A little bit of Bop comes to Waban

By Ed Symkus / Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Saxophonist Christopher Pitts has been playing his music nationwide. He learned all about jazz and performance in his hometown of Detroit. He perfected his craft, and moved from small band format to big band during a decade in San Francisco.

"But I left all that behind and started over when I moved here," he says of his relocation to Waban four years ago. "My wife has family here. We have a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old, and San Francisco schools are like 49th in the country, right behind Guam, I think."

Pitts initially thought about starting up another big band in the area, with the idea of having the group play every Monday night at one location. That idea is still steeping, but for now, he's going the quartet route. And he's presenting his current group, along with some special musical guests, at Waban's Windsor Club.

"I'm producing the event," he says of "Jazz, Wine and Crepes," which is set for March 6. "I want to see if something like this can happen in Newton and be attended well enough to make it work."

Although the wine and the crepes are getting equal billing on the event's title, Pitts is betting the music will be the main draw. The evening will open with a performance by the Newton Jazz Project, a group that Pitts has gotten together and directs in his spare time.

"It's a band with local kids," he explains. "These are cream of the crop musicians - a couple from Newton, some from Brookline. They're all juniors and seniors in high school, and some are one year out. I wanted to start them playing, work on the fundamentals [of jazz] and see what we could get going. They're playing post-bebop material, which is real relevant to them: some Wayne Shorter, some Herbie Hancock.

"We'll do some of that and some originals," he adds, "because some of them have their own groups and are writing their own material."

With hopes that "it'll blow everybody's mind that these young guys are playing at such a high level," the Project will be followed by a set from veteran local singer Eula Lawrence, that Pitts promises will range from very danceable stuff to jazz.

"She'll be joining my band there," he says, "and then my quartet will finish off the evening."

His quartet's current lineup includes Pitts on tenor and soprano saxophones, Chris Lopes on bass, Bob Kaufman on drums and, replacing Nina Ott on piano for the evening, Chris Taylor.

"We play post-bebop, post-hard bop stuff," explains Pitts. "We'll do some original material because I'm getting ready to record a CD of my music, which I've been working on for 25 years."

But Pitts doesn't want to give short shrift to the food and drink. And he knows the wine will go over well.

"One of the most successful things the Windsor Club does is a wine tasting," he says. "It seems that if you offer wine to Wabanites, they come out in droves. So the same people who ran the wine tasting will do the wine for the jazz event. We'll have very good reds and whites."

In explaining why crepes are being served, Pitts says, "I'm half French and my mother is a Cordon Bleu graduate. She taught me how to make crepes. So I'll be teaching other people there how to make crepes. Despite how exotic it sounds, it's disgustingly simple. We'll put in the Grand Marnier and the orange marmalade and light a match to it, and we'll put the Nutella with the bananas on there; we're gonna make stuff that'll make your head spin.

"People from the community will help out and make this thing happen and hopefully it'll be successful and then we'll do it every year."

"Jazz, Wine and Crepes" is at the Windsor Club in Waban on March 6 at 8 p.m. Tickets, which include wine, crepes and entertainment, are $25 for members, $30 for non-members. Call 617-558-9393.

NOTE, the March 19, 2005 is a private event and one must make arrangements a Windsor Club member to attend.

Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@cnc.com