40 Years of Jazz for the Body and Soul

by Frank De Ligio

There are only a handful of venues in the New York Metropolitan area that have featured jazz for forty years.  Even the earliest incarnation of Jazz at Lincoln Center as a summer program did not debut until 1987. Yet in 1980, Reverend Clinton C. Glenn, Jr. hatched the idea for a Jazz Vespers service in the First Presbyterian Church in Mount Vernon, which eventually moved into the parish hall and formed PJS Jazz Society (PJS). Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2020, PJS has been presenting about eight concerts per year ever since. Better yet, it has become a jazz institution in the Westchester community.

“Artists like to play for us,” explains PJS President John Brathwaite. “They like that we have an appreciative audience, and that we know the music.”  For instance, on the Board of Trustees is Robin Bell-Stevens, Director of Jazzmobile, the first nonprofit arts organization in the United States that was created just for Jazz. “She’s got the biggest jazz phonebook around,” Brathwaite chuckled. So it is no wonder that tenor sax master Houston Person is set to perform on December 8, followed by a concert on January 12 by fellow sax man Ray Blue.

While jazz is the focus, community is the essence of PJS Jazz Society.  Part of the community mission of PJS is to bring jazz and young people together.  As Brathwaite knows, “there are a lot of shiny objects attracting the attention of youngsters now.”  So the organization embraces promising young talent by creating a platform for young people. Those “youngsters” demonstrate their skills when they open each show of the season.

Each Second Sunday concert is truly a social evening for PJS to welcome jazz fans from all over as their guests. Doors open an hour before the show; an intermission allows for a refreshment break, where “Tony’s special gumbo” leads the menu and wine is free; all before the music flows once more.  As a result, jazz fans get a night of music, a tasty supper, and the companionship of like-minded people – food for the body and the soul.

Thanks to the miracle of technology, the centennial of first recordings by 1920s jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington will soon be celebrated in the 2020s. Those recordings will be treasured forever, but great “live” jazz is both ephemeral and essential. PJS Jazz Society keeps the American Classical art form “live” and well. Perhaps we will be celebrating the centennial recordings of some of these greats in the 2120s.

Upcoming on the second Sunday of February is Sage, the daring all-women ensemble; in March is legendary bassist Reggie Workman; and capping the season off in April is iconic vocalist Giacomo Gates.  For more info, visit pjsjazz.org.

A version of this article first appeared in the December-January issue of ArtsNews, ArtsWestchester’s monthly publication. ArtsNews is distributed throughout Westchester County. A digital copy is also available at artsw.org/artsnews.