1926.
Twenty-one-year old piano player Fats Waller is walking out of Chicago’s Sherman Hotel after a gig when he’s shoved at gunpoint into the back seat of a limousine, blindfolded and whisked crosstown to an exclusive club in East Cisero. A couple of mobsters abducted the jazz phenom to entertain their boss at his birthday party … at Al Capone’s birthday party.
Fats ended up partying with Capone and his entourage for three days, earning a cool C-note for each song he played.
Gulf Coast Symphony Music Director Andrew Kurtz explains Fats’ allure.
“He was a stride pianist and great entertainer, and that's the jumping-off point for our June concert,” Kurtz said.
It was a time not only for stride, but for scatting and Waller was part of a generation that included Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. He was part piano genius, part stand-up comedian and an irresistible entertainer.
Gulf Coast Jazz Collective celebrates “Fats” Waller’s enduring catalog on June 25 with an evening of rollicking piano, big personality, and songs such as “Ain’t Misbehavin,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “The Joint Is Jumpin’” and “Lulu’s Back in Town.”
“So, the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective is now moving into its seventh year,” said Kurtz of the next step in the Jazz Collective’s evolution. “It was a program we added when we opened our Music and Arts Community Center back in January of 2021. We are thrilled with how it has grown over the course of the past six years. And the demand and growth is such that we made the strategic decision that the Collective will perform monthly now.”
“Ain’t Misbehavin’ is at 7 p.m. in the Music and Arts Community Center.
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“The Jazz Collective is made up of Paul Gavin, who's its drummer and artistic director; Zach Bartholomew, who is an East Coast-based artist, pianist, director of jazz studies at one of the universities on the east coast, a brilliant jazz performer and composer; and Brandon Robertson, who's the bassist of the trio, who is the professor of jazz studies at FGCU,” Kurtz noted.
The Collective is modeled after the one at Lincoln Center.
“There's an in-house resident ensemble and then they invite guests to come and play with them,” Kurtz explained. “And so that's the model. We have our Jazz Collective, which are the three primary artists that are pretty much always there, and then they bring in different guests to be a part of these shows depending on what we're trying to do.”
Paul Gavin
Paul Gavin is a drummer, teacher, composer and arranger in Tampa. Since graduating from the University of South Florida in 2015, Gavin has made his living exclusively as a freelance musician. He maintains an active schedule playing music around Florida, teaching privately and in schools, and writing for school programs and his own original music.
Read the rest of his resume here.
“I brought him aboard specifically to develop the Jazz Collective,” Kurtz said. “Paul actually grew up in Fort Myers. I've known Paul since he was a 15-year-old kid. He started in middle school, believe it or not, playing the oboe. He was not a great oboe player, and someone introduced him to the drums, I believe, in high school and he found his perfect medium. He went off to Tampa for more education and has made that his home. But he's a brilliant educator, brilliant composer, amazing musician.”
Zach Bartholomew
Dr. Zach Bartholomew is an award-winning jazz pianist, composer, and music educator. He is currently based in Miami, where he maintains an active performance career as one of the most heavily sought-after pianists, accompanists, and sidemen in the area. In both 2016 and 2017, he placed as one of the top three finalists in the highly acclaimed Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition and more recently has been featured as a performer, composer, and bandleader at various national and international jazz festivals, including the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Jalisco Jazz Festival, and Festival Miami, among others. He and his band have been featured on radio broadcasts, concert series, and regionally promoted events at music venues all over Florida. He has performed with professional organizations such as the Sarasota Pops Orchestra and the Naples Philharmonic.
In addition to his active performance career, Bartholomew is a music professor at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, Broward College, and Tiffin University and has been featured as a presenter and performer at national and regional music conferences.
As a bandleader, Bartholomew has taken his band on multiple national tours, headlining at some of the top jazz venues in the country. He has performed as a sideman with artists such as Sean Jones, Victor Goines, Brian Lynch, Dafnis Prieto, Dave Holland, David Liebman, Ira Sullivan, Carmen Bradford, Byron Stripling, Dan Miller, Scotty Barnhart, Cyrille Aimee, John Beasley, Charles Calello, and Kevin Mahogany. He is currently involved in numerous musical projects as both a leader and a sideman. One current project is his Florida “Jazz Access Tour,” a grant-funded outreach program that aims to provide communities and schools in Florida with world-class public performances and educational programs.
Brandon Robertson
Brandon L. Robertson is an Emmy-nominated director and notable upright/electric bassist originally from Tampa.
In 2009, he graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor of arts in music with a focus on jazz studies. In the same year, Robertson became a member of the popular Florida-based jazz trio The Zach Bartholomew Trio. In 2012, the trio released its first album titled “Out of This Town.” It received notable reviews from jazz critics.
In 2015, Brandon performed at the world-famous Dizzy’s Coca Cola Club in New York City with the nationally recognized FSU Jazz Sextet joining members of the JALC Orchestra.
Aside from being an active musician, Robertson is also an advocate in jazz/music education. He has presented jazz clinics, workshops, master classes, and guest performances in schools K-12 throughout Florida and taught at the Florida State University summer jazz camps for middle school and high school students. In the spring of 2016, he earned his master of music in jazz performance at Florida State University. During this two-year period, he directed jazz ensembles, small jazz combos, taught various music-related courses at the university each semester, and performed with traveling national acts visiting the campus. He was also a faculty member of Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College School of Music in Tifton, Georgia, where he taught applied bass and helped assist with the jazz ensemble.
Read the rest of his resume here.
For more on the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective, read/hear:
“Gulf Coast Jazz Collective opens season with 'A tribute to Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong';” and
“Gulf Coast Jazz Collective performing 'Democracy! Suite' in tribute to America250.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
