request for Paul Desmond when they picked Take 5. It went surprisingly well even with the different time signatures. All-in-all, a very good night. If you weren’t there then you missed it. Jazz is alive and well in Dayton, Ohio. I do want to give a special shout out to Berkely & Avril and Leslie & Roger, DIE HARD jazz fans!

      Two final notes, Jason Swann emceed and played at least two Thursday night jazz jams at Jazz Central for most of 2017, and while he still jazz jams on Sunday nights, his talent has been drawn to Hannah’s in downtown Dayton on Thursday nights. Have been there myself, things are going quite well. Last and most certainly not least, there was a performance extraordinaire at Jazz Central on Thursday 12-28-17 which I missed because I was out of town. But because people cannot stop talking about it, making me feel even worse that I was out of town, I want to at least mention the players, Ismail Mohammad on drums, Mike Fageros on jazz guitar, Mark Smarelli on vibes and the dean of Dayton jazz bass guitar, Eddie Brookshire on bass. I have paid money to see Mike, Mark and Eddie at individual gigs and they were all on the same stage at once! Apparently if you weren’t there you really did miss one. The good news is that Ismail Mohammad is now organizing Thursday night jazz performances at Jazz Central so come on down. See you around the jazz scene. 

Jerry's Last Jam

Dateline Wednesday December 27, 2017:
          Jerry's Last Jam at Gilly's

     Saxophone player extraordinaire, Hal Melia, was the host for Jerry Gillotti's last jam at Gilly's in honor of Jerry Gillotti. The club will close on December 31st this year.

     The first band to take the stage was Eddie Brookshire's Big Band. They were raucously received by the capacity crowd in attendance and Cliff Darrett on latin percussion and congas with Fenton Sparks on drums enhanced a rousing rendition of Dizzy Gillespie's  Manteca! These percussionists also had some help from Ismail Muhammad.
     The second tribute of the night was from the quartet of Randy Villars on piano, Hal Melia on tenor sax, Fenton Sparks on drums and Eddie Brookshire on bass. Also well received, the crowd heard some excellent solos as these veteran musicians demonstrated their ability to interact and musically communicate to the crowd's delight!

      Master of Ceremonies Hal Melia kept things moving along by bringing up on stage the first jam group of the evening. This group included vocalist Sandra Rutledge, Randy Villars on piano, Bill Dixon on trumpet, King Koeller on tenor sax, Vince Gillotti on tenor sax, Eddie Brookshire on bass , Hal Melia on flute and [ ? ] Mallott on drums. This jazz jam group really seemed to fire up the crowd even more.

     Next up was Dave Greer and his Classic Jazz Stompers; a Dayton area mainstay for several decades, this group always gives the impression that they play Dixieland jazz but jazz lovers quickly realize that there is a jazz musicianship that smoothly moves right into bop and provides a musical mixture that results in pure delight to listeners. As 89.5 FM WDPS radio show host often says, "There may be other bands out there somewhere that are just as good as the Jazz Stompers but there are none better!" This was the one band at the Jerry Gillotti tribute that does play a regular gig on the second Tuesday of the month at Jimmy's Ladder Eleven down on Brown Street.

     The second jazz jam group was brought to the stage next and included Gary Onady on trumpet, Jim Smith on guitar, Mike Koogan on trombone, Lee McKinney on drums, Hal Melia on tenor sax and various other sundry players (apologies to those not mentioned). It is worth noting that this group contained two trombones. Do not see that much around the Dayton area unless you are hearing a big band. This group kept the crowd pretty enthusiastic as well.

     Arguably the most fun group of the night was The Random Flashbacks Band led by Generations Big Band trombone player, Dustin Malone. You can learn more about this band on their Facebook page. They have a lot of fun on stage!

      The next band took quite a while to set up but this is a good time to point out that there was also a DJ set up at the club that played music at the appropriate times and who knew Jerry Gillotti well and played music that Jerry liked. Once the band was set up the crowd learned it was The Floyd Witherspoon Band with Touch! Touch as played Gillys in February for the past 25 years. This band was tough to beat for Gillys longevity. Many of you reading this are familiar with Touch as they have been around Dayton for a very long time. For those of you NOT familiar with Touch, they are four band members that do an excellent job of recreating the Motown sound, in particular the Temptations and the Four Tops. They brought the house down. Even though tables and chairs had been set up on the dance floor to accommodate the expected standing-room-only crowd, dancers were not deterred during this performance. You can find videos of this group on the internet by doing a search for "motown sound of touch web" - if you like Motown, you need to find them on the web.

      Jerry's brother Tom was brought to the stage to tell some club stories, of which he had too many to talk about them all, but he did talk about Richard Pryor coming to the club and delivering about a half hour performance because he liked the band he heard so well. Another story this reporter heard from trumpet player Gary Onady was that the year Wynton Marsalis won awards in both the classical and jazz genre, he actually heard Wynton, Branford and the Marsalis family matriarch Ellis at Gilly's for 6 bucks! Unfortunately (and disappointingly),  this reporter was unable to stay for the final jazz jam group of the evening, but there were two female vocalists, Dayton area jazz musician regulars Jason Swann on tenor sax (who also backed up Touch) and Grant "King" Koeller on tenor sax. Two jazz musicians who returned to the area were also in the band - unfortunately, facial recognition did not also result in remembering names. The trombone player attended Central State and actually once played an Australian instrument, the diggory do,  at Jazz Central and the bass player, first name Ian it seems, is now earning a living playing bass in New York City. Hats off to them for returning to the area to pay tribute to long time jazz and blues club owner Jerry Gillotti. The group also include various other jazz musicians (again, apologies to those not specifically mentioned in print). It was a night to remember.

Article by Jim Woodford

Photos by Sarah Woodford



Comment by Ron Gable on Jan. 1, 2018:

     My most memorable event at Gilly’s was the 2005 jazz advocate hurricane Katrina benefit concert; where Jerry Gillotti furnished the venue and many local jazz musicians furnished the entertainment. The Dayton Pizza Factory, Cold Beer & Cheeseburgers and others furnished food. The evening had a true New Orleans Jazz flavor provided by Dave Greer’s Classic Jazz Stompers from Dayton and Don Vappie of the Creole Jazz Serenaders from New Orleans who happened to be in town when Katrina hit. Gilly’s closing marks the end of an era for me and many other local music fans so now is the time to be thankful for Jerry’s gift of many memories of good times at Gilly’s.