The Hell’s Kitchen Funk Orchestra is a group of jazz artists that have come together to facilitate and explore the bond that exists between musicians from many different countries. The Orchestra performs compositions born of the genres of funk, contemporary, and Latin Jazz while embracing the varied backgrounds and experiences of its members. Audiences are treated to high-powered contemporary music that communicates, transcends, and inspires.

Wally Dunbar is a first-rate arranger born in Montreal, now based in New York. Dunbar performs at Jazz in the Afternoon with the Jazz Eleven. His debut as a leader, Everything In Time (Consolidated Artists Productions) by the Wally Dunbar Jazz Eleven, was recorded in Englewood, N.J. on April 26-27, 1999 and June 9, 2000.

Lou Caputo’s “NOT SO BIG BAND” is a very unique and exciting musical group. The “Not So Big Band” is the brainchild of talented multi-instrumentalist Lou Caputo. It is an attempt to join the spontaneity of free-blown small group jazz with the power and gravity of a big band. It consists of twelve musicians as opposed to the sixteen-piece or larger variety. Unlike many bands, this band is a working band, and has been together for more than 10 years. Its varied musical library attempts to cover a wide range of styles that still fall into the category of modern jazz.

“In 1960, when I was a bass player on the road, I never aspired to be a big band leader, but here I am, 50+ years later, not standing behind the bass but in front of the band with New York’s best musicians playing the euphoric post-WWII era music I love. We get together once a month and dozens of players have contributed their exceptional talents over the past few years.” -Roger Rhodes

For the past twenty-five years, Russ Anixter has enjoyed a busy career as a music copyist, and has been a partner in Anixter Rice Music Service since 2004. Anixter has worked on over fifty Broadway shows, twenty-five major motion pictures, numerous recording dates, and for live concerts around the country. As an arranger, Russ was a contributor to the New York Fusion Ensemble, which performed in New York clubs and featured Russ’s arrangements of music by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Weather Report. His arrangements have also been featured on concerts by the Lehigh Valley Jazz Repertory Orchestra and the Lehigh University Wind Ensemble.

Akua Dixon’s Quartette Indigo has been in the forefront of improvising string quartets since 1973. They are a string quartet “unlike any you’ve heard before”. They play “hot and sassy, sweet and spicy, with style and virtuosity”. In addition to European Classical music, they perform Akua’s original compositions and her arrangements of the Great American Songbook, Jazz, Spirituals, Blues, Salsa, Tangoes, Rags and Bebop in a unique setting. They are “an ensemble of great professionalism, skill and spirit”-JALC and can “swing with a gritty passion”.

Jay Leonhart has been named the Outstanding Bassist in the Recording Industry three times. Jay has been privileged to play with the likes of Judy Garland, Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Buddy Rich, Jim Hall, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Marian McPartland, Kenny Barron, Sting,m James Taylor, Papa Joe Jones, Roy Eldridge, Jim Hall, Louie Bellson, Dick Hyman, Luciano Pavoratti, and many more. Over the years, Jay Leonhart has been writing and singing his own very individualistic songs about his life as a bass player. He now performs his music worldwide to very receptive audiences. 

George Brandon, PhD, is a musician, anthropologist and integrative sound and music practitionerwhose musical roots began with guitar lessons from his father and continued in junior high school with the trombone. By high school he was playing professionally in local swing bands, rhythm and blues, gospel, and classical ensembles in his home town of Newark, NJ. His continuing musical curiosity has led him to extend this early background by studying West African music, Balinese and Javanese gamelan, electronic music, Afrocuban chant and calypso all of which have affected his development as a composer.

Bernard Purdie moved to New York in 1960 after finishing high school and played with (among others), Lonnie Youngblood before landing his first hit with King Curtis. This led to his engagement with Aretha Franklin in 1970 – the beginning of an unparalleled career. Since then, Purdie has been a regular guest in the studios of the stars of Jazz, Soul, and Rock, working together with Paul Butterfield as well as Larry Coryell, Miles Davis, Hall & Oates, Al Kooper, Herbie Mann, Todd Rundgren and Cat Stevens, as well as regularly producing his own solo albums under his own name.

