(WHIPPANY, NJ) --- In the 1970s and ‘80s, cornetist/trumpeter Warren Vache played in the house band at Eddie Condon’s on West 54th Street in New York City. Condon’s was down the street from Jimmy Ryan’s where legendary trumpeter Roy Eldridge performed. During their breaks, Eldridge and the young Vache would listen to each other. That, says Vache, was, “the best teaching experience I ever had.”

A longtime resident of Rahway, NJ, Vache will be leading one of four bands playing at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s 49th annual Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp on Sunday, March 18 from noon-5:00pm at the Birchwood Manor here. Described by allmusic.com’s Ken Dryden as “one in a long line of important cornetists following Bix Beiderbecke, Jimmy McPartland, and Ruby Braff,” Vache will head a quintet featuring the soulful tenor saxophonist Houston Person, along with pianist Steve Ash, bassist Earl Sauls, and drummer Steve Williams.

The other bands include: The George Gee Swing Orchestra, which includes trombonist/music director David Gibson; trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, who grew up in Teaneck, NJ; and alto saxophonist Julius Tolentino, who directs the jazz band at Newark Academy in Livingston, NJ. Professor Cunningham and His Old School, a septet led by clarinetist/saxophonist Adrian Cunningham, which also features West Orange, NJ, pianist Oscar Perez, trombonist Jim Fryer, and trumpeter Jon Challoner.  The Daryl Sherman Sextet, led by pianist/vocalist Daryl Sherman and including trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso, reedman Jay Rattman, guitarist James Chirillo, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Kevin Dorn.

This year’s Stomp will be dedicated to the memory of drummer Chuck Slate, Sr., who died last November. Slate’s Traditional Jazz Band performed at the first Stomp in 1970 at the Martinsville Inn in Martinsville, NJ. Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, leading a band or trio, Slate appeared at several New Jersey venues, mostly in Morris County or the Somerset Hills. They included the Ride‘n Hunt Club and the Bernards Inn in Bernardsville, NJ, The Store in Basking Ridge, NJ, and Rod’s in Convent Station, NJ. He also performed at the Chester Inn and Hillside Lounge in Chester, NJ, prompting The New York Times’ John S. Wilson, in 1972, to refer to Chester as the “jazz center” of New Jersey. Clarinetist Joe Licari, who played with Slate in the 1980s, will receive the NJJS Distinguished Musician award, and jazz writer and critic Will Friedwald will be honored as this year’s Jazz Advocate.

The George Gee Swing Orchestra is a regular attraction at Swing 46, the jazz supper club on West 46th Street in New York City. In a review of Swing Makes You Happy!, Gee’s 2014 album on the Rondette Jazz label, londonjazznews.com praised trombonist Gibson’s arrangements, which “give the nonet the feel of a small big band. With a pair of trumpets, a single trombone, three saxes, and three rhythms to work on, his [Gibson’s] writing has the kind of tight, punchy call and response patterns that the late-era Basie band deployed.”

Trumpeter Hendrix has played as a sideman with Teaneck bassist Rufus Reid, was a member of the Count Basie orchestra and appeared on tour with Alicia Keys. Reviewing the 2016 release of his album, Jersey Cat, on Sunnyside Records, Jazz Times said Jersey Cat “operates within familiar territory, specifically the upbeat style patented by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers . . . Jersey Cat’s best moments arrive with originals like ‘Madeira Nights’, in which the long romantic melody reveals the power of Hendrix’s tone.”

Alto saxophonist Tolentino, a resident of Roselle Park, NJ, has once again this year taken the Newark Academy jazz band to the finals of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition. He studied with alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and toured for several years with the Illinois Jacquet Big Band. Originally from Bloomfield, NJ, Tolentino released an album, Just the Beginning, on Sharp Nine Records in 2005. Allmusic.com’s Dryden said it showed Tolentino had, “a lot of promise as a leader.” He singled out Tolentino’s composition, “Letter to Illinois”, a tribute to Jacquet, saying it was “a fitting memorial to a great musician.”

Adrian Cunningham, one of Australia’s leading jazz musicians, relocated to New York in 2008. His latest album, Jazz Speak, was released by Arbors Records in 2017. “On this, his seventh album,” wrote The New York City Jazz Record’s Marilyn Lester, “he’s in top form on tenor saxophone, clarinet, and flute, playing his tunes as well as standards.”

West Orange’s Oscar Perez, the pianist in Cunningham’s band, grew up in Queens and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has shared the stage with trombonists Curtis Fuller and Wycliffe Gordon and bassist Christian McBride, among others. WBGO-FM’s Sheila Anderson described him as “an improviser and composer with his own distinct voice . . . combining the traditions of his Cuban heritage with straight-ahead jazz.”

Pianist/vocalist Daryl Sherman has been part of the New York City jazz scene since the mid-1970s. She’s performed with some of her Pee Wee Stomp colleagues such as Warren Vache and Houston Person, as well as trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, and pianist Dick Hyman, among others. The New York Times’ Stephen Holden called her “a stylistic compendium of Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey, and Blossom Dearie”. Onstage’s Michael Darvell, recognizing the influence of Blossom Dearie, said Sherman also is a “direct vocal descendant of the likes of Anita O’Day and Annie Ross. The voice is unlike any other, in the way that Dearie’s was soft, smooth, and quiet, and yet Sherman can also be upbeat, raucous, and shot through with tongue-in-cheek humour.” Hothouse Magazine named Sherman “Best Jazz Vocalist” in 2015.

Tickets to the Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp are $30 in advance for members, $35 for non-members; $40 at the door for members, $45 for non-members. Student tickets (with current ID) are $15 either in advance or at the door. To order tickets, visit www.njjs.org, call 1-800-838-3006, or send a check payable to NJJS, including a $3 per order handling fee, together with a stamped, self-addressed envelope, to: NJJS, c/o Mike Katz, 382 Springfield Avenue, Suite 217, Summit, NJ 07901.

The mission of the New Jersey Jazz Society, founded in 1972, is to promote and preserve the great American musical form known as jazz through live jazz performances and educational outreach initiatives and scholarships.  The Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp was created to perpetuate the memory of the clarinetist Charles Ellsworth “Pee Wee” Russell, who died in 1969. Proceeds from the event benefit NJJS scholarships and its educational program, Generations of Jazz.