By: Rudy Lu
The City Winery is a small chain of retail wine establishments that feature live entertainment as well as catering and wine tastings. They are roughly 2.25 hours from Albany. It is well worth the drive to experience the beautiful architecture and surrounding landscape. Founded in 2008, Michael Dorf founded the original in NYC, this Hudson Valley branch is managed by Michael Tingle. This particular performance was sponsored by the NFP Jazzstock that usually schedules its performances in Kingston.
The Jazz Passengers is has been around much longer. It was founded by saxophonist Roy Nathanson and the late trombonist Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. Fowlkes passed in 2023, but the band continued to play.
The present edition of the band released a recording in 2024, dedicated to Fowlkes and his legacy.
The band was noted for its virtuosity and the humor with which they played. A sort of Zappa of the Jazz world. At the same time, they would embrace all the emotions of the human condition. Much like Charles Mingus ensembles did. Although, I never did witness Mingus in performance, this must have been like their performances were like. Organized chaos.
The ensemble consists of:
Roy Nathanson- saxophones
Billy Ware-vibes
John Menegon-bass
EJ Rodriguez- drums
Sam Bardwell-violin
Lucy Hollier-trombone
Isaiah Barr-saxophone
Teri Roiger-vocals
The band appeared at the Lake George Jazz Weekend and the Freihofer Jazz Festival in 2015. Hopefully this edition of the Jazz Passengers will appear further upstate in the near future.
If you would like to take a ride to picturesque Montgomery, City Winery Hudson Valley hosts a variety of performances other jazz.
