Jazz Underground Takes To The Street

“I believe in the city. I believe in the music. It’s something fun to do. There’s a lot going on and I want to showcase it.” These were among the reasons musician and New Haven Jazz Underground founder Nick Di Maria gave for organizing the Jazz Block Party, which will find numerous bands playing at numerous spots across the city from July 9 to July 13.

The Block Party kicks off on July 9 with Gianna Garnder anchoring the Jazz Underground’s monthly jazz jam at Three Sheets on Elm Street. July 11 features the Ari Hoenig Trio — Hoenig is a stalwart of the New York City jazz scene — at Stella Blues, performing from 9 to 11:30 p.m., with Colin Dooman Quartet, MOh Music, and MEGA the Band performing short sets before Hoenig and a mystery group performing a set afterward. On July 12, the Nick Di Maria Quintet will perform in Temple Plaza from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. And July 13 will feature Isabella Mendes and Fernanda Franco at Cav a Vin on State Street from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m, throwing samba and bossa nova into the mix.

The days-long party is a major step forward for the New Haven Jazz Underground, which only began in February with the monthly jazz jams at Three Sheets. Those have turned out to be a hit. ​“It’s been so busy that the smoking section is only some guys puffing away,” Di Maria said; it’s otherwise milling with musicians and spectators. Encouraged by the success of the sessions, Di Maria quickly started thinking a little bigger. The term ​“block party” hearkens to Di Maria’s original idea to actually have a block party. As the festival itself took shape, however, he saw that it would easier to do it in existing spaces. ​“This is the inaugural ​‘let’s see what happens,’” he said.

The first reason he could organize this series of shows is money. ​“I was able to raise way more than I expected, and it’s almost all small donations from everyday people,” he said. The Side Door, a jazz club in Old Lyme, ​“is allowing us to present Ari Hoenig,” he said. But ​“we could not do what we do without our funders on GoFundMe and our patrons on Patreon.” Di Maria also ​“kind of has a little street team,” he said — people who are helping him to get the word out about the festival and who will help keep all the shows at the different venues running.

Being both a musician and a booking agent — Di Maria booked shows at the Outer Space for a time — turned out to be a useful skill as well. ​“It’s a huge advantage because I know who’s out there,” Di Maria said. ​“I’m living what’s happening in the scene. I’m aware of which clubs are music friendly. I know which groups are doing new things, and which groups are doing things well. I don’t think I’d be able to book someone like Ari Hoenig unless I was also a musician. Being a musician allows me to know what’s actually happening when the Sirius XM radio waves don’t reach me any more.”

“I have a really good relationship with a lot of the musicians that are involved,” he added. ​“They know what my intentions are, which is to give everyone a chance to play. There’s no nefarious intent.

Even before the block party has started, however, Di Maria has bigger plans in mind for the future. ​“It’s nice to have the autonomy, but I’m always asking people for money,” he said. He’s planning a fundraiser at Best Video in the coming months ​“with a special guest from New York with a local rhythm section to back them up.” He’s also ​“hoping to build up that email list…. if I had an email list I would have even more attention than just a couple of boosted posts” on social media.

The New Haven Jazz Underground has also ​“started reaching out to venues outside of New Haven,” Di Maria said. ​“I’m trying to unify the entire coast…. Right now all I say is ​‘hey, if you want to help, please donate, but if you continue to have jazz, we will continue to promote you.’”

“They’re all part of the system,” Di Maria said. ​“If the whole thing is working, it’s good for everybody.”

Di Maria has built relationships with venues in town, from Three Sheets and Stella Blues to the Town Green District. ​“The Town Green has been awesome,” he said. ​“They asked for jazz groups to play at their night markets, and we provided the groups. I think they recognize what the Underground is doing and know that we want to be part of a community effort.”

The community effort has evolved along with Di Maria himself. He’s a general music teacher at Truman School. ​“The summer off is when I tour, when I record.” But he loves teaching and is grateful for the stability that it provides. ​“I wish I could take that Tuesday night gig at midnight” during the school year, he said, ​“but that’s the tradeoff.”

He’s grateful to have had musical mentors early on who likewise balanced music with job they enjoyed that could provide some financial security. One of those mentors was a practicing psychiatrist. ​“I’ve been doing this long enough that I know I’m not going to make a true living off of it,” he said. ​“If you want to keep loving what you do, you got to have that passion.” Playing the longer game has also let him develop his own music in his own way. ​“I’m way more patient with the way my ability to play is going,” he said. ​“I don’t need to be the best. I can just keep doing what I’m doing at my own pace.”

But part of keeping that pace, Di Maria has realized, is about creating opportunities to play for other musicians as well as himself. ​“The whole idea is to create a whole new flow of people involved. You have to start from the bottom up, not the top down,” he said. ​“You can be one of two kinds of musician: You can be a selfish one or you can think more communal. If you think more communal, there are more chances to play. You got to work together or no one’s going to have work.”

New Haven Jazz Underground’s Block Party runs July 9 to July 13 at various locations around the city. For more information, visit the New Haven Jazz Underground’s Facebook page.