Nick DiMaria's Jazz Discoveries

For Cheshire jazz trumpeter Nick DiMaria, life is improvisation. During the school year, he teaches at Waterbury's Wallace Middle School.Whenever possible, he performs his own challenging music alongside young Connecticut musicians with whom he recorded his first CD, "Between You & Me," released in May 2011. 

To keep working, the quartet also plays popular jazz standards in restaurants and at private parties. "We're just four guys, playing music," DiMaria said. "That's what it comes down to."

"Nick is a master technician who enjoys challenging the group to raise the level of musicianship," said Tracey Burrill, owner of the DiMaria will lead a jam session tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at the venue. "He's proficient in the smoothest of standards, but he excels at the modern edge of jazz," she said.

While he acknowledges the influence of Miles Davis as a musician and bandleader, DiMaria's composing style owes more to keyboardist Herbie Hancock, who blended the sounds of acoustic instruments and electronic synthesizers in the early 1970s. While Hancock moved on to make funkier albums like the international hit, "Head Hunters," the impressionistic music that preceded Hancock's commercial bonanza still inspires DiMaria.

"I first heard [Hancock's 1973 album] 'Sextant' when I was a freshman in college," DiMaria recalled. "I became obsessed with it -- I didn't know if I hated it or liked it."

His fascination with what is known as Hancock's "Mwandishi" band prompted an opportunity to learn from a member of the group firsthand.

When DiMaria was a student at Western Connecticut State University, trumpet clinician for the school's jazz festival was Eddie Henderson, an idol who had played on the original recordings. "I just walked up to him in the hallway and said, 'what's the deal with this thing?'" said DiMaria. "Fortunately enough, it's a very fond moment in his life, so he was very willing to talk about it. From then on I started studying with him privately."

DiMaria met another Mwandishi veteran, bass clarinetist Benny Maupin, when Henderson and Maupin performed together for the first time in 30 years at a tribute to trumpeter Lee Morgan. "It was a big deal for me," said DiMaria, who wrote a piece dedicated to Maupin. "Benny's just the sweetest guy, so kind. He emailed me a bunch of stuff he worked on, so I wrote 'Benny' after I saw him play."

DiMaria admits an affection for impressionistic jazz of the early 1970s, the era of Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew," before the advent of jazz fusion.

"It's a sub-genre of a sub-genre of American culture at this point, " he laughed. "It's still very psychedelic." He maintained, however, that it is a musically rewarding path. "I'm already planning the next record and we want to take that stuff a step further."

Meanwhile, DiMaria manages to keep the quartet working by tailoring their songlist to suit more sedate venues.

"The band has such a Jekyll and Hyde personality," he explained. "Many of our gigs are in restaurants and bars, so you can't play the edgier stuff, at least not until late in the night. Tonight we're playing typical standards. We'll play in that atmosphere, appealing to the mass audience. Then we'll play, say, in New York and let all the stops out."

Finding live jazz venues is difficult, but DiMaria's group has semi-monthly gigs at New Haven's Olde School Saloon, Hamden's Park Central Tavern, and Doc's Trattoria in Kent. They also host a monthly session closer to home at the Funky Monkey Café & Gallery on the last Thursday of each month.

"Nick has recently organized a jazz jam for area musicians to sit in with the rotating house band, which brings a variety of players of all ages and abilities," said Burrill.  "Most are budding professionals, a few are youngbloods, and some are well-seasoned pros who just enjoy sitting in."

A 2002 graduate of Cheshire High School, DiMaria hopes that the town's receptiveness toward the arts is gradually improving. "If it wasn't for the school system, I would never be where I am right now. But there was no opportunity for us to even consider getting together and playing a gig at the coffee shop down the street," he added emphatically. "There are a lot of local players -- a lot more than people think."

The cd, "Between You & Me," is available at gigs; online at http://nickdimaria.bandcamp.com ; and at Integrity 'n Music, 506 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield, CT http://www.integritynmusic.com/ or Sally's Place, 190 Main Street, Westport, CT.