Photo by Cornell Chronicle
Colin Hancock with the New York Classic 7
Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 2pm
INDOOR CONCERT and LIVE STREAM
Community Arts Center
414 Plush Mill Road
Wallingford, PA 19086
Texas native Colin Hancock has been an enthusiast for the music and methods of traditional jazz since his earliest days, including re-creation of acoustic cylinder recordings (using the century-old techniques combined with modern digital technology to produce surprisingly accurate audio), and then at Cornell University as a founding member of the Original Cornell Syncopators, who performed for Tri-State in November, 2018. Post-graduation, Colin has found time to sit in frequently in the NYC trad scene, such as appearing at Mona's, and he performed again for us at Tri-State, backing Cynthia Sayer last November. Now Colin fronts a band of like-minded New York-based (mostly) trad jazz players. This is the US premiere for the New York Classic 7, who first appeared (led by Mike Davis) in Bern, Switzerland in October of last year. The group appears today, demonstrating multi-instrumental virtuosity - Colin (cornet, trumpet, reeds) plays drums, for example, and Andy Schumm (also trumpet, cornet, reeds) plays piano.
Visit Colin's Facebook page here.
Colin Hancock - leader, drums, arranger
Mike Davis - cornet, trumpet
Andy Schumm - piano, cornet, trumpet
Ricky Alexander - reeds
Jared Engel - banjo & guitar
Josh Holcomb - trombone
Jay Rattman - bass sax
Background
In addition to all of his aforementioned accomplishments, leader and multi-instrumentalist Colin Hancock has received his first Grammy nomination for his liner notes to The Missing Link: How Gus Haenschen Got Us From Joplin To Jazz And Shaped The Music Business.
Cornetist/trumpeter Mike Davis appeared at TSJS with his New Wonders Jazz Ensemble just this past April. He currently plays regularly around New York City with the New Wonders and with Dandy Wellington and his band, Emily Asher’s Garden Party, Glenn Crytzer, Terry Waldo, Baby Soda, Dan Levinson, in addition to serving as a regular at the celebrated Tuesday night jam sessions at Mona’s Bar in Manhattan.
Josh Holcomb has topped the list of "Top 10 Trombone Players of the year 2021" as a founding member of the NYC-based funky brass band Lucky Chops, with which he has appeared on MTV and YouTube. He and his bandmates are alumni of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Arts.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Ricky Alexander appeared with the New Wonders at TSJS in April. He performs regularly at both prestigious jazz clubs and hip nightlife venues with The New Wonders, Terry Waldo, The Glenn Crytzer Orchestra, Dandy Wellington band, and many more.
Andy Schumm is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger originally from Wisconsin. In the Cellar Boys, you can hear him play cornet, clarinet, and saxophone. Now based in Chicago for more than ten years, Andy has appeared all over the traditional jazz world, both domestically and internationally. He is also an avid student of the history of jazz.
Banjoist/guitarist Jared Engel, who also performed at TSJS with the New Wonders last month, is a professional musician who has been living and working in New York City since 2003. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Jared splits his time between the upright bass, tuba, and the 4-string plectrum banjo. He specializes in many forms of traditional American music and maintains a very active career of playing concerts all over the world.
Bass saxist Jay Rattman, who was also on New Wonders’ recent TSJS date, boasts an impressive discography that includes Urbanus by vibraphonist Stefon Harris, nominated for the 2010 Best Contemporary Jazz Album Grammy, and New Celebration, the last big band album by the late NEA Jazz Master Phil Woods. His musical sensitivity and spontaneity have placed him in demand for a wide range of settings from contemporary classical chamber music to early jazz, klezmer, creative improvised music, straight ahead jazz and everything in between. He has performed at most of the major clubs in New York in addition to the MoMA, the Coachella Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheater, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.