3 Jazz Musicians to Know
These past and present players shape the revitalized Akron jazz scene.
When the sun went down in the 1950s, Jim Noel would don his best suit and head out to Howard Street to play. Saxophone in hand, he hit Benny Rivers, riffing off his fellow musicians, braiding extemporaneous notes into new songs every night. He’d play a set with hepcats like Gil Roberts kicking the drums, Newman Williams slapping the stand-up bass and Joe Bradley tickling the ivories. “We had pretty good musicians playing, and we could play just about anything,” says the 91-year-old Akron resident.
In his 20s, Noel honed his chops with his North Hill neighbor, piano luminary Pat Pace. He got so good that Count Basie’s band invited him to join them on the road after hearing him play in Cleveland. The then-father of two declined.
Tall and lean, Noel looks a couple decades younger than his age. He’s one of the last cats standing in the area from the Howard Street heyday, and he keeps the sound alive by practicing every day and occasionally playing out with friends. Though much has changed in Akron since those hot midcentury nights, Noel’s passion for jazz still simmers.
“There’s a difference between jazz and other music,” he says “It’s a way of expressing how you feel, and each song has a different feeling, so you play it differently. You play what you feel inside of that song. It’s all coming from you.”
Dan Wilson’s grandfather and great-grandfather were hunting buddies with legendary Howard Street saxophonist Jim Noel. So when the Akron native guitarist got the chance to play with Noel in the Hot Jazz on Howard Street reunion concerts in the mid-2000s, he felt right at home. “It gave me a sense of community to know that the musical tradition in this city was a vibrant thing. We’re trying to get back to that today, and to know that people paved the way for us was really encouraging,” he says. Wilson tours with Grammy Award-nominated organist Joey DeFrancesco, with whom he played on Van Morrison’s two latest studio albums. Wilson’s recent second album, “Balancing Act,” is available on his website, danwilsonguitar.com. He shares what it’s like to improvise with other musicians.
— as told to Sharon Best
There’s no other feeling like that. The best way to describe it is like a really stimulating conversation. If you’re talking to somebody who’s really engaged, and they have a lot of insightful things to add to the conversation, then you walk away feeling like, Hey, I really enjoyed that. It’s no different musically.
When you’re with musicians at a really high caliber and you’re able to interact with one another, it can be pretty exhilarating. There’s a lot of give and take.
You play different roles. If you play a supporting role, you can take the music in a different direction. That’s one of the cool things about jazz: It is very democratic. You have to really be open to things changing in the moment, and you have to be able to react to that.
There are a lot of great musicians in this area trying to collectively build the scene. We’re working on planning the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival for Aug. 24 and getting all kinds of local talent to be featured. That’ll be really an exciting time.
Jazz is spiritual to Akron trumpeter Tommy Lehman. “Everyone I played with around here is very sensitive and really only plays to serve the music,” he says. “So if we’re aligned musically, spiritually then we can really ascend.” Lehman exudes that fervor when he plays the danceable acidic jazz rock of Acid Cats, and with the Tommy Lehman Sextet and other local collaborations. He’s creating music at the next level with two record releases this spring, a solo album and one with the Acid Cats, of which he says the band’s bond and skill set have deepened to its richest sound yet. He shares how jazz takes him higher.
– as told to Kelly Petryszyn
I wanted to be a part of this scene — this community that gave me everything —— and give back. We have a very special sound in Akron. We play with a lot of fire and a sense of urgency.
I’m trying to connect to a higher power when I play. I’m striving to get out of myself and really, truly serve the music. Usually it happens when I’m playing with guys who are older than me, who sincerely have that connection. I’m so there in that moment that I’m not there at all. I’ve been completely transferred out of my body. It’s the greatest high on earth. You always reach for that.
I distinctly remember a New Year’s Eve show. Theron Brown had a birthday party down at Blu [Jazz] and everyone [Chris Coles, Dan Wilson, Jordan McBride, Zaire Darden] was in the band. We were backstage. Theron comes up to us: Hey, y’all get as ignorant as possible on this blues. We’re like, We’ll follow you anywhere, captain. I remember this solo break that Coles took. I screamed. It was an audible shout. All he had to do was play that one line, and it’s going through the roof and into the heavens, and everyone went with us.