Choosing recipients for our annual Palladium Jazz Award has been easy so far. The choices have been obvious. We’ve honored longtime WUSF programmer Mike Cornette, photographer Herb Snitzer, the duo of Kitty Daniels and Majid Shabazz, bassist John Lamb, and the Al Downing Jazz Association and longtime Downing board member Bette Gregg.
This year was another easy call—we’re celebrating Clearwater based Arbors Records, and the label’s founders, the late Mat Domber and his wife, Rachel, who continues to run the Arbors and support jazz musicians both locally and nationally. She’ll be on stage to pick up the award.
This annual awards show is really an excuse for a stellar concert. This year’s event, on Saturday, Jan. 18, features a cadre of Arbors favorite artists, handpicked by Rachel. The show features Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo, trumpet and cornet legend Warren Vaché, multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson, drummer Eddie Metz, vibes master Chuck Redd, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, plus the members of La Lucha, pianist John O’Leary, bassist Alejandro Arenas and drummer, Mark Feinman.
Arbors Records was founded by Rachel and Mat Domber in 1989 to record and preserve the classic styles of jazz. Mat, an avid jazz fan and record collector since his pre-teens, along with the couple’s collective love of the music, led to first recording their friend, the outstanding reedman, singer and composer, Rick Fay, who had been in the music business for over 40 years, mostly as a performer at the Disney parks in California and Florida, but had never previously recorded.
Since the release of this recording, Rick Fay’s Hot Five: Live at Lone Pine, in 1990, Arbors Records has issued almost 450 CDs, featuring a venerable who’s who in jazz such as Ruby Braff, Dick Hyman, Kenny Davern, Bob Wilber, Harry Allen, Dan Barrett, Bob Haggart, Dave Frishberg, Rebecca Kilgore, Johnny Varro, Warren Vache’, George Masso, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bobby Gordon, Jackie Coon, Nicki Parrott, Ed Metz, Adrian Cunningham, Diego Figueiredo and Jon-Erik Kellso to name only a few. Local artists James Suggs and La Lucha have also recorded on Arbors.
New recording projects are still in production. The label embraces traditional jazz and contemporary classic jazz and the swing styles of the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and beyond. But regardless of style, all of the recordings have in common a love of melody, improvisation and swing.
Arbors Records’ website describes the rich history of recordings available. Although some will be out of print, most are available on your favorite streaming platforms and their Spotify channel.
Local jazz group La Lucha will provide the backup duties for the show, with drummer Mark Feinman organizing the different musical configurations.
For tickets and more information on Saturday’s show, please follow this link.
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