Jennifer Hartswick pauses to enjoy a hot lick played by guitarist Nick Cassarino Friday night, August 7. Along with bassist Dezron Douglas, Ms. Hartswick and Mr. Cassarino performed at Ms. Hartswick’s family home in Sheffield. Photo by Joseph Gresser
SHEFFIELD — Jazz afficionados are used to frequenting smoky underground dives to hear their favorite music in an intimate setting. They seldom encounter a fine trio in a rural setting, in a nice clean room filled with tables holding, instead of drinks, a plate of freshly baked cookies.
But that was the scene Friday evening, August 7, at the Hartswick family home on a narrow dirt road on Sheffield Heights, where Jennifer Hartswick and two colleagues offered up an evening of jazz standards and blues.
The setting, on the edge of a sloping green field, would probably have pleased many old-school jazz players who were forced to work in cramped, unhealthy clubs. “They were killing us,” drummer Max Roach once replied to a young man who regretted the decline of traditional jazz venues.
The audience in Sheffield, too, was much more polite and attentive than is the norm in jazz clubs, where conversations compete with the music. The star of the evening noticed the difference.
“You’re all so quiet and well-behaved,” Ms. Hartswick said midway through her set. “I don’t know what to do with myself.”
That was far from true. Ms. Hartswick and her two compatriots were in full control of the evening of music. The audience of 30 or so people was gathered by word of mouth and photocopied notices posted in local grocery stores and other community gathering places.
The only difference between the Hartswick concert and a hundred other summer events around the area was that tickets were sold over Ms. Hartswick’s Internet website. All the seats were gone more than two weeks before the event, and when people gathered for the evening they found a well-oiled family machine overseeing parking, checking the guest list, offering coffee and punch, and generally making people feel welcome.
Ms. Hartswick presented an evening of classic jazz tunes that included an up-tempo rendition of “Summertime,” and a bluesy reading of Billy Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” in which her strong vocal rode on a bass line provided by Dezron Douglas.
The music fit the small room perfectly. Ms. Hartswick’s vocals were strong without being overpowering. She has a strong, soulful voice and is able to deliver classic lyrics such as those of “The Nearness of You,” or “My Funny Valentine,” with impeccable clarity. But when a burst of scat singing is called for she is far from wanting the skill and inspiration needed.
Her trumpet playing was technically dazzling, although she stayed largely in the instrument’s mid-range, an area many players neglect, preferring to squeeze stratospheric notes out of the horn. She was able to produce a smoky muted sound which never lacked clarity or sounded muffled.
Ms. Hartswick had the ability to do whatever she wanted with her instrument and the taste to only do what was necessary. The same was true of the clean playing of virtuoso guitarist Nick Cassarino, who shared the solo spots during the evening.
The absence of a drummer was never felt, the trio played with a heavy swing sound, with percussive effects provided when needed by Mr. Douglas’ bass.
In a conversation before the performance, Ms. Hartswick said her family’s effort in putting on the concert was typical.
She said that the small studio in which the concert was held was built to provide a space for the Hartswick family, all of whom are musical, to put on shows.
“The cool thing about growing up here, my parents and grandparents were adamant about making your own work,” she said. Ms. Hartswick said she thought it might be hard to gain that degree of independence, “if you don’t get it growing up.”
“I’m a big fan of creating what you want, finding your own space,” she said.
Despite recent Vermont appearances, at the Discover Jazz Festival in Burlington and in Sheffield, Ms. Hartswick has been finding her space in Chicago for the past two and a half years. She moved there after spending almost seven years on the road touring with Trey Anastasio’s band.
Ms. Hartswick said she started working with Mr. Anastasio when she was 16, after Burlington saxophonist Dave Grippo learned that Phish was looking for a trumpeter to play on a recording and recommended her. She played on Phish’s 1998 album, Story of the Ghost, and that same year on Mr. Anastasio’s solo album One Man’s Trash.
After graduating high school, Ms. Hartswick said, she attended the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, for several semesters, before deciding it wasn’t for her. She recalled that she had just driven away from the school when her phone rang.
Mr. Anastasio was on the line, offering a chance to tour with his band.
In addition to her parents, Ms. Hartswick cited John Padden as a major influence. Mr. Padden, who taught music at Lyndon Institute and established a jazz program that gained statewide recognition for the school, was like a second father for a lot of young musicians, she said.
Ms. Hartswick said that she managed to arrange her eighth-grade year at Lyndon Town School so she only attended two hours a day. The rest of her time was spent studying with Mr. Padden. In that way she managed to work with him for five years, she said.
“He created an environment where you really wanted to do well for him,” Ms. Hartswick said.
Mr. Padden could be tough, too, Ms. Hartswick recalled. “If you did something wrong he let you know, and you didn’t do it again.”
Whatever his secret, the Lyndon Institute program turned out more than its share of talented players who perform professionally.
Ms. Hartswick listed a few: Matt Shulman of the Motion Poets, who graduated a few years before she did; Conor Elmes, who sometimes plays drums for her; as well as saxophonist Luke Laplant.
After leaving high school Ms. Hartswick said she spent some time in New York City paying her dues.
“New York is the place to be if you want to have every opportunity to work your butt off and succeed. You have to be really diligent,” she said. “When you’re 18 it seems like the only thing.”
Asked about her models as a jazz musician, Ms. Hartswick unexpectedly named a couple of pianists, Oscar Peterson and Bud Powell.
“I always had a thing where I want to sound like myself,” she explained.
At the end of their set the trio retired to the backyard of the Hartswick family home, before being recalled to the stage by insistent applause for a first person account of “The Lady is a Tramp.”
Once the show was truly over, Ms. Hartswick visited with old friends as people moved out to the front porch of the studio. One audience member looked over at Nancy Hartswick, Ms. Hartswick’s mother, and asked hopefully, “Next Friday we’ll do this again?”
