Old school New Orleans jazz will heat up a winter's night when the State Street Traditional Jazz Band performs at the Phippsburg Congregational Church on Saturday, February 10, at 7:30 p.m.
Founded in 1989, the members of the band are bonded by a passion to play and preserve traditional New Orleans Preservation Hall-style jazz. John Page, the band's founder and leader, has spent much of his life playing, studying, and interacting with the most influential New Orleans musicians of his generation. While he discovered the trumpet at age seven, it was not until the early 1970s, as a Maine Maritime Academy graduate shipping out of the Port of New Orleans, that Page was thrilled and captivated by the sounds of the 'original' Preservation Hall Jazz Band....
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Old school New Orleans jazz will heat up a winter's night when the State Street Traditional Jazz Band performs at the Phippsburg Congregational Church on Saturday, February 10, at 7:30 p.m.
Founded in 1989, the members of the band are bonded by a passion to play and preserve traditional New Orleans Preservation Hall-style jazz. John Page, the band's founder and leader, has spent much of his life playing, studying, and interacting with the most influential New Orleans musicians of his generation. While he discovered the trumpet at age seven, it was not until the early 1970s, as a Maine Maritime Academy graduate shipping out of the Port of New Orleans, that Page was thrilled and captivated by the sounds of the 'original' Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
The band, which has been featured on the WCSH TV program 207 and has played the University of Maine, Victoria Mansion, Frontier, and many key Maine venues and festivals, pays homage to music birthed over a century ago. Initially performed in New Orleans and throughout the Louisiana Delta region, following World War I jazz moved north out of New Orleans, and in the course of the move it inevitably began to change. Notwithstanding this, many musical greats kept the original sound alive. Their number included the Original Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Louis Armstrong. Page is at odds to impress that this is not Dixieland jazz - but the real deal.
Also one of the founding members of Bellamy Jazz Band, Page helped to assemble a formidable ensemble of highly-skilled players for the State Street band.
On piano, Doug Protsik has been a fixture on the Maine music scene for 40 years, his reputation stretching throughout the U.S. and abroad. He has appeared on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion and is also known for his folk performances on fiddle and accordion. Protsik also directs the Maine Fiddle Camp.
Pete Collins has played clarinet in iconic venues such as the Famous Door in New Orleans and New York's Ryan's & Condon's, and with the Jazz Ramblers in Zurich. He has played alongside jazz notables like Max Kaminsky, J.C. Higgenbotham, and Marie Marcus.
Peter Dunphy plays banjo, guitar and vocalizes in the band. He ran the Bellamy Jazz Band with his late father, Roy Dunphy, and studied classical guitar at USM. In addition to co-managing the Bellamy band, he continues to play in multiple bands throughout New England.
Bill Thurston has played drums with The Bellamy Jazz Band and numerous bands on engagements that have taken him from Moosehead Lake to The Copley Plaza in Boston.
Vocalizing and playing trombone, Bill Rayne is a founding member of the band. He was highly influenced by jazz great Jack Teagarden. Frequently playing and singing in church has endowed him with empathy and soul for the parade and hymn music of New Orleans.
Playing tuba since the age of ten, Pat Whitaker has performed in multiple genres: wind ensemble, symphonic brass, brass quintet, dance band, pit band for musicals, swing band, and as principal tubist for the 195th US Army Band.
The show will be performed at the historic 1802 Phippsburg Congregational Church situated on the banks of the Kennebec.
The Phippsburg Congregational Church is located at 10 Church Lane (at Parker Head Rd.) in Phippsburg. Refreshments at intermission. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. For more information, call 389-1770.
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