The UHN Traditional Jazz Series launches its 29th season on Monday, Sept. 17, with a concert by the Ed Polcer Sextet in a tribute to jazz icons Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo and Bunny Berigan. Joining cornetist Polcer will be Ken Peplowski on saxophone and clarinet, John Allred on trombone, John Cocuzzi on piano, Frank Tate on bass and Joe Ascione on drums. Vocalist Judy Kurtz will join the ensemble on several selections. The concert starts at 8 p.m. and will be held in Johnson Theatre at UNH. For tickets, call 603-862-2290 between 10 a.m. 4 p.m.

This year’s series is one of the finest in several years, featuring a wide-ranging array of artists. I’ll have more info as each show approaches, but here’s a capsule look at the balance of the 2007-2008 series:

• Monday, Oct. 15—jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan, with Dave Ballou on trumpet, Cameron Brown on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums   
• Saturday, Nov. 17—Blue Note recording artist and vibraphonist Stefon Harris and his band Blackout, with Terreon Gulley on drums
• Monday, Feb. 4—pianist Tim Ray
• Monday, March 10—Multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson, heard in this area recently as a member of Maria Schneider’s Jazz Orchestra, with Randy Sandke on trumpet and Dennis Mackrel on drums
• Friday, April 14—The Onyx Club Sextet, a group recreating the music of bassist John Kirby’s famous 1930s band

For more info on the series, contact Dave Seiler at 603-659-2010 or Paul Verrette at 603-659-3849. For a series brochure, contact the UNH Music Department at 603-862-2404.

                                                              
Whenever he performs in the area, pianist Larry Garland usually has a top shelf group of musicians to compliment his exploratory approach to jazz. Such will be the case this Sunday, when Garland brings a stellar quintet of musicians to the Press Room in Portsmouth for an all too infrequent appearance in the Sunday Night Jazz series. Joining Garland will be Paul Fontaine on trumpet, Jim Cameron on saxophone, Jim Leyden on bass and Peter Moutis on drums. This will be one of the most potent ensembles to hit the Press Room stage in quite some time.

The musicians joining Garland all have longstanding ties to the pianist. Fontaine, who has played trumpet with artists ranging from Woody Herman to Jimmy Mosher to the Seacoast Big Band, has performed with Garland on numerous occasions over the years. He is a highly creative player with a warm, fluid sound. Saxophonist Jim Cameron has played with a wide variety of groups, including T. J. Wheeler’s Smokers, the Pocket Big Band and Ben Baldwin & the Big Note. Bassist Jim Leyden’s imaginative bass playing is frequently heard at venues from Portland to Boston. He is a regular at Garland’s Tuesday evening jazz sessions at the Press Room. Exeter resident Peter Moutis, who makes an all too rare appearance at the Press Room, has gigged with the bands of saxophonists Jerry Bergonzi and Tony Carelli.

“I’m really looking forward to this gig with these incredible musicians,” Garland enthusiastically said recently. The show begins at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 2.

In other gigging news, on Friday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m., Avant Coast will present another in its series of performances at the Lotus Rising Dance Studio in the Mills at Salmon Falls in Rollinsford. The event will include an excellent collective ensemble called Sounds Like, featuring Matt Langley on saxophones, Chris Weisman on guitar, Tim Webb on bass and Jared Steer on drums. Also performing will be Forbes Graham on solo trumpet and electronics. Admission is $8. For more information, call 603-205-6144.

In addition Herb Pomeroy, a number of other jazz artists have recently passed on. Drummer/percussionist extraordinaire Max Roach passed away on Aug. 16 in New York City after a long illness. A true genius, Roach (along with drummer Kenny Clarke) developed a looser approach to drums during the bebop period, placing more emphasis on time-keeping in the high-hat and ride cymbals and using the bass drum mostly to accentuate the music. As musical a player as there ever has been in jazz, Roach played with many of the greats. He performed with Charlie Parker; recorded with Miles Davis on the seminal “Birth of the Cool” sessions; played on the famous “Jazz at Massey Hall” recording with Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Charles Mingus; and co-led one of the top jazz groups of the mid-1950s with trumpeter Clifford Brown, who died tragically in a car accident in 1956. Roach led a number of groups throughout the rest of his career, including a drum percussion ensemble called M’BOOM in the ’70s and ’80s. Roach was also active in the jazz education field and was a longtime faculty member at UMASS-Amherst.

One of my lasting memories of Roach’s ability is his drum solo on the tune “Sandu,” which was recorded by the Brown-Roach Quintet in the ’50s. The solo outlines the melody of the tune beautifully and fits the overall relaxed feel of the group’s performance. Upon hearing of Roach’s death, local drummer Peter Moutis remarked, “This leaves Roy Haynes as the last surviving drummer from the Parker era of jazz.”

Three other artists also recently passed on. Bassist Art Davis, who recorded and toured with John Coltrane in the early ’60s, as well as with Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard, Qunicy Jones and others, passed away in California on July 29. A remarkable player with a rich, full sound on bass and a thoughtful accompanist, Davis also worked for NBC and CBS in their broadcast studios before turning to academia in 1971. He was also the victim of unfortunate “black-listing” during a discrimination suit that he had filed. During this period, he studied and received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and spent many years practicing this profession by day and gigging at night. He released a remarkable CD in the mid-’90s called “A Time Remembered” with Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Marvin Smith on drums and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, son of Davis’s former boss.
Singer Jon Lucien, a fixture of the early ’70s jazz and fusion scenes, passed away on Aug. 18. A soulful singer who specialized in warm, romantic ballads, Lucien was often miscast as a “smooth jazz” performer. But he was a much more substantive performer than that by a long stretch.