Linda Moody Honors James Moody Scholars in South Orange NJ

Making History Linda Moody Honors James Moody Scholars at 100 Blanchard Rd in South Orange NJ

Every year the spectacular TD James Moody Jazz Festival comes to Newark, NJ. An absolutely fabulous jazz festival, in it’s 10 year, that is still sponsored by TD Bank. The TD James Moody Jazz Festival presents dozens of free and ticketed events at the beautiful New Jersey Performing Arts Center and selected locations around Downtown Newark. This year the Godmother of the Festival as NJPAC President John Schrieber referred to her, Linda Moody, widow of James Moody (RIP) comes into town from San Diego and hosts a number of TD James Moody Jazz Festival events.

I am honored and excited to come to the TD James Moody Jazz Festival every year. I have life long friends here and it feels like home.

I know that my husband would be thrilled at this being the 10th anniversary of the festival. He would love the diversity of it because there is something for everyone. I especially love meeting with the James Moody Scholars from Purchase College and New Jersey. I thank Jazz House Kids for their hard work facilitating The James Moody Jazz Scholarship for New Jersey. Having the Scholars play together for the first time was heartwarming. I live in a constant state of gratitude and sometimes I just have to pinch myself.

Our Host Linda Moody represents the spirit of James Moody very well. She is very engaging and ensures everyone feels happy they came out.

This year was special for us as Linda Moody wanted to honor the James Moody Scholarship Scholars with a live music concert during her time here. There has been a recipient each year of the scholarship and now there are enough of them to have a band with a rhythm section.

Now for me, a person with a Jazz loving dad and mom, we grew up listening to the famous saxophonist James Moody. Then fast forward to the 1970s, when New York City radio DJ Frankie Crocker played the King Pleasure recording of Moody's Mood for Love every night at the end of his show on WBLS-FM. And as one listener stated “Frankie Crocker had the ENTIRE tri-state singing this song - word for word - every night at 8pm - genius”. To say I was ecstatic to find a location and host an event for the James Moody Scholars is an understatement, I was truly blown away and honored.

The James Moody Scholars

With band members coming from as far away as Trenton. NJ to perform, the James Moody Scholars Septet did James Moody proud, big time. Each band member came from a different year and to play together for the first time. Bandleader Birsa Chatterjee (2015 ) Tenor Saxophone, Iyonna Herbert (2016 ) Drums, Andrew Wagner (2017) Trumpet, Caelan Cardello (2018 ) Piano, Jalin Shiver (2019 ) Alto Saxophone, Rayner Perez (2020 )Trombone and unable to attend was Paul Reinhold (2021). Tonight Gervin Myles was on Bass, all under the direction of Saxophonist Birsa Chatterjee.

The James Moody Scholars Performances

Set 1:

The night opened with me, Gregory Burrus being very happy to introduce the host Linda Moody. Linda discussed the past scholarships, the meaning behind them and then introduced the band one by one. We proceeded to listen to the band swing and play on.

Set 2:

The power of jazz and improvisation was evident all night long as they also performed with the singers who came up to perform. The band continued swinging hard, playing the standards and continued playing beautiful and strong all night long. They were definitely in sync.

The Invited Vocalists

In addition, we wanted the night to be reflective of the real world so selected local vocalists were invited to join in the fun. In attendance were: local entrepreneur, Blues and Jazz vocalist, East Orange’s Jacqueline Harmon Johnson, actor, producer and director and the unseated “West Orange Idol” Lynette Sheard and the award winning writer, playwright, actor with the beautiful voice, Hillsdale’s Joy Topping-Mann.

I also should note we had a wonderful introduction to freelance documentary filmmaker, pianist, singer, songwriter Dara Tucker. Dara is the winner of the Nashville Industry Music Awards 2017 and 2020 Best Jazz Album and 2016 and 2017 Best Jazz Vocalist of the year.

Needless to say, all the vocal performances backed by the James Moody Scholars were simply fabulous.

The Jazz Supporters

A number of notable jazz supporters and special guests came out in support of the scholars. We were very honored to have the daughter of James Moody - Michelle Bagdanove in attendance, that was just awesome. Also special guests were: NEA Jazz Master Dorthaan Kirk and as the New York Times said “Dorthaan Kirk Is Newark's First Lady of Jazz”. Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies & Newark Archives Executive Director Wayne Winborne. Grammy award winning record producer and audio engineer John Lee, SOMAtv Station Manager and Genealogist, Dustin Dumas along with our local WBGO’s Jazz After Hours OnAir Personality Greg Bryant. Also thank you to New Jersey Jazz Society (NJJS) President Cydney Halpin, who commented - “I just wanted to thank you again for inviting me to last night's Moody Scholarship event. Those cats were wonderful!! And that house...heavenly!! Congratulations on a wonderful event!!”

The Historic Venue - 100 Blanchard Rd.

100 Blanchard Rd is a gorgeous historic house in South Orange NJ. Known as the "Blanchard Estate," this Georgian brick mansion is a captivating Georgian brick mansion that has over 13, 000 square feet of space and sits on 2 acres of private, stunning property with NYC skyline views. Built in 1924 this stately residence was designed in the style of the Gilded Age Mansions of Newport, well designed for entertaining friends with a grand foyer leading to the custom wood appointed ballroom with stylish coffered ceilings. It was a perfect location.

The Event Volunteers

None of this could have happened without support from our team supporters and volunteers. A big thank you to:

GBP Volunteers - that made the night run smoothly James Pansulla, @DJ Roc M South Orange, Teresa Ware, Mary Collins and Donald, Barbara White, CC Minton, and we inducted Rayner Perez who helped us bigtime with the chairs.

Official Event Photographer -All these creative folks documented the nights events with some truly beautiful photos. Albert Clarke, Allison V Brown and Patrick Hilaire.

Live Streamed Videographer - We live streamed to Facebook, Youtube and TwitchTV so thanks to our onsite Livestream and videographer Yardbird Entertainment - Peter Lin and our remote livestreamer G2BProductions.

Millie Austin’s Catering and Roxanne Burrus for supplies and delivery of light refreshments. Big huge thanks to our audience attendees who are helping keep live music alive. We thank you big time.

Patterson Foundation / Blanchard Conservatory - Our hats off to our venue host, Yvonne Patterson for helping us make the night a huge success.

Gregory Burrus Productions

Gregory Burrus is a Live Music Events Producer, Promoter, Curator and Community Partner. Gregory Burrus is writing about his first love: the creative people, towns, events involved in the arts and entertainment scene that is happening all around South Orange, Maplewood and the overall JerseyNYC area.