nothin New Haven Independent | What They Used To Be

What They Used To Be

When Duke Ellington’s Things Ain’t How They Used To Be” came alive again inside Yale Law School’s auditorium, heads were nodding.

They were nodding because the Reunion Jazz Ensemble was playing a hot rendition of that Ellington number inside the normally staid hall.

And the musicians were nodding, as were many in the audience, because they came to reflect on how things used to be — when Stanton Wheeler was around. The music helped them remember.

Wheeler, who lived in Branford’s Short Beach section, was a Yale law professor,and a beloved musician. He played for decades with the Yale Jazz Ensemble and with a group of pals known as the Reunion Jazz Ensemble.

So since Wheeler’s death, the two ensembles have returned to the law school once a year to play a rollickin’ concert in their trumpet player’s memory. Sunday was the fifth such memorial concert. As usual the hall was filled — with jazz, with music lovers, and with warm memories. Click on the play arrow for some highlights. (Alto saxophonist Tim Moran’s riffs on Things Ain’t What They Used To Be” is the third of the three excerpts.) This year’s concert ended, as did last year’s, with a tune Wheeler wrote for his cherished wife. It was called Marcia.”

(Marcia” refers to Marcia Chambers, who edits the Branford Eagle.)

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