Jazz on Jay: Veteran Jazz Cats Play Wide, Wide Influences today at Noon

Magically some things add up to more than the sum of their parts, and the Musicats quartet multiplies the vast experience and inspirations of four veteran players to make very diverse music.

These guys get around.

Founder Bill Hoeprich plays upright bass, trombone and flute; he formed the Musicats duo with keyboardist Azzaam Hameed in 2018 to play funk, blues, jazz, swing, Latin, and calypso at area eateries and events, farmers’ markets and senior centers. 

Hoeprich formerly played and sang with the Joey Thomas Big Band, Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble and Brass-O-Mania; Hameed previously played and sang with Allen & Azzaam; last summer he played at Jazz on Jay with both the Wize Guys and Music By McIntosh, then at Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival with Garland Nelson’s A Joyful Noise.

“In 2021, the duo expanded to the Musicats quartet by adding John Savage on tenor sax (of Out of the Box and the John Savage Quartet), as well as Ben Rau on drums and vocals (of Soul Provider and The George Wonders Orchestra),” said Hoeprich.

Hoeprich learned with teachers Bob McChesney, Michael Powell, Tyrone Breuninger, and Royce Lumpkin (trombone); Ed Wasalewski, Mike Lawrence, and Lou Smaldone (bass); also John Osborne and Conrad Herwig.

The four Musicats find inspiration from masters including Stanley Turrentine, Lonnie Liston Smith, Marilyn Scott, Bill Evans, George Benson, Marc Johnson, Eliane Elias, Joey DeFrancesco, Gene Harris, Ray Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Bob Mintzer, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, George Gershwin, Louis Armstrong, Bob McChesney, Ron Carter, Christian McBride, and more.

This gives them a wide repertoire centered in the Great American Songbook. Hoeprich said, “Approximately 90 percent of the music played are covers with a very tasteful interpretation” that blends these styles.

Onstage favorites include “Tuxedo Junction,” “When You’re Smiling,” “Sunny,” “Sugar,” “Triste,” “How Insensitive” and “Fly Me to the Moon.”

All Jazz on Jay concerts are free through support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Schenectady County, the Upstate Coalition for a Fairgame, the Schenectady Foundation and the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation. www.nippertown.com is the series media sponsor.

Show time is noon at the Jay Street Marketplace where Jay Street meets State Street. Rain site: Robb Alley at Proctors adjacent to Apostrophe. Free.