Open House with Jazz Obbligato

Jazz Pianist Jack Woulfe Plays "the Harve"

In a show of interest and support, about 120 friends came out on a rainy afternoon to check out Harvey’s Cottage—aka “the Harve”—and to hear jazz pianist Jack Woulfe (bio below).  It was cozy, but nobody seemed to mind.  The wine flowed, platters of hors d’oeuvres vanished, and conversation roared.  Admittedly, it was difficult to hear Jack’s wonderful playing if you stepped outside the music room. On the other hand, it was great to see the social interplay of a diverse Hill and Hollow Music family.

Angel and Kellum took a few moments to explain the Rural Retreat Program—our new approach to bringing high-quality art music into our community.  They described a few of the projects that ensembles-in-residence will undertake at Harvey’s Cottage in coming months and how they will share their music with us.

For starters, Forte Duo, a young Eastern European violin-viola duo now living in New York City, will be in residence at Harvey’s Cottage December 6-12.  Their project is to make a professional recording of core repertoire for violin-viola duo: works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Pleyel.  Having such a marketing and publicity tool in hand is an important component of a performance career.  During the same period composer Peter Kelsh will also be “on retreat” to work in depth on some compositions currently in progress—among them a short piece he is writing for Forte Duo.

Typically an ensemble-in-residence will offer a “community event” to share their project with an interested audience.  Forte Duo’s community event will be a live performance of the works featured on their recording, taking place Saturday December 11 at Weatherwatch Farm.  There will be an opportunity to get acquainted with the artists at a buffet supper following the concert.  If you wish to receive detailed information about this event, including biographical information about the artists, please sign up to be on our mailing list.

Jack Woulfe is a pianist with a great love of jazz, various genres of world music, progressive rock, and elements of the classical western tradition.  He was keyboard player in the Syracuse based progressive rock band Aire before moving to the Adirondacks in 1991. After playing solo piano venues in the Lake Placid area, he got to work establishing a band which was to be called the Dogs of Jazz.  This band played and continues to play venues such as the Whiteface Lodge, The Pines, The Point, High Peaks Resort, Charlie’s, Irises, The Burgundy Room, The West Side Ballroom, and numerous private parties.

Jack Woulfe is also the pianist for the Adirondack Jazz Orchestra, a 19 piece big band playing the music of Charles Mingus, Buddy Rich,  Duke Ellington, and more. He has organized various combinations of musicians into working ensembles geared toward specific venues. His main musical regret is that there is no dedicated jazz club in the north country. This is a situation that he hopes to correct. Music is always a source of inspiration and joy to Jack. He is grateful to his family—wife Gloria and daughter Sarah—who are compassionate, supportive lovers of music, and fine musicians themselves.