Three Fridays in July at Labyrinth Books in Princeton

Labyrinth Books is bringing back summertime jazz with 3 more performance by the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble: free and free-range, sustainable jazz. Coffee and tea will be provided; otherwise b.y.o. and join us for an informal evening of outstanding music.


July 1, 15 & 29, 6:30 - 8 PM 
Stephen Hiltner, Jerry d'Anna, Ron Connor



Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau St, Princeton, NJ

Potluck and House Concert in Princeton This Saturday Evening, June 18

SJE is giving an all-acoustic performance this Saturday, June 18, in a private music room in downtown Princeton. Potluck at 7pm; concert starts at 8pm. Please email me for details (see contact info in right column of this page).

Friday Night at the Labyrinth Bookstore, June 10, 6:30-8pm

The Labyrinth Bookstore on Nassau Street in Princeton has a nice space in the basement for literary and musical performances. Ron Connor is joining us on piano, Jerry D'Anna on bass. A free performance of free-range, sustainable jazz.

SJE to Perform at Updike Farm June 4, 1-3pm

From 1-3pm, we'll be performing as part of the "First Saturdays at the Farm" series at the newly renovated Updike Farm, out Quaker Bridge Road in Princeton. Other activities include "tours of the farmhouse, presentations by artisans, naturalists and farmers; historic games, scavenger hunts for children; and a variety of unique crafts for all ages." We'll play inside if it rains.
Cost:  $5/person (ages 3 and older); $8 for 2 people; $10 for group of 3; $15 for group of 4.  FREE for HSP members.

Performing This Saturday, April 30, 3:15 at Communiversity

An outdoor performance at Nassau Street and Chambers Street, as part of the fabled festival celebrating town and gown. Phil Orr on piano, and welcoming Gary Cattley on bass.

Hear Our Music on Myspace.com

Some of SJE's original music is now online for listening.

Sustainable Jazz Ensemble

Based in Princeton, NJ, the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble plays all-original jazz composed using only local, organic ingredients, natural chord progressions and solar-powered imaginations. No virgin timbres are harvested for their performances.

Titles include The Case of the Kidnapped Kalypso, Fresh Paint (composed while breathing latex fumes in a freshly painted room), Lejos de Aqui (Far from Here), and Lunar Eclipse (composed while forgetting to check out the lunar eclipse that was going on outside).

BAND MEMBERS

Stephen Hiltner, saxophone

Best known in town for his environmental work, Steve is a longtime jazz saxophonist and composer who in his life-before-Princeton was musical director for an all-originals jazz/latin group in Ann Arbor, called the Lunar Octet. The group played festivals in Michigan and beyond, including three performances at the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival. Steve got his start in jazz in the II-V-I Orchestra, playing gigs with many of the top players on the Detroit jazz scene, including a pre-Miles Kenny Garrett. During that time, he studied sax improvisation with Sam Sanders, an instructor at Oakland University and former student of Detroit jazz legend, Yusef Lateef.

Steve has also taught piano, composing many beginner to intermediate tunes for his students in blues and classical genres.

Phil Orr, keyboard

Phil Orr serves on the music faculties of Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts and The Lawrenceville School, as well as serving as Minister of Music at Calvary Baptist Church in Hopewell, NJ. His early studies with noted jazz educators John Mehegan and Neil Slater led to work in the mid 1970s as accompanist and sometime arranger for singers Vic Damone and Sandler & Young. Phil has been privileged to share stages, dim back-rooms and smoke-filled bars with Dave Liebman, Frank Foster, Danny Stiles, Bill Watrous, Melvin Sparks and Art Davis, among many others. Mr. Orr and Rider colleague Jerry Rife co-lead the annual “Cool Yule Jazz” concerts each December at Westminster.

Jerry D’Anna, bass

Jerry D’Anna is a versatile freelance bass player, doubling on both electric and acoustic basses. His work with jazz, theater, folk, rock and blues bands has taken him from his native metro New York-Philadelphia environs to tours in Europe and the Caribbean, with such notables as singers Jeanie Bryson, Barbara McNair and Frank D’Rone, trumpeters Michael Mossman and Terence Blanchard, drummer Elvin Jones, saxophonists Sonny Fortune and Pat LaBarbara, and pianists Kenny Barron, Steve Kramer and John Bianculli. Mr. D’Anna received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Rutgers University, and studied privately with Rick Laird, Larry Ridley, Homer Mensch, Lou Kosma and Lisle Atkinson. Now settled in the Princeton area, he works in the financial services software industry, performing locally with the Midiri Brothers Orchestra and Jerry Rife’s Rhythm Kings.

(Thanks to Clancy August for the band photo)

SJE Written Up in the Princeton Packet

Pam Hersh, longtime writer and former managing editor of The Princeton Packet, wrote a column about our group's performance at the Whole Earth Center's WECstock 40th birthday celebration this past weekend. She riffed on the concept of sustainability in jazz, and said "the saxophone, keyboard and bass filled the air with joyful, dreamy sounds."

SJE Plays McCarter Theatre

Though the seats were empty, the stage was packed, as the SJE trio played for a party celebrating McCarter artistic director Emily Mann's 20 years of extraordinary leadership. It also happened to be her birthday. A great honor it was to play for such an occasion.

Sustainable Jazz Trio