92NY, the Upper East Side cultural bastion historically known as the 92nd Street Y, has long played an important role in New York City’s summertime jazz scene with Jazz in July, a succinct but potent series launched in 1984. That offering returns again this year, now incorporated into a broader new festival, Midsummer MusicFest, running July 11 through 27.
In another new development, this year’s five-concert lineup will be the last under the artistic direction of pianist and bandleader Bill Charlap.
Artists featured in this year’s Jazz in July series include singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Nicholas Payton (July 18); pianists Aaron Diehl, Isaiah J. Thompson and Caelan Cardello (July 20); and iconic guitarist John Scofield (July 25). Charlap presents a solo concert on July 26, and ends his final series with a star-studded jazz party July 27.
Complementing and contrasting with those events, 92NY is offering concerts meant to mix genres and emphasize collaboration. The opening event features the versatile vocalist Norm Lewis (July 11). A collaboration between innovative dancer-choreographer Caleb Teicher and singer Veronica Swift will be followed by a swing-dance party (July 13). Another ambitious program combines the Vijay Iyer Trio with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (July 16).
Amy Lam, who joined 92NY as vice president of Tisch Music in November 2021 after spending more than 20 years as artistic director of Boston’s popular Celebrity Series, says the expanded summer offering is part of an even bigger multiyear celebration marking the 150th anniversary of 92NY. The idea for Midsummer MusicFest, she says, is to look back at the institution’s storied history, while also surveying what’s happening now and anticipating what’s to come.
“As I went through the archives, and talking to folks internally, the history is so rich that I don’t know you could celebrate it all in just the nine or 10 months of the concert season,” she said. “Every little thing can point toward some kind of lineage. We decided that instead of putting it all out there in one year, we're going to do a multi-year summer festival.”
Each festival will concentrate on a specific kind of music associated with 92NY, starting this year with jazz. But each series will also reach beyond conventional genre boundaries, in a manner meant to reflect the way artists have collaborated over the years.
“All this talk about genres and boxes is so outdated – artists never think that way,” Lam said, citing past appearances by iconic artists like Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey and Duke Ellington. “A lot of those kinds of collaborations happen very organically and naturally, and it doesn't get talked about enough.”
Dick Hyman (left) and Bill Charlap playing together in 2014. Charlap says Hyman advised him to "do it your way" when he became Jazz in July artistic director.
Collaboration has also been the animating force behind Jazz in July ever since the series was founded in 1984 by the insatiably curious pianist and composer Dick Hyman. Charlap, himself a versatile pianist and bandleader in constant demand, took the reins from Hyman in 2005. Charlap says Hyman offered him only one piece of advice.
“He said, ‘Do it your way,’” Charlap said. “It was the most supportive thing you could have imagined hearing.”
As it happened, Hyman and Charlap shared plenty of common ground as pianists deeply rooted in jazz tradition and the Great American Songbook, but also open to innovation and collaboration.
“It just so happened that my way had many things in common with this great mentor of mine,” Charlap said. “At the same time, the people who are my coterie of peers are different.” Hyman tapped colleagues like guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and saxophonist Frank Wess, but also up-and-coming artists of subsequent generations, like saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Renee Rosnes (who is married to Charlap).
“This is my generation,” Charlap said. “At the same time, a concert series of this magnitude should have a kaleidoscopic view of the music. It should have the new, the established, the grand masters, the people who are just being discovered, the people who are in mid-artistic growth.”
Asked to recall a few favorites among the programs he assembled over nearly two decades, Charlap is understandably hard-pressed to choose.
"There are way too many to mention," he said. "And as you said it, about 10 came into my mind, and I said, oh, don't forget that... don't forget that... don't forget that."
Some highlights? "So many things, from Ray Bryant playing the blues with Kenny Washington to playing with Frank Wess, Bucky Pizzarelli, Dennis Mackrel and Peter Washington in a quintet – swung harder than anything I ever heard or felt," he said. "Playing with Jimmy Heath and Benny Golson, together, to Renee's brilliant arrangements for two pianos, vocals, saxophone and double string quartet of Stephen Sondheim's music."
Particularly meaningful were the instances when Charlap would accompany his mother, the jazz and cabaret singer Sandy Stewart: "When my mother would sing one of those magical ballads that she embraces and tell that story, and you could hear a pin drop in the concert hall."
The list goes on: Dianne Reeves, Mike Stern, Jim Hall, Tom Harrell, a pantheon worthy of Mount Rushmore. "It really is," Charlap said. "It's got so many faces on it, it looks a little bit more like 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.'"
As for why he's choosing to leave now, after almost 20 years, Charlap offers a succinct reply.
"It's very simple: It was time," he said. "It's a big undertaking, and it feels like it's time to move on, do some other things. And maybe it's time for somebody else to take the helm, also."
Charlap anticipates other collaborations and international projects, not to mention the possibility of a summer vacation. But he expects to be part of the 92NY family for a long time to come – under someone else's watch.
