Last Saturday afternoon, Smithfield Church in northwest Amenia hosted Director Matt Finley’s Rio Jazz with the most accomplished jazz musicians in/or surrounding Dutchess County. This was a concert that often featured the original composers playing in their own compositions.
I have penned about 600 music reviews over the past decade; about 95% of those reviews addressed classical music, yet I like jazz as much as classical music; however, I find it more difficult to discuss jazz than classical music. Classical music remains a more heavily sociological event with large auditoriums; that music often remains rooted in sociology, history, movements, and politics, while jazz offers a much more intimate and emotional experience between players and audiences. One might say it is the situation of the epic poet Homer vs. the great Spartan poet Alcman, or Euclid vs. Sappho.
The concert opened with “Nao Me Diga Adeus” (Don’t Tell me Goodbye, or more literally “Don’t tell me go with God”) by Paquito, Sovereign, and Luiz Correa, arranged by Oscar Castrio Neves. Here, Matt Finley excelled with the trumpet as the four others in the ensemble coalesced around his sound.
Haven’t We Met” by Kenny Rankin) offered a more adult romantic song with Matt on straight sax and guitar (Jeff Ciampa), yet here amplified by Larry Ham on a new Yamaha clavichord, with Lou Pappas on bass, and Jeff Siegel on drums. The ultimate expanded band sound went well beyond the traditional fey, adult charm of the original singer-composer, as it proclaimed mature love.
“Inversions” by composer and guitarist Jeff Ciampa, who has worked with Harry Belafonte and Jon Lucien, offered a series of playful chord inversions with Matt Finley on flute modestly echoing those chord inversions with background support from piano, drums, and bass.
“Threads,” a ballad composed by drummer Jeff Siegel, weaved drums and Finley on coronet, then spectacular drumming with Larry Ham on clavichord piano, then back to trumpet and drums, bass lead from Lou Pappas, then back to lead drums.
“On a Misty Night” (1956) by Tadd Dameron, the definitive arranger and composer of the bop era, featured short solo leads by all five players as they proffered their fantasies of a romantic night.
“Brazilian Coffee” (2023) by Larry Ham, originally recorded as a trio of lead piano, bass, and drums, was enhanced by Matt Finley on trumpet. (On the subject of coffee, J.S. Bach, who composed a long cantata on coffee, drank his first cup at 5 am every day while composing music.) As you might suspect, this composition brimmed with energy and excitement as all instruments drank the music with enthusiasm.
“Sonic Tonic” (2025) by drummer Jeff Ciampa was once more defined by lively inversions, which were demanded of all five instruments chugging down the line of wit.
“When She’s Gone,” a torch song by Matt and Denise Finley, sung by Denise Finley, tells the story of the wife absent on a singing tour in Europe. Denise’s voice was plangent with loneliness, then varied tempo, as if running down and up steps to return home happily.
The concert concluded with a new Finley composition, “Blue Salsa.” Noted saxophonist Bob Shaut showed up to play lead, passing the lead to Finley on trumpet, who passed the lead in turn to the other players. Music became an allegory of how community works for the benefit of all, a triumph of intimacy and inventive locality for all present!
P.S. Bob Shaut and Matt Finley will play at The Falcon on Sunday, Nov. 23, at 1 pm.
