New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu


?>

 

INSIDE MUSIC: Bring Live Jazz & Local Jazz Artists Back to The Jersey Shore!


By Rosemary Conte

originally published: 09/20/2015


In recent years, arts presenters at the Jersey Shore have often misrepresented jazz in their programming. And in the rare times jazz is presented in large venues, musicians from Northern NJ, NY and Philly are most likely hired. World class jazz artists from Monmouth and Ocean Counties and surrounding areas go unacknowledged.

There are no jazz clubs at the Shore anymore. No place where local accomplished jazz players can play the music to which they’ve dedicated their professional lives. There are many reasons for this, and not all the blame should go to event

organizers.

I moved to New Jersey 44 years ago, and almost immediately resumed the singing career I began as a child in way upstate New York. Traditionally, musicians of my generation didn’t have a head for business. Jazz musicians in particular, tended to keep to themselves. They were imaginative and inventive playing music, but they weren’t entrepreneurs. Networking hadn’t yet become a fashionable activity among artists.

I had to acquire an enterprising spirit because I was a single, working mom with four kids to support with only my talent. I made a point of learning how to put together a band, sell it and promote it. I learned to write press releases, use bulk mailings, and paste-up style graphic arts from other people who had those skills. During the late 70s, DJs captured the market in private parties, and many local jazz players  who freelanced in bands rarely worked.

After hearing them complain that “My phone isn’t ringing,” I decided to create All Music Inc. (AMI), a non-profit organization. Non-profit in the literal sense! I published a companion “magletter” where I and others wrote about artists’ issues. I shared what I had learned, including how to create our own gigs when phones weren’t ringing with offers. I organized AMI events to showcase musicians and bring them together with music consumers. Today, that’s called audience development. I was disappointed that musicians “didn’t get it;” did not support my effort nor the concept of preparing for the future.




New Jersey Stage provides affordable advertising for the arts, click here for info



Through the years, many of the jazz players whose training allowed them to play all kinds of music, taught private lessons, continued to study and practice their instruments, and some composed and arranged. But they didn’t work much as jazz musicians. As music and pop culture began to change, so did DJs. They became slick, complete entertainment offices and even more popular.

Shore jazz clubs closed. Some jazz players took factory jobs for the first time. Some grew ill and died. And there was a suicide or two. After six years, I lost my shirt financing an organization that fulfilled its mission, without the reclusive Shore jazz players. And as jazz died at the Jersey Shore, new music was being born to run.   

Today, jazz festivals around the country, and especially at the Shore, don’t feature much jazz. You’ll hear blues, hip hop, house, rock, R&B, and even country music. There are good trends and bad. And, where music is concerned, I look at the bigger picture. My anthem has never been “everybody’s doing it.”

I like and support all genres and all musicians, but I’m concerned with helping to preserve jazz…real jazz.  If music events are not featuring real jazz, young people will not know what it is. A good trend is that the newer generations of jazz musicians are enterprising. I hope we’ll see their performances at the Shore.

Today, jazz musicians (singers are musicians, too) are like chameleons. They play in utilitarian contexts all the time.  They become unwitting purveyors of alcohol in restaurants and lounges. They might as well be wallpaper.  They take requests at parties and are expected to keep people dancing. They’re hired to accompany all sorts of singers. But jazz musicians rarely get to freely play the style of music they love.

As a die-hard advocate, I’ve begun hosting monthly jazz jam sessions at my home. Using the nickname I’ve had in the music and healing communities for decades, I call it “Rosemother’s Jam – 100% Jazz!” I invite accomplished jazz players to come play the jazz repertoire and their originals freely, and to have a good time.

One of the drummers involved suggested we play a concert at the music studio where he teaches. It seemed like a good idea, since some jazz lovers have asked if the public can come to my house sessions, but I don’t have room for an audience.




New Jersey Stage provides affordable advertising for the arts, click here for info



Please come and support the very first public performance of Rosemother’s Jam – 100% Jazz! featuring Rosemary Conte’s Reality Jazz.  The show will take place on Sunday, October 18 from 3:00pm - 5:00pm at the Monmouth Academy of Music (1230 Campus Dr., Morganville, NJ).  Admission is $15.  The all-star band includes Brad Mandigo, piano; Tony Cimorosi, bass; Bob Boyd, drums; myself, vocals, and a very special guest!  Students of jazz are encouraged to come.

                                              

Rosemary Conte is a singer, voice teacher, and hypnotherapist living and working in Matawan, NJ.

Address comments and questions to RConte9@Verizon.net.


FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


Curtis

Curtis Salgado

Wednesday, July 02, 2025 @ 7:30pm
Lizzie Rose Music Room
217 E. Main Street, Tuckerton, NJ 08087
category: music


 

John

John Lee & Friends

Thursday, July 03, 2025 @ 7:30pm
The Morris Museum Back Deck
6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ 07960
category: music


 

Blues

Blues People with Special Guest: Jeff Levine

Saturday, July 05, 2025 @ 7:30pm
Lizzie Rose Music Room
217 E. Main Street, Tuckerton, NJ 08087
category: music


 

Straight

Straight No Chaser - Summer: The 90’s Part 2

Tuesday, July 08, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC)
30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
category: music


 

Frisson

Frisson Winds

Thursday, July 10, 2025 @ 7:30pm
The Morris Museum Back Deck
6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ 07960
category: music


 


 

EVENT PREVIEWS

Two

Two NJ Jazz Musicians Will Play with The Jazz Ambassadors in Morristown

Pianist Anthony Pocetti grew up in Hamilton, NJ, studying piano, "doing sort of traditional piano lessons. I have an uncle who was always encouraging me to get into the jazz thing. He gave me the (Miles Davis) Kind of Blue CD, and he knew that the jazz pianist Jim Ridl was living in Hamilton."



Asbury

Asbury Lanes presents There, There - A Tribute to Radiohead

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- Asbury Lanes presents There, There on Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 8:00pm. They are the premier Radiohead tribute act, playing songs from throughout the band's iconic multi-decade catalogue.



bergenPAC

bergenPAC presents Straight No Chaser - Summer: The 90's Part 2

(ENGLEWOOD, NJ) -- After a totally fly 2024 summer tour packed full of 90s boy band, pop, and R&B hits, RIAA-certified Gold a cappella group Straight No Chaser is back by popular demand with "Straight No Chaser Summer: 90s Part 2." The tour comes to Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC) on Thursday, July 8, 2025 at 7:00pm.



Blue

Blue Curtain presents 2025 Summer Concert Series in Princeton

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Blue Curtain returns to Pettoranello Gardens Amphitheater this July with a free three-concert series. The 2025 season opens on Saturday, July 12 at 8:00pm with a performance by internationally acclaimed trombonist, composer, and bandleader Jimmy Bosch, also known as El Trombon Criollo.



NJPAC

NJPAC presents KEM with special guest Melania Fiona

(NEWARK, NJ) -- New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents a special evening with KEM, known as Soul's Greatness, on Friday, July 18, 2025 at 8:00pm. Special guest Melanie Fiona will open the night.