Sayville Musician Previews New Album At LI Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame

SAYVILLE, NY — Sayville musician and longtime music educator Jack Licitra has spent decades teaching, performing, and building community through blues and jazz — but on Feb. 15, he plans to hand part of the spotlight to the audience.

Licitra, 53, will preview songs from his upcoming album Blue Light Club during a live performance at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook (97 Main St.), offering listeners an early look at a project he describes as both a musical journey and a shared experience. The concert begins at 3 p.m. and is free for LIMEHOF members and included with general admission for non-members.

Unlike previous Blue Light Club theater productions that featured a large ensemble and scripted staging, Licitra said this performance will “flip the script.”

The performance will primarily be a solo set, he said, but will likely include special guests and heavy audience participation, from clapping and singing along to playing simple percussion parts. The goal is to bring the album’s core idea of connection to life onstage.

“Usually, the Blue Light Club has a very large band, and it’s kind of running off a script,” Licitra said. “But in this case, the audience, unbeknownst to them, is going to be more part of the show than they realize.”

The Blue Light Club album stems from an immersive live theatrical experience created by Licitra’s band, Jack’s Waterfall. The project is designed as a narrative journey into an imagined jazz and blues nightclub — a utopian musical space inspired by Licitra’s decades in Long Island’s blues scene.

“Long Island’s been a huge part of my musical development,” he said. “These songs were created with this imaginary utopian blues and jazz club, and really that’s based on my experience as being a Long Island blues musician.”

Licitra is a LIMEHOF Long Island Sound Award winner for his contributions to Long Island’s music heritage. As a teenager, he and his first group, the WaterStreet Blues Band, first caught the attention of Jim Faith, who was then — and still is — a talent booker and LI promoter, as well as the co-founder of LIMEHOF.

“After hearing them and realizing that they were a very special group of talented kids — way beyond their years — I became their booking agent,” Faith recalled. “Jack was the main songwriter and handled the bookings.”

Faith was so impressed with the group that he booked them at Theater Three, opening for James Cotton, Marcia Ball, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Johnny Hiatt.

“Jack eventually went on his spiritual journey and left the band, returning shortly after with his own projects,” Faith said. “He is a world-class songwriter and musician and is born to teach. His immense talent, experience, and heart make him an ideal educator who any student would be lucky to have.”

At the heart of the Blue Light Club album is the sense of musical family often found in blues and jazz circles. The focus is on emotional storytelling over technical flash — a perspective shaped by both performance and decades of teaching.

“I think the story is community,” Licitra said. “There’s this large group of blues and jazz musicians that really connect on the gigs and are kind of like each other’s musical family. They’re doing it for love — the pursuit of being good at something and caring about it just for the sake of love.”

Licitra grew up in Garden City and credits a high school music teacher with helping him find his footing early, encouraging him not only to perform but also to mentor peers and experiment with recording equipment and synthesizers.

As a performer, he has played venues across Long Island, including theater-style spaces that allowed him to develop more narrative-driven shows while also exploring a range of genres from folk to New Orleans blues and jazz.

As an educator, he said, the balance between technique and feeling remains the essential question.

“For me, always emotion and connection first,” Licitra said. “If that can inform technique, or technique supports that, then you’ve got a winner. Sometimes you just have to let the moment and the emotion lead everything.”

That philosophy carries into how he hopes younger musicians experience Blue Light Club.

“I’m hoping younger musicians don’t see their playing as just showing off chops and the technical part of the music,” he said. “Instead, they see the stories and the musical storytelling. That’s my real hope in it.”

Over the years, his career has included collaborations with internationally known musicians and opening performances for blues and folk legends, along with producing albums for other artists and founding South Bay Arts in Sayville. He also runs LIMEHOF’s All-Star Summer Band Camp, mentoring young performers while continuing to write and tour his own music.

The Feb. 15 concert will serve as a preview ahead of Blue Light Club’s expected late-March release. Licitra said performing the material live will allow listeners to form a deeper connection before hearing the finished record.

“There’s just so much noise today,” he said. “Trying to captivate people’s attention about a group of songs is very difficult. So to have performances before the release lets people know this is something different and worth taking the time to dig into.”

For audiences, the performance promises more than a preview of new music — it offers a chance to step inside the world the album was built around, where participation is encouraged, and storytelling leads the way.

When the show ends, Licitra said he hopes the takeaway is simple.

“Always positivity,” he said.