WHERE FRIENDS and JAZZ MEET……….Newsletter Volume XX Number 4 APRIL 2019

BAR-ROOM BUZZARDS PLUS TWO

APRIL 15th JAZZ & BUFFET

MONDAY APRIL 15th is THE DAY !

The Bar-room Buzzards. Decades of great entertainment to Upstate New York venues. Welcome back to Flower City Jazz.

The Bar-room Buzzards traditional jazz band originally formed in 1966. Now

in their fifty-third year, group continues to entertain audiences in the Western

New York region. The quartet has performed at Jazz Festivals in New Orleans,

San Diego, Savannah, Georgia, Indianapolis, and Columbus, Ohio, as well as, at

numerous concerts and events throughout New York State. In 2002 they were

inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame.

Lew Custode (trumpet/cornet and vocalist) took over as leader of The Bar-room

Buzzards at the request of Paul Preston when he retired in 2017. A responsibil-

ity he takes seriously, Lew has infused different styles of music into their di-

verse repertoire and is proud to continue the rich legacy of one of New York’s

premier Traditional Jazz ensembles. These days, The Bar-room Buzzards can

be found performing in festivals, “watering holes”, park concerts, private parties

and corporate events throughout the New York State. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Flower City Jazz Society dues increase to $20-per-person-per-year, June 1, 2019 RENEW SOON (for an extra year) at the current $15 rate w/ Len Marcus (page 2)

Lew Custode, leader, trumpet player and vocalist with the "Bar-room Buzzards" and co-leader of “Custode and Parisi”,

was inducted into the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame “Class of 2018”, performing in WNY for over 40 years. As an accomplished musician, he has performed with a wide variety of music ensembles including rock bands, jazz combos, commercial dance groups, big bands, brass quintets, pit orches-tras concert and marching bands. Lew taught many of Niagara Falls’ aspiring young musicians in his private Trumpet Studio, was an instructor on staff for “The Music School of Niagara”, participated in the acclaimed “Music in Our Schools Program”, and currently teaches Trumpet Clinics in area schools. Career highlights & notable performances include "Custode & Parisi" recognized multiple

times as "Buffalo's Best Jazz Act" (Artvoice: Best of Buffalo, 2015, 2014, 2013 & 2011), opening act for Rich Little at the Riviera Theatre, President Ronald Regan Memorial, After Party for Buffalo Philharmonic Pops Grand Finale, Queen City Jass Society Millennium Celebration, Ft. Niagara Visitors Center Grand Opening, Buffalo Sabres Stanley Cup Finals and Nick Wallenda High Wire over Niagara Falls. Lew Custode has a long history of working with local businesses and organi-zations in Western New York and Southern Ontario developing musical performance opportunities. He has coordinated concerts and events at numerous venues, providing work for many local musicians and he still performs regularly in West-ern New York. Lew, along with his wife Maria, resides in Lewiston, NY and is the proud father of Christina Custode.

Steve Parisi was born in Buffalo, NY to music loving parents who started him on piano at the age of seven. By the time he was 10 years old, he had written over 50 compositions. His passion for music and ambition to become a composer lead him to SUNY at Buffalo on a full Fine Arts Scholarship. He studied piano with Yvar Mikhashoff and composition with Leo Smit, ultimately obtaining a Masters of Fine Arts in Music. As a composer and arranger, Steve wrote numerous works for the acclaimed Amherst Saxophone Quartet and his first commissioned piece was performed at Carnegie Hall in 1982. As a sought-after pia-nist, Steve has performed with numerous local groups including “Taxi”, “Beginnings”, “Buffalo Swing”, “Special Edition”, and toured nationally with popular 50’s/60’s band “The Flamingos”.

Steve currently co-leads “Custode & Parisi” on piano and arranges the ensembles music library. Currently a music edu-cator in the North Tonawanda Public Schools, he teaches Music Theory, as well as, acting as Choral Director and the Co-Director of the Jazz Ensemble. Steve has a local Piano Studio; teaching many of WNY’s aspiring musicians since 1973.

