Music Magazine Puts South Jersey Native On Cover

NEW JERSEY — If you asked Moorestown native Liam Sutcliffe about 15 years ago if he ever saw himself being on the cover of a magazine playing the trumpet, he likely would have said 'no.'

That is because his first instrument experience came from ticking the ivories of a piano, not pushing the finger buttons of a trumpet.

"When I was about eight years old, my mom had me take piano lessons," Sutcliffe told Patch in an interview. "I wasn't really into it, [but] she would really have to force me to go to piano lessons."

Watching a Dizzy Gillespie video convinced him to switch to trumpet. He's not put the brass instrument down for most of the last 13 years, he continued.

"I really liked the music that I heard, even though I had not heard a lot of that type of music before that," Sutcliffe said.

He soon began watching and listening to South Jersey musician Bob Pollitt.

Pollitt, according to the perhaps appropriately-named Jersey Jazz magazine, had previously played with some of the greatest names in jazz history, including John Coltrane and Sonny Stitt.

Making the switch and watching Pollitt appear to have paid off for Sutcliffe.

This February 2017 Patch story discussed the winners of that year's Berklee Jazz Festival, including how Sutcliffe won the Judges' Choice Award in the competition's Large
Ensemble Division.

Then in May 2021, Patch mentioned how he and his band would be participating in a Sunday Brunch Series at Lillipies Bakery in Princeton.

In the years between those bookends, Sutcliffe enrolled in the Jazz Studies program at Rutgers' Mason Gross School of the Arts. Then this past spring, he was named the inaugural winner of a $1,000 performance scholarship from the New Jersey Jazz Society.

"The competition was open to all college students currently enrolled in a New Jersey college undergraduate music program. Along with the cash awards, the winning students will also receive guidance, mentorship and the opportunity to perform with an industry professional," Jersey Jazz stated.

Sutcliffe told Patch that another benefit to winning the scholarship was not immediately known.

"I was pleasantly surprised," he said of being on the cover of Jersey Jazz's June issue. "I only knew that I was going to be in an article in the magazine."

When not practicing the trumpet, Sutcliffe said he spends most of his time playing in one of several different music groups and teaching the next generation of trumpeters.

"Being a well-rounded trumpet player and musician has also made me a better jazz player," he told Jersey Jazz.

Got a news tip? Story idea? Send me an email with the details at janel.miller@patch.com.