Jazzy Nights Kicks Off 2022 Live Music Season

By Gregory Burrus | Posted Friday, April 22, 2022

Tapping into the region’s top live music talent, Jazzy Nights hosts live music performances from big-name local artists drawn from all over Northern New Jersey and nearby New York City, Produced by Live Music Ambassador Gregory Burrus of Gregory Burrus Productions. 

Jazzy Nights is not just about jazz but all genres of jazzy live music. It's jazz, it's R&B, and it's jazzy. The Jazzy Nights Live mission is focused on keeping the community of summertime live music lovers enjoying live music throughout the Fall, Winter and Spring, whenever possible.  

Following is a post about how Jazzy Nights made it to this season. Back in the day, just a few years ago, the South Orange live music season would run June ‘til September and stop. However, so many local folks and attendees from around the various towns wanted more and more. So, we extended the end of the 2019 season by going indoors and kicked off Jazzy Nights Live at The Fox & Falcon restaurant to keep the wonderful vibe going that was established all summer long. Following is a year-by-year recap of previous years up until this year. 

2019  November Jazzy Nights at The Fox & Falcon

2019/11/14 Inaugural Season Kickoff in the Essex Room with DC Fusion Band.

The 2019 Jazzy Nights Live Music season was led by our buddy and bassman Darryl Clark. We ran monthly live music sessions from November to April with the wonderful DC Fusion instrumental band led by Darryl Clark on Bass, Howard Hall on piano, and Bill Bang (Mauricio de Souza this night) on drums. We augmented each event with special guest singers (Shadiyah and Joy Topping-Mann this night), folks came out strong, and we packed the Essex Room of The Fox & Falcon. We were moving along nicely each month right up ‘til April 2021 and then the COVID Pandemic shut the world down, including our Jazzy Nights. 

In tribute to our buddies.

Sadly, this season was also marked by the passing of many musicians including two of our friends from our Live music community. Community champion and jazz lover Lee Boswell May aka Boz passed before the South Orange Summer Season started. After the 2020 Summer season in November, our beloved Jazzy Nights Bandleader and Bassman Darryl Clark passed on. May they both RIP in musical heaven.

Jazzy Nights (Afternoons) 2021 South Orange NJ

2021 March Season Opener — Outdoor COVID Sessions.

Enter 2021, and because we were all still under a Pandemic watch from 2020 we started the Summer Season early on a beautiful sunny day in 2021 on March 21st. With a live music community starving for entertainment, we came back out in March of 2021, and due to COVID Pandemic Social Distancing guidelines, the world had moved outside and so did Jazzy Nights as “Jazzy Afternoons.”

Jazzy Nights Presents MPack Band at The Fox & Falcon

Thanks to The Fox & Falcon restaurant owner, Jazzy Nights Live became Jazzy Afternoons Live in the Sloan Street Parking Lot on March 21. We moved from Thursday nights to Sunday Afternoons.

As you can see, lots and lots of people came out with family and friends to enjoy the live music of the MPack Band and the community.  

We continued our performances throughout April, which is Jazz Appreciation Month. We planned for live music every weekend. Weather canceled one weekend, but we did produce some very well-attended and swinging live music weekend performances.  

You can read all about it: Jazzy Afternoons South Orange Presents "Jazz Across The Generations" to Honor Jazz Appreciation Month 2021

Read more here: Exciting Rising Pianist Leonieke Scheuble Leads Her "Jazz Across The Generations Trio" for Jazz Appreciation Month 2021

Mike Lee Trio with Billy Drummond and Mike Kane in Jazz Appreciation Month 2021.

Radam Schwartz Trio with Gene Ghee Sax in Jazz Appreciation Month 2021.

The season continued throughout the Summer, we extended it and worked to extend the live music through October. 

October Live Music Fest 2021 

Also in 2021, after the Summer Live Music Season we produced the October Live Music Fest. 

Take a listen to this event. Performances were 2 times a day every Saturday and Sunday throughout the month.  

You can read all about it here: South Orange, NJ October Live Music Fest Takes Over the Sounds In Spiotta Park and Jazz On Sloan Street.

