Multifaceted Maestro, Tim Olsen plays Jazz on Jay

Tim Olsen wears so many hats that he needs several just as a bandleader – of a big band, a quartet and the Quintet he leads at Jazz on Jay.

At Union College, he’s a music professor and the jazz ensemble director. With degrees from Washington University (St. Louis), the University of Minnesota, and Yale University [D.M.A.]. He’s a Fulbright grantee and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He’s also the director of music at St. George’s Episcopal Church (Clifton Park). An honored composer and arranger, he’s hyphenated even as a performer: pianist-trumpeter-bandleader.

His Quintet features Steve Lambert, trumpet; Eric Walentowicz, saxophone; Pete Toigo, bass (he also played Jazz on Jay with the Teresa Broadwell Band); and Pete Sweeney, with Olsen leading from the piano and playing trumpet – a stable lineup for more than two decades.

“I knew I wanted to be a musician from middle school onward,” says Olsen, citing Maynard Ferguson, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Oliver Nelson as inspirations and John Whitlock (middle school) and Bob Hartman (high school) as influences as well.

In high school, he formed a jazz trio; his first paid gig was a north Minneapolis wedding for $50.

These days, his Quintet plays 80 percent originals, many selected from his “Creature of Habit” (2014) album and a new big-band album he hopes to record this summer and release next year. Onstage favorites include “Creature of Habit,” “Harlan’s Stomp,” “Park Avenue,” and “Noche Azul.”

To play standards, he explained, “I typically put together a fresh lead sheet based on a recording I like; otherwise, I’ll rework the standard intro/ending and harmony to my liking.”

Performing standards or originals, “There’s tons of room for improvisation!”

For another taste of Olsen’s jazz, his quartet plays 9 Maple Avenue in Saratoga Springs on August 11.

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.

Showtime is at noon at the Jay Street Marketplace. Rain site: Robb Alley at Proctors adjacent to Apostrophe. Free.