Plus the Chip Miller Surf & Turf events, Album of the Week, and DrewToonz's take on Resorts' upcoming circuses
Photo by Lou Jones.
On Sunday, July 24, long-time Atlantic City and Ocean City writer, foodie, jazz lover and resident Sandy Warren will help honor the memory of the late and greatly influential jazz musician Art Blakey, who lived in Northfield with Warren — who raised Blakey’s son Takashi there and in Ocean City — for many years. Presented by the Somers Point Jazz Society, the free musical and educational program at the Ocean City Public Library (2-3:15pm) is part of the library’s Jazz Education Concert Series on Sundays in July. Dubbed “The Music of Art Blakey,” the event will feature the Eddie Morgan Quintet playing and discussing the music of Blakey, who led the Jazz Messengers — a sort of touring and recording training camp for some of the biggest names in jazz — for decades up until his death in 1990. Warren recently penned a memoir on her life with Blakey, Cookin’ and Jammin’: Recipes and Remembrances from a Jazz Life, which she will be signing before the library event, starting at 1:30pm. Get there early to speak with Warren about her fascinating life with Blakey and his connections to both Atlantic and Cape May counties. In fact, on one of his hundreds of albums, Blakey is pictured walking on the Ocean City Boardwalk. On another, he is pictured with his son in Smithville. The photo is also on the cover of Warren’s book (see cookinandjammin.com). On July 31, the series concludes with “The Music of Dave Brubeck.” — Jeff Schwachter
Eighth Annual Chip Miller Surf & Turf
Chip Miller garnered a reputation as one who strived to help people and make a difference in the lives of others. When he passed away from a rare disease called amyloidosis in March 2004, his wife Judy created the Chip Miller Amyloidosis Charitable Foundation so that her husband’s legacy for philanthropy could continue, and so diagnosis and treatment of the disease could be facilitated in others. A cornerstone event since the foundation began has been the Chip Miller Surf Fest, which was expanded in this, its eighth year, to include a golf tournament and was re-branded the Chip Miller Surf & Turf. “The Chip Miller Surf Fest started off small, like any new event,” says Lance Miller, Chip’s son. “Through the years we’ve been very fortunate to have such strong local support. Watching this event mature has been a true triumph and provides my family and I with the utmost joy. I’m really excited about this year’s addition of the golf tournament. We’re eager to continue this growth pattern for years to come, and of course to help spread the word about this terrible disease that took my best friend’s life.” The dual event will take place next Thursday, July 28, with a 7am check-in at the 7th Street Ocean City beach for the surfing portion ($30 per surfer), and a noon registration at the Greate Bay Country Club in Somers Point for the golf tournament ($125 per golfer). There will be an after-party for both events at Greate Bay staring 6pm. For more information, go to chipmiller.org or call 231-1562. — Ray Schweibert
Fruit Bats
‘Tripper’ (Sub Pop)
Fans of the Beatles White Album, The Shins, and modern-day freak-folk bands such as Animal Collective, Vetiver and Dr. Dog will thoroughly enjoy the Fruit Bats’ latest and fifth album, Tripper, due out on Aug. 2 from Sub Pop (the same label the Shins and Vetiver are on). Eric D. Johnson formed the band in Chicago in 1999 and has used a variety of musicians through the years. Johnson had a short story, movie or play in mind for a while and turned it into the song “Tony the Tripper,” which, according to Sub Pop is “the heart” of the album, “setting the tone for a bittersweet meditation on hitting the road, leaving the familiar behind and reinventing yourself.” Tripper is quite an impressive reinvention of the Fruit Bats. — Jeff Schwachter
Drew Toonz (see more here)
The Somers Point Jazz Society is presenting a free musical and educational program in Ocean City on Sundays (2-3:15pm) during the month of July.
Also: 'Boardwalk Empire' themed Drew Toonz, and Hot Tuna/Charlie Musselwhite at Stockton PAC.
When Art Blakey, the legendary jazz drummer (and 2005 Grammy lifetime achievement award recipient), lived in Northfield during the late 1970s and early '80s, he could not help running his bicycle into the side of the 507 NJ Transit bus, which, at the time, stopped right in front of the home he shared with his longtime companion, Sandy Warren, and son, Takashi, at the intersection of Mill and Shore roads. "The bus driver would just sit there and look at him," remembers Warren. "He just never really learned how to ride his bike. But he kept trying because he thought, you know, that's a nice thing that you can do in Northfield--you could ride your bike. "It's so weird because you think of someone talented enough to be the world's greatest drummer, who can close his eyes and throw the sticks up in the air and catch them with his eyes still closed and never miss a beat - that he should be able to ride a bicycle and do some other things that require a bit of dexterity. He couldn't. Drumming was the only thing that required dexterity that he could do!" Thank heaven for that. In the decades after the Pittsburgh-born...
"Dr John's forward is worth the price of the book alone," says Warren. "When he tells you how he met Art, that is worth the price of the book. It's too funny to be fiction; it's got to be real life."
Peering out of the second floor window of his white stucco home on East Mill Street in Northfield, Art Blakey could see nothing but sky and greenery. He used to say it felt like he was in a tree house -- miles away from the hustle and bustle of New York City or Paris. If the the late musician had peered into the future, however -- say about 30 years -- he couldn't have possibly foreseen the events that would transpire in his temporarily adopted hometown region this weekend. The Cape Savings Bank Jazz @ The Point festival, March 1-4, being presented as a multi-event tribute to the jazz legend, will honor a man who spent the better part of the 1950s through the 1980s helping to shape (and keep alive) the hard bop side of jazz. While doing so he performed all over the world, recording on hundreds of sessions and, perhaps most significantly, fostering the careers of numerous young jazz players who would become huge forces on the jazz scene themselves -- Clifford Brown, Keith Jarrett and Wynton Marsalis, to name a mere few. Although he was born in Pittsburgh and spent most of his life as a...
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