We created live music sessions all year from March thru October, so 2021 was a good year. 

Jazzy Nights 2022 at South Valley BBQ & Lounge

Enter 2022, and this year we are back and in a new location and already have produced two extremely successful Jazzy Nights events. 

2022 Feb. 18 Jazz Season Opener in the Blue Room.

South Valley BBQ and Lounge Presents John Lee and Friends

We are starting off the 2022 Jazzy Nights Live Music Scene in a really nice new location, and we started earlier this year with our first event on Feb. 18th in the new South Valley Lounge. In their newly remodeled Blue Room, we kicked off the season with world-renowned bassist John Lee and his awesome friends. 

Read all about it: John Lee and Friends Keeping Jazz Alive Since Dizzy Gillespie and More at South Valley BBQ and Lounge 

2022 Apr 9th R&B Season Opener in the Blue Room.

Jazzy Nights Presents MPack Music Live at South Valley BBQ and Lounge

We started off the Jazzy Nights R&B Live Music Scene in the new South Valley Lounge on April 9th in the newly remodeled Blue Room. We kicked off the season with the extremely popular R&B Band MPack. 

Our first Jazzy Nights R&B performance was literally off the chain!!! Folks came to dine and dance and had fun all night long. 

Jazzy Nights — Next Steps

For 2021, all of these veteran professionals came to perform and they delivered big time. So, a great start over 3 years through a pandemic, and we are continuing on throughout 2022. 

At Gregory Burrus Productions, we always have something going on to get you, your family and your friends involved, so take a look at our events calendar and come join in the live music party.

Check Out Our Upcoming Events Calendar! We'll See You Soon.

https://gregoryburrusproductions.com/events/

About the Writer Gregory Burrus  

Gregory Burrus is a local live music ambassador, event planner, live music ambassador and community partner that curates, manages and promotes live music events in the local Northern NJ and New York Area.

Gregory Burrus sits on a number of local boards and committees and is currently serving as a Board Member of Maplewood Community Music and is a Board Member of Harlem World Magazine Advisory Board. 

Year-round Gregory Burrus also curates, books and produces: the Jazz973 live music jazz series at Clements Place Jazz for the Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies,  the Jazzy Nights Live Music performances, and Cranford NJ Summer Sounds.

In addition to producing events, Gregory Burrus Productions also showcases, photographs, videotapes events annually such as the annual NYC John Jay College Friends of Myrna Bain Scholarship Fundraiser, the Orange NJ Farmers Market, numerous local bands at various local venues.  Gregory Burrus has a passion for making live music happen anywhere and everywhere he can whether locally around town or around the world while living life every day to the fullest. Learn more at: Gregory Burrus - Gregory Burrus Live Music Ambassador    

Scheduled Live Music Concerts Return to South Orange for 2021

By Gregory Burrus | Posted Thursday, April 29, 2021

Wrecking Havoc with Our Lives - Pandemic 2020

There is no doubt that the Coronavirus Pandemic wreaked havoc on the live music industry, not just around South Orange but all over the world. Musicians went from traveling and performing 2-3 times a day to zilch, nada, zero performances, as large music halls and small restaurants with a single stage, all had to shut down. After all, what is live music but a communal and social interaction experience, but the virus pointed us all in the exact opposite direction. We entered into the world of necessary and forced social distancing in order to live and to survive. 

COVID-19 Pandemic Cautions

The Summer of 2020 saw us all cautiously returning to a new normal life while committing to all the preventive and precautionary measures required to survive. This, for some, meant not coming out and for others it meant wearing masks, social distancing, no hugs and no hand shakes. For the return of live music, we added in six feet apart circles on the ground at our events and sitting far apart from each other, and we also learned elbow greetings along with never ending hand washing. 

2020 Restart Live Music Season

Since 2010, we usually start our Downtown After Sundown live music season during the last week of May and usually at two locations in the evening. With the pandemic, that was not happening, but in July 2020 we came together and scrambled back outside. Part of the mission was to help businesses that were shuttered for months survive. We put together a live music season based on that and decided to progress by watching the COVID numbers on a week to week basis. 