This show commemorated the memory of Jim White, trumpet player, who passed in July of 2018. Emile Charlap’s contracting and copying office dominated the New York recording scene for decades. During that time, Emile’s avocation was his personal “rehearsal” band (featuring himself on second trumpet), which gradually expanded from its original quintet format into a full twelve-piece ensemble. Rehearsing weekly for over 30 years, the group attracted many of New York’s best musicians, and accumulated a repertoire of jazz arrangements by some of New York’s finest.

Russ Kassoff is an accomplished jazz pianist, conductor, composer, orchestrator, and arranger, teacher and mentor, whose varied talents are much valued and on display in the music world. Catherine Dupuis is the featured vocalist on most of Russ’s gigs including his big band. They have partnered together for over 20 jazz festivals – in State College, Bellefonte, PA and Sackets Harbor, NY including such jazz greats as Rob McConnell, Phil Woods, Bucky Pizzarelli, Ken Peplowski, Jerry Dodgion, Ted Nash, Gene Bertoncini, Wycliffe Gordon, Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan and many others to name a few.

Kevin Blancq has been a member of Local 802 since 1987. He leads the Kevin Blancq Big Band and serves as Jazz Band Director at LaGuardia High School of Music and the Performing Arts.

The Greg Ruvolo Big Band Collective performance features an exciting blend of selections from the Great American Songbook, jazz standards, and compositions in the modern Big Band style. Ruvolo’s band boasts some impressive talent. The group’s live and session resumés include stints in the Saturday Night Live band, time backing Steely Dan, and various roles in the big bands of titans like Buddy Rich, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, and Count Basie.

The Ross Kratter Jazz Orchestra is composed of members of the Mike Stern Band, Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Victor Wooten Band, Postmodern Jukebox, Streetlight Manifesto, various Broadway show orchestras, and many more, and has played all over New York to sold-out audiences since its founding in 2010.

The New York Jazzharmonic is a 17-piece orchestra, co-led by Ron Wasserman and Miho Hazama. The orchestra will be playing excerpts from Wasserman’s 12 movement Magnum Opus, “The Four Seasons of New York Jazz.” We have not performed this since 2015. This will be a warmup for our recording later that week. The four seasons are: Summer in Harlem, Autumn on 52nd St., Winter in Greenwich Village, and Spring all around the town (which is about the Latin and trad-jazz revival movements.)

Guitarist John Campo has been in show business and the music industry since 1965, working in all the styles and popular music. He studied at The New School with Ron Parker and in Jazz Mobile with Bill Taylor. He has been a composer and recording artist for Kapp Records as both a sideman and a leader.

Returning to his jazz roots, Ed Palermo has written and composed some his finest original arrangements in decades. Come join us for a celebration of his latest release, “A Lousy Day in Harlem.” Ed Palermo is not a “business as usual” musician. After all, when most people think of “big bands” they think of Duke and Dorsey. But go to see Ed Palermo’s Big Band and you might hear Zappa, Hendrix, the blues of Paul Butterfield & Mike Bloomfield, or one of Ed’s own compositions, loaded with lush turns and unexpected twists.

Lou Caputo’s “NOT SO BIG BAND” is a very unique and exciting musical group. The “Not So Big Band” is the brainchild of talented multi-instrumentalist Lou Caputo. It is an attempt to join the spontaneity of free-blown small group jazz with the power and gravity of a big band. It consists of twelve musicians as opposed to the sixteen-piece or larger variety. Unlike many bands, this band is a working band, and has been together for more than 10 years. Its varied musical library attempts to cover a wide range of styles that still fall into the category of modern jazz.