Bassist John Werick was born and raised in Buffalo, NY where he continues to reside and perform. In addition to his musical studies at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute and Buffalo State College, Werick studied electric bass, music theory and jazz improvisation with legendary Western New York musician Jim Kipler during the 1970's. A decade later he completed several years of bass violin studies with re-nowned bassist and educator Bill Staebell. In his thirty year-plus career as a freelance jazz bassist, Werick has performed with many of the area's finest native and visiting musicians and bandleaders in-cluding Al Tinney, Wallly Jedermann, Dave Schiavone, Paul Preston, Carol McLaughlin, John Allen,

Bobby Jones, Ernie Krivda, Chu Nero, Bruce Johnstone and many more. His regular musical group associations have included The String Brothers, Natural Elements, Sam Falzone and The Buffalo Jazz Workshop, Ted Howes’ The Nickel

City Clippers and The Magpies. Bill Bates has been playing drums since 1960 and is profeceint in many different styles of music. Bill studied with John Roland of the Buffalo Philharmonic and Bob Livingston of Rochester. A voracious mu-sician, he performs everything from Country, Rock, Small and Large Jazz Combos to Traditional Jazz. He has performed with the Nickel City Clippers Dixieland band since 1988, a popular local group that special-izes in playing swing-style Dixieland. Bill performs with The Tri-City Dixie Band and is a popular drummer with numerous groups throughout WNY; performing regularly in New York State and Southern Ontario.

A native of Rome N.Y., Ron Joseph is one of New York's hottest Dixieland jazz clarinetists. He has ap-peared with various Dixieland and Swing bands and combos at jazz festivals and events throughout the Northeast and Canada and has appeared with such notables as Warren Chiasson, Ed Polcer, Skip Par-son's Riverboat Jazz Band, Gene Mayl, John Ulrich, Rod Blumenau, Jewel Brown and Phil Flanigan. Ron's diverse playing style is reflective of the influences of jazz clarinetists Peanuts Hucko and Pee Wee Russell but none more so than his lifelong mentor and friend, acclaimed jazz clarinetist Jack Maheu which is often exemplified in signature tunes such as ‘Just A Closer Walk With Thee’ and ‘Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans’. Ron plays on the Buffet R13 clarinet given to him by Jack Maheu.

Ray Skalski began playing trumpet at the age of eight and switched to trombone when he was twelve. He joined his high school jazz ensemble and concert band as a freshman, and became a featured soloist by the time he was a junior. As a senior Ray received the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award for “outstanding musical achievement and incredible dedication to the music program”, performed at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., and on WBEN radio at Shea’s Theater (band led by Mitch Miller). Ray majored in design and minored in music at Buffalo State College where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Design and a Master in Art Education degree. He has performed coast-to-coast in the U.S., as well as in Canada and Europe, including with pianist Dick Hyman, Doc Severinson, Norma Teagarden, and Vince Giordano, to name a few.

FCJS Membership: Len Marcus, 347-4820. 328 Lenora Ln, Webster, NY 14580-2874 FLOWER CITY JAZZ BOARD of DIRECTORS Meeting, Monday, April 8th 7pm, Kay Salerno’s, 48 Elmore Road, phone: 442-1076

Flower City Jazz Society formed to preserve & promote Dixieland Jazz in Greater Rochester. [ASCAP Licensee] Membership dues: $15 per person for one year. Dinner-Concerts are third Monday, January through December, at the Radisson Hotel, 175 Jefferson Rd, Rochester, NY, 14623. FCJS, Inc. 41 Parkridge Dr, Pittsford, NY 14534 (temporary address) Board of Directors (see website: www.flowercityjazz.org)

THANKS TO RENEWING MEMBERS: Claudia Amorese, Michael Amorese, Jen Beaven, Michael Leibow, Nancy Beaven, Fred Crist, Bill & Joan Keyser, Craig Van Nostrand, Niles Barlow, John Lamb, Victoria Patridge, Goody Freed, Judy Miller, MaryLou Hogle, Judy Gerlach, Howard Greenwald, Gwen Cohen, Theresa Leone. NEW MEMBERS : Tom Renner, Marie Nightengale

Total enclosed: $ _____ (check payable to FLOWER CITY JAZZ SOCIETY)

_____________________________________________________________ Last Name First Name Telephone

Spouse/Companion ___________________

DINNER RESERVATION for Monday, April 15th, 2019

MAIL TO: JERRY WILLIAMS 84 Chippenham Dr., Penfield, NY 14526 (585) 729-6555

Reservation form and payment is due on or before Tuesday, April 9th, 2019

MEMBER PROFILE. Tom and Mary Halpin The Halpins have been members of

FCLS for about one year. Knowing they were jazz and music enthusiasts, Joy

Mulhern and I invited them to come to one of our monthly gatherings in late 2017.

They joined immediately, and attend whenever they are in town.