We found some truly cool bands with fans, found a new stage located with the businesses, and a very large parking lot so folks could space out as much as they wanted. Since we couldn't all be together because of the COVID Pandemic, spreading out was the name of the game. For our daytime events, we also added a component to place the music around town in what amounted to live music pods adjacent to our businesses located all around South Orange. Then we started booking bands on a week to week basis, identified as Making Live Music Around South Orange, NJ While Adjusting for the COVID-19 Pandemic. And guess what? It worked out very well, as many folks came out, stayed safe, and enjoyed the music.

Moving Forward 2021 Live Music Season

Well, we are now announcing a new 2021 South Orange Summer Saturdays born out of last year's learnings. This year, we are starting our season almost a month earlier, extending it a month later, and formally using our new outdoor restaurant patio as our stage. In addition, we identified almost 14 locations for live music all around South Orange, NJ. For our performances, we charged up the lineup as 50% of the bands are new to our performance lineup. Check it out here: SOVillageCenter.org.

2021 South Orange Summer Saturdays Line Up

The 2021 South Orange Summer Saturdays Live Music season will feature blues, jazz, rock, latin, pop, country and more all around our town. 

Highly requested returning favorites are MPAC Band, Los Trafficanos, Andy Lackow and Mess Around,  Harmonic Conversion, Lynette Sheard Entertainment, Organist Radam Schwartz, Gene Ghee, NXSTAGE Music, Carlos Frias & Circulo Social, Mama D and Vexations, Stuff Bros, Dwight West and Spirit of Life Ensemble. 

2021 South Orange Summer Saturdays Coming On Board 

New to the Main Stage, as of this writing, for 2021: Meant To Be Jazz Quartet, Mike Lee Jazz and his Jazz Jam, the fabulous Big Train Band, Forget The Whale will finally grace the main stage, Alan Paul's Big In China, Jacqueline Harmon Johnson Jazz & Jam, pop rocker David Easton, Rafiki led by Norman Man, Sir G. Earl Grice and the truly awesome 19-piece Maplewood Community Music Big Band which is too big for the stage so they will be sharing the parking lot with us.

Around Town South Orange Events 

In addition, around town we’ll also have some of your favorites returning, like Hal Keshner’s Piano Lounge, Bossio Ukulele, Leonieke Scheuble Trio, Alex DeLazzari Jazz, The Zoos, Howlin Poets, Kyle Younger Jazz Group, Charlie Apicella, Mike Choi, New Jersey DJ Services, Laredo the Band, Joel Cotton and, yes, even Opera in the Park if we can work it out, and a number of other events that we will bring onboard throughout the summer.

Honoring and Celebrating Those We Lost 

As you know, due to COVID, most celebrations of life were canceled or postponed, but we remember. Hence, lest we forget, not everyone made it through the 2020 year. We had tributes during the 2020 Live Music Season and into 2021, where some of our musical friends left us while others fell victim to COVID, such as Lee Boswell May, Darryl Clark, Holli Ross and many, many more. All of our memories, our live music season, and a few musical tributes are listed below.

Thank you musician Caylen Bryant for performing at Reflecting Together: South Orange, Maplewood to Remember Lives Lost to COVID-19, March 21. My thoughts during this SOMA Ceremony -  Tribute to Darryl Clark Holli Ross and Lee Boswell May and Many More and their families. 

March 6, 2021, the Township of South Orange named a street in Lee Boz May’s name, called “Boz Way.” I reported on that here: A Tribute to Lee "Boz" May -- Live Music Advocate Making South Orange, NJ Black History and Women's History. Long live “Boz Way.” 

We celebrated with a  ceremony.  Thank you to our musicians for your tributes to our fallen live music advocate, jazz lover, wife, family lover, community lover and more, Lee Boswell May.  

We hope to do more to honor them as COVID restrictions loosen up. 

Anticipating the 2021 South Orange Summer Saturdays Live Music Season

As we try and move forward, all of us here in town feel a sense of joyful anticipation about the 2021 South Orange Summer Saturdays season. We will once again make music for our devoted audience members. It promises to be a season to be remembered and cherish. Please join us.