“In 1960, when I was a bass player on the road, I never aspired to be a big band leader, but here I am, 50+ years later, not standing behind the bass but in front of the band with New York’s best musicians playing the euphoric post-WWII era music I love. We get together once a month and dozens of players have contributed their exceptional talents over the past few years. Our rehearsals are free and open to the public, but this one is a Benefit Concert for the Musicians’ Emergency Relief Fund. Admission is by voluntary donation on December 11th , 5:00-6:30 in the Club Room of Local 802 at 322 West 48th St. Put it on your calendar now and I look forward to seeing you then.” – Roger Rhodes

New York City-based saxophonist and clarinetist Frank Perowsky is a a freelance musician who throughout his career has toured or performed with such artists as Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz and has been member of the big bands of Jimmy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Les and Larry Elgart and Mike Longo. He has recorded with Tito Rodriguez, Johnny Richards, Bill Watrous’ big band in the ’70s, Roland Hanna and Liza Minnelli to name a few.

The Greg Ruvolo Big Band Collective performance features an exciting blend of selections from the Great American Songbook, jazz standards, and compositions in the modern Big Band style. Ruvolo’s band boasts some impressive talent. The group’s live and session resumés include stints in the Saturday Night Live band, time backing Steely Dan, and various roles in the big bands of titans like Buddy Rich, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, and Count Basie.

The Ed Palermo Big Band has been together since 1980 and has been playing and honing the music of Frank Zappa (among other composers) for twenty years, mainly in performance at the Bottom Line and Iridium nightclubs in New York City.

The Hell’s Kitchen Funk Orchestra is a group of jazz artists that have come together to facilitate and explore the bond that exists between musicians from many different countries. The Orchestra performs compositions born of the genres of funk, contemporary, and Latin Jazz while embracing the varied backgrounds and experiences of its members.

The Ross Kratter Jazz Orchestra is composed of members of the Mike Stern Band, Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Victor Wooten Band, Postmodern Jukebox, Streetlight Manifesto, various Broadway show orchestras, and many more, and has played all over New York to sold-out audiences since its founding in 2010.

Emile Charlap’s contracting and copying office dominated the New York recording scene for decades. During that time, Emile’s avocation was his personal “rehearsal” band (featuring himself on second trumpet), which gradually expanded from its original quintet format into a full twelve-piece ensemble. Rehearsing weekly for over 30 years, the group attracted many of New York’s best musicians, and accumulated a repertoire of jazz arrangements by some of New York’s finest.

Art Baron is a trombonist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. His defining work was with Duke Ellington, with whom he toured and recorded from 1973 to 1974. He’s also worked with a host of luminaries, including Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, B.B. King, and Cab Calloway, and he toured with Bruce Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions Band on trombone, sousaphone, penny whistles, and mandolin. He has received several commissions, including one from Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Greg Ruvolo has toured with Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and the big bands of Woody Herman, Gerry Mulligan, and Louis Bellson, and he brought his Big Band Collective back to Local 802’s Clubroom for a “Jazz in the Afternoon” performance!

The Russ Kassoff Big Band was formed in 2003 after a successful run of concerts featuring Russ as featured composer, arranger, orchestrator, and piano soloist. The virtuosity of the magnificent musicians in the band contributes to the new fresh sound of these hard-swinging original charts. Russ’s repertoire is eclectic and diverse, including many new and innovative arrangements of his original compositions in addition to such classics as Ellington’s Perdido, Horace Silver’s The Preacher, Fats Waller‘s The Joint Is Jumpin’, and Tori Amos’ Winter.

Ed Palermo is not a “business as usual” musician. After all, when most people think of “big bands” they think of Duke and Dorsey. But go to see Ed Palermo’s Big Band and you might hear Zappa, Hendrix, the blues of Paul Butterfield & Mike Bloomfield, or one of Ed’s own compositions, loaded with lush turns and unexpected twists.

The Ross Kratter Jazz Orchestra is composed of members of the Mike Stern Band, Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Victor Wooten Band, Postmodern Jukebox, Streetlight Manifesto, various Broadway show orchestras and many more, and has played all over New York to sold-out audiences since its founding in 2010.