Tom was born in Rochester, and after his early years in Pittsford, his family moved

to the Stone Road section of Greece when he was in the fifth grade. Tom then joined

Joy and I at #42 School on Lake Avenue and at Charlotte High School, from which he

graduated with us in 1952. He then went on to St. Lawrence University and into the

Army for two years. He served as an MP lieutenant in Japan for most of his service

time. When he returned, he attended SUNY Brockport, from which he obtained his masters degree and a Certificate of

Advance Studies. He then began his career as a high school social studies teacher in Rochester, first at Franklin and later at

Edison Tech. During his teaching years, Tom was also a Section Five official for baseball, basketball, and soccer games.

Mary was born and brought up in Herkimer County, NY, and attended high school there. She then went to SUNY Potsdam,

with a major in Education. After college, she came to Rochester to teach. She started in Rochester, teaching at #17 School.

Then, after a year off to try jewelry design, she taught elementary grades in West Irondequoit for fourteen years. After her

children were raised, she went back to teaching in the City School District. During 1958, she taught in the country of

Columbia, where she learned Spanish. Later, in Irondequoit, she was active in the Urban-Suburban student transfer program.

Tom and Mary met at a party in Hilton in 1960, during a snowstorm. They were married in 1963. Two children resulted, and

one grandchild. The Halpins have lived in Brockport for most of their married life.

Both are musicians, too. In high school and college, Tom was an avid singer. He also played the trumpet. Mary sings, too,

and is now with the Sweden Senior Singers.

They love to travel, go on cruises, etc. They have a time share in Mexico and summer in Maine. But, during the summer

Jazz Festival in Rochester, they make sure they are here!. Written by Ron Anderson

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=>> SEND DINNER RESERVATIONS by Friday, April 5th

RATE LAST MONTH'S BAND: O BELOW AVERAGE O AVERAGE O ABOVE AVERAGE

( Al Bruno’s Bourbon Street Parade )

COMMENTS FOR THE BOARD: ____________________________________________

MENU for MONDAY, April 15, 2019 5:30pm cheese/crackers social;

6:30pm dinner service starts; music 6:30pm-9:30pm

PRICE # of MEALS

PRICE X # MEALS

BUFFET DINNER. Garden Salad, Warm Rolls w/ butter, Vodka-Cream Baked Pasta, Vegetable Medley, Wild Mush-

room Rice Pilaf, White-Wine broiled Tilapia, Apple Horserad-ish Center-Cut Pork Chops, Assorted Cheese Cake

[ note: Tilapia & Pork Chops are gluten free (per Radisson) ]

$27

FLOWER CITY JAZZ 2018 Radisson Hotel (Airport) Park in well-lighted area in back of Hotel; Enter thru Doors At Back Of Hotel to Ballroom.

c/o 41 Parkridge Dr

Pittsford, NY 14534 (temporary address)

UPCOMING FCJS CONCERTS & OTHER VENUES

FCJS Events are at Radisson Hotel (Airport), 175 Jefferson Rd, Rochester , NY 14623 (585) 475-1910 FCJS times: 5:30pm cheese/crackers social; 6:30pm dinner service starts; music 6:30pm—9:30pm

Queen City Jazz (Buffalo) events: SEAN PATRICK’S, 3480 Millersport Rd, Getzville, NY. Concerts 5pm NEW Location Syracuse Jazz (JASS): Spaghetti Warehouse, 689 N. Clinton St, Syracuse, NY. Concerts 4pm

2019 April 2019 15

th Monday (FCJS) Barroom Buzzards Plus Two Radisson

May 5th

Sunday (Syracuse Jazz Society) Smugtown Stompers (Spaghetti Warehouse)

May 2019 20th

Monday (FCJS) Jam With Jon (Seiger) Radisson

June 2019 17th

Monday (FCJS) Fredtown Stompers Radisson

www.FlowerCityJazz.org

CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES OF FLOWER CITY JAZZ SOCIETY MEMBERS. To the family of Bernie Wiese, who passed away March 1, 2019. Bernie attended many FCJS events up until recently. His career was as a patent attorney with East-man Kodak, and he was an active member of St Catherine of Siena Church (Mendon). To the family of Dorothy Redding, who passed away March 17th, 2019. Dorothy and her husband David attended Flower City Jazz events up until early 2015, along with friends from St. Catherine of Siena Church (Mendon).

Address Highlighted ? Consider Fresh Start Membership Renewal See New Membership Address, page 2 “Len”