About the Writer, Gregory Burrus

Gregory Burrus is writing about his first love, the creative people, towns and events all around South Orange NJ, Essex County and Beyond. Gregory continually observes, participates in, reports and writes on local community news, live music and the arts and entertainment scene of the JerseyNYC landscape, right here on Jersey Indie as JI blogger Gregory Burrus. Contact Gregory Burrus to promote your business or nonprofit across various social media and blogging platforms. http://gregoryburrus.me

A Tribute to Lee "Boz" May -- Live Music Advocate Making South Orange, NJ Black History and Women's History

By Gregory Burrus | Posted Saturday, March 6, 2021

"Boz Way" Street Naming

If you ever met Lee Boswell May aka "Boz" as we fondly called her, you would have witnessed her undying devotion to her husband Earl May, her love of Live Music, and her South Orange Community.  She clearly wanted everyone to experience the best in life.  So it is a great honor to have a South Orange Community New Jersey street called "Boz Way" named in her honor.  This street runs from the extremely busy South Orange Ave to the extremely calm and idyllic Mead Street and reflects Boz’s love of our community.

Community Champion Lee Boswell May aka "Boz"

Being a  Community Champion of South Orange was her thing.  As such, Lee was always involved and concerned with local community issues and regularly attended the South Orange Town Government meetings to express her opinion. Having lived 74 years, she lived through a number of changes in our town’s administration.  Lee was active, vibrant, and she connected with a number of officials throughout the years including one of the youngest town presidents, Sheena Collum, that is currently in office.

“The Honorable Sheena C. Collum serves as the 49th Village President of Township of South Orange Village and is the first female to hold this role in a municipality of 16,000 residents which is also the proud home to the Seton Hall University Pirates.”

Lee Boswell May of South Orange, NJ Final Cut

In the Community, Lee was definitely a concerned citizen, as she was a life long resident of South Orange, NJ, born just up the corner in Orange Memorial Hospital. She went to South Orange School and did so much more in South Orange and definitely loved life and live music here.

"Boz Way" Street Naming South Orange NJ Live Music Tributes

Saxophonist Mike Lee Tribute Performs Confirmation for Lee Boz May (RIP) 1945 - 2020

Mike Lee and son performed this tribute to Lee May in 2020:

Saxophonist Mike Lee performs regularly in New York City as a member of a wide array of jazz ensembles.  Mike Lee is Professor of Jazz Saxophone at The John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. Mr. Lee is endorsed by Conn-Selmer saxophones and Vandoren reeds. Mike leads the Wednesday night Jam session every week at Hat City Kitchen in Orange, NJ which features some of the greatest names in jazz.

Trumpeter James Gibbs Tribute to Lee Boz May (RIP) 1945 - 2020

James Gibbs III took to his automobile and performed this soulful tribute to Lee May in 2020:

James Gibbs III - Lee "Boz" May Forever - A beautiful Soul.

I could go on forever with the heart and soul of Lee Boz May. For now, I have created a tribute photo gallery which, if you were around, you are probably in there somewhere.  Big thanks to James Gibbs Coronavirus Social Distancing who sat in his truck for over an hour paying Tribute to Lee Boz May.

James Gibbs III, Trumpeter, Producer, composer, arranger, educator was born in Newark, and raised in Irvington, New Jersey. He began playing the alto saxophone and clarinet at the age of 9 then started playing the trumpet at 14.  Read More.

We will all miss our buddy Lee Boz May, my fellow live music lover. Rest in Peace in Musical heaven.

About Gregory Burrus

Gregory Burrus is a supporter of local businesses, community events, jazz, blues musicians and local art exhibitions. On a regular basis Gregory promotes, documents and writes about art, music, business, and local community events all around our towns of Essex County, North Jersey and New York City. Greg provides support through videography, photography, social media marketing, writing articles, blogging and photo journalism. Gregory is having fun living life while helping others.  Learn more at gregoryburrusproductions.com and https://patch.com/users/gregburrus.