Originally published in Jersey Jazz Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the New Jersey Jazz Society
In 2020, trumpeter Ted Chubb and his wife, Rachel Ryl, purchased The Statuary, a former sculpture factory in Jersey City, and converted it into a jazz club. Five years later, Chubb's quintet recorded an album, Live at the Statuary, which was released in May of this year by Circle 9 Records
On Sunday afternoon, November 1, Chubb and his band will be playing tunes from that album at the New Jersey Jazz Society's Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert at the Madison Community Arts Center. Three members of his quintet -- alto saxophonist Bruce Williams, pianist Oscar Perez, and bassist Tom DeCarlo -- were on the recording. Drummer Carmen Intorre will be on drums, subbing for Jerome Jennings. "Carmen," said Chubb, "has played many times with my band; it'll be great to have him. I'm really happy to have my working band with me. These guys are really busy, and it's hard to get them all at one time."
Jazz Weekly's George W. Harris, pointing out Kenny Dorham's influence on Chubb, called the album a "sleek bopper of a set . . . The horns harmonize with hipness on the rubato of 'Empty Hearts' with Williams bluesy and strong on a rich read of (John Lewis') 'Django.'" The international digital media outlet, Couleurs Jazz, described Chubb's band as "a seasoned hard bop quintet, thoroughly at home in the idiom, whose interpretive mastery may well now earn them a place among the leading voices of the style." And, AllAboutJazz's Jack Bowers wrote that, "This is wall-to-wall hard bop jazz wherein Chubb and his frontline partner, alto saxophonist Bruce Williams, tread an undeviating straight-ahead path, one that their audience seems to appreciate."
According to Chubb, "a lot of the tunes were actually written a few years ago when I was living abroad (in Switzerland where Ryl worked for a Swiss company). "I wish we had more access (to trains) here," he said. "In Switzerland, you can get from every little kind of village corner of that country to any other part of it by train, on time and efficiently. I was kind of bouncing around from city to city to meet musicians there, to play and to get to know as many other folks as possible. It was really an inspiring experience." All of the album's tracks except "Django" and Harold Arlen's "Out of This World," are Chubb originals.
Chubb returned to the U.S. in 2018, but he traveled back to Switzerland this June "to record a new record with a great drummer from Austria, Peter Primus Frosch, and bassist Giorgos Antonios from Greece. Both are longtime residents of Switzerland. I played with both often when I was living in Luzern. I brought New Jersey saxophonist Anthony Ware with me to be a part of the project as well." (Tenor saxophonist Ware was a Jersey Jazz Rising Star in January 2023).
In addition to being a working musician, Chubb spends a lot of time as an educator. "I just started my sixth fall at Princeton," he said. "It's really a great department with fantastic colleagues and a great director, Rudresh Mahanthappa. The students are really interesting to work with. Most of them are predominantly non-music majors. They are studying all different kinds of things -- international business, IT, and physics. But they are smart and really talented. The goal is a little bit different (from a typical jazz studies program) because it's just about developing their creativity, helping them find a way for the music to have a role in their lives. How do you balance that with these very competitive academic environments they're in? They find a way to integrate into the music in a very similar way that students do in conservatories but without the stress and pressure of the conservatory environment. (Two of this year's NJJS scholarship recipients are from Princeton: pianist Jasper Zimmerman, $1,000 for Instrumental Performance, and Allison Jiang, $1,000 for Vocal Performance).
Chubb also spent 14 years on the faculty at Jazz House Kids. From 2000-2004, he was Vice President of Education. "I'm still on the Advisory Board," he said. "I do some booking and curation for them and some curriculum consulting. We put together a curriculum along with the Max Roach family. Alvester Garnett is the Artist-in-Residence around Max Roach's music. It debuted in five high schools and middle schools in Brooklyn this spring. We just built a curriculum around the 10 major jazz cities across the U.S., going through the history of those cities (Chicago, Detroit, DC, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh).
As for the future of jazz, "There are so many young folks, who I worked with at Jazz House, who are on the scene now and doing well. Thinking about the trumpet, I think of Wallace Roney, Jr. and Andrew Wagner. One of things for me that is really gratifying now that I've moved on from that position is that many of the folks that work there and are teaching were students that I worked with when they were 12 or 13 years old. I've watched them grow and come together, taking charge of the community and doing it with so much passion."
The 45-year-old Chubb grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio, before studying at Ohio State. He moved to New Jersey in 2003 to study with trumpeter/educator William B. Fielder at Rutgers, earning his Master of Music degree there.
A key learning laboratory for him, though, was Cecil's, the jazz club in West Orange that closed in 2012. "Cecil's," he said, "is where I met my entire community that became my professional life. I met (tenor saxophonist) Mike Lee there. He was one of the first people who brought me into the scene. We had a band together for many years. I met Bruce Williams there. I played in the Monday night big band there. I met (trumpeters) Nathan Eklund and Freddie Hendrix, playing with them every single week in the big band. Cecil (drummer/owner Cecil Brooks III) was the person who gave me my first gig in the New York-New Jersey area. I met Oscar (Perez) at Cecil's. It really was kind of a home for me because it was such a wonderful scene."
In addition to Kenny Dorham, Chubb said he was influenced by a long list of trumpet greats including Art Farmer, Booker Little, Blue Mitchell, Chet Baker, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Tom Harrell. "I really enjoy discovering all of the great voices and perspectives on the instrument," he said.
Circling back to The Statuary, Chubb said, "I have packed shows there all the time -- people of all ages, all backgrounds, presenting world class music." Highlights last month were a collaboration with the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) featuring trumpeters Diego Hedez, Pete Rodriguez, and Adam O'Farrill and a 50th Birthday Bash for trombonist Doug Beavers, leading his Afro-Latin Sextet.
At JJL, the Ted Chubb Quintet will be preceded by a Rising Stars opening act featuring a group led by Newark Academy tenor saxophonist Jay Thatte, co-winner of this year's Gerry Mulligan Challenge, sponsored by the Gerry and Franca Mulligan Foundation; and an Honorable Mention Outstanding Soloist awardee (as a freshman) at the 2025 Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington competition. Other NA band members with Thatte, a Livingston, NJ, resident, will be alto saxophonist Noah Tamiso (Madison), pianist Sayuj Sharma (Jersey City), and drummer Ishaan Alur (Florham Park). Thatte and Tamiso are members of the 2026-27 New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble.
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3:00pm. Admission is $15 for NJJS members and $20 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. Tickets are available for purchase online.
Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Summit Foundation.
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