There’s a move afoot to put San Antonio a little more solidly in the jazz column. Here’s how one musician hopes to do it. He’s Adam J. Tutor. The J stands, well, kind of—for Jazz.
“And I am the leader of a group called Soulzzafying.”
Soulzzafying is a 4-piece jazz band, and here’s the layout.
“Myself on saxophone, a wonderful man named Ray Palmer, who runs the High Wire Arts, on the piano, Kevin Lewis—fantastic bass man. And Kory Cook, who is the music director at KRTU, and he is on the drums.”
Asked to describe what kind of music they play, he says this.
“We’re playing a lot of the good old standards from Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Coltrane, Miles Davis…and then, adding a little bit of extra something funky. A feeling of soulful wonder, in a swingin’ state.”
Tutor’s enthusiasm is infectious, and he thinks there’s something going on in this city, something that’s bigger than just his one band.
“People are identifying what it really means to be San Antonio. There’s a spice to it, there’s a warmth to it. There’s a comfort to it that I think you don’t find in many other cities.”
They’re starting up a monthly gig that sounds almost like a happening from the 1960s—it’s in the Lambermont—the Alfred Giles-designed mansion just outside Ft. Sam Houston.
“We’re going from seven to 10PM, it’s at 950 East Grayson Street," he said. "That could become a great gathering place for ideas and inspiring new creative efforts.”
I noted that there's nothing wrong with live jazz, food and drink, in an almost palatial setting.
"Exactly, exactly! It’s like a 'Great Gatsby' kind of experience."
Read more on Soulzzafying here: http://adamjtutor.wix.com/-soulzzafying
More on the Lambermont here: http://www.lambermontevents.com/about-us.html
More on Grayson Street Jazz here: http://www.graysonstreetjazz.com/
