The year 2020 has been so different on many levels. We are all embroiled in a public health crisis and heightened social and political unrest.  These issues have affected all aspects of our lives, even our love of live music and traditional summer jazz festivals. Thus, due to COVID-19, the 53rd Paul Brown Monday Night Jazz series was forced to go virtual live-streaming.

Orice Jenkin’s performance in the premier concert of the series was a poignant reminder of the effect the pandemic has had on our lives as well as the social issues that have been raised in our consciousness by the Black Lives Matter movement. This was more than a jazz concert. This was personal. Orice put all his emotions out there as he recited losses from the coronavirus; both family members, and losses to the jazz world. He sung to a lost friend and mentor, Freddie Cole.  The issues of race relations did not escape Jenkins either. He sang about Nat King Cole in an original composition Birmingham (where Cole was beaten at the hands of the KKK). His rendition of Nina Simone’s Young Gifted and Black was delivered personally and from the heart. Another highlight was his cover of I Only Have Eyes For You, a 60’s doo-wop classic I remember fondly from my youth.

Orice (vocals, guitar) was accompanied by a fine trio of Matt DeChamplain  (piano), Matt Dwonszyk (bass) and Jocelyn Pleasant (drums). Orice’s performance was drenched in R&B and soul, backed by a jazz rhythm section reminiscent of the Nat King Cole formula that worked so well.

The concert live-streamed on Facebook was hosted in a beautiful studio, The Library at the Central, located in Middletown CT. It featured 3 camera views and high quality audio. This is the first of 6 streamed concerts in the Paul Brown Monday Night Jazz series. For the schedule and all the details for the series follow this link. If you missed this concert, you can view this and other live-streamed Hartford Jazz Society concerts on our HJS Facebook site.

photos by Maurice Robertson.
2020 PBMNJ gallery