Culture & Community | Educational Center for the Arts | Arts & Culture | Musicians | Youth Arts Journalism Initiative | Arts & Anti-racism
Escoffrey (at stage right) plays at the Shubert Theatre in downtown New Haven during a concert from Monty Alexander in April 2022. Maya McFadden/New Haven Independent File Photo.
As a New Haven high schooler and budding saxophone player, Wayne Escoffery had two things that put him on the path to becoming a professional musician. One was the goodwill of two of the Elm City’s jazz greats. The other was a permission slip from his mom.
Those greats were Bobby and Eddie Buster, two brothers and organ players who held the stage at one of the storied jazz clubs of New Haven called Malcolm’s. When Escoffrey’s mom signed a permission slip allowing them to go, the rest was jazz history.
Today, Escoffrey is a Grammy award winning saxophone player, composer and educator, who released his latest album as a band leader in April 2023. The album, "Like Minds," is a follow up to his 2020 release "The Humble Warrior," and features songs he composed during the pandemic while staying at the Florida home of a friendly fan who understood his need to get out of the locked down city.
“I did start writing the music during the pandemic,” he told Sheila Anderson, host of 88.3 WBGO FM’s Weekend Jazz Overnight and Salon Sessions, during an April interview about the release of “Like Minds.”
“I was dealing with a lot and having a hard time during the pandemic. I took several retreats to this amazing home. It's practically a mansion. I wrote a lot of the music in Treasure Island [Florida] and one of the songs I wrote on the album is called ‘Treasure Island.’”
Born in London and raised in New Haven, Escoffrey graduated from High School in the Community and the Educational Center for the Arts in 1993. He credits his education and the friendships he made as a student at ECA for introducing him to the improvisational artform that is jazz music.
“A lot of my high school friends were into jazz, so they’re the ones who introduced me to it,” he said. “Once I learned that jazz was an African-American art form and that a lot of Black excellence was exemplified through people like Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock, it inspired me to want to be another example of Black excellence.”
It also didn’t hurt that Escoffrey was coming of age in New Haven while its thriving jazz scene was still active. New Haven was once home to dozens of jazz clubs like the famous Monterey Club and the aforementioned Malcolm’s, both of which attracted many of the artists who helped make jazz what it is today.
Two of those artists were the Buster brothers, who were “extremely supportive in letting me sit in with them, teaching me songs, and how to play as well as how to dress,” Escoffrey said.
“New Haven was very supportive of young artists like myself,” he added. “I enjoyed that time in New Haven.”
Escoffrey said he also found a lot of support in his school environment too, particularly at ECA.
“We did a lot of playing, but we also did a lot of listening,” he said of the jazz program at ECA. “It seemed to be a bit less structured in a certain kind of way, and we did a lot of listening together in class which is very valuable.
“I think it’s important for young jazz students to listen to the music,” Escoffrey added. “I think it’s a great help when they have a professional like their teacher listening with them, so we did a lot of listening which I’m not sure happens quite as often now but I think that’s an important thing that should happen.”
These days, Escoffrey is making music and also teaching it. Seven years ago he was appointed lecturer of jazz and director of jazz ensembles at the Yale University School of Music as part of its Jazz Initiative Jazz Combo Coaching Program. While he doesn’t have much time for jam sessions, he can occasionally be found with his students in local New Haven music venues like Cafe 9.
Jeff Fuller, Escoffrey’s fellow coach in the Yale Jazz Initiative and fellow musician, said Escoffrey is among the most outstanding jazz musicians to emerge from New Haven.
“He is the product of outstanding training since high school, into college and graduate studies,” Fuller said. “He is the real deal, and a powerful voice in today's jazz.”
Escoffrey credits his growing up in New Haven as contributing to his success and said he often has lots of advice for aspiring musicians but he said the most important thing he tells them is that “there are no shortcuts.”
“Jazz is great music, but it’s very complicated and intricate and takes a lot of hard work and there are no real shortcuts,” he said.
Escoffrey is a big believer in the power of music but also mentorship. In addition to being mentored by the Buster brothers, he said saxophonist Jackie McLean, who died in Hartford in 2006, guided him throughout much of his professional career.
While the famed jazz clubs of New Haven’s heyday no longer exist, Escoffrey said the supports that he found as an aspiring musician in the 90s can still be found in the Elm City.
“There are definitely those people around,” he said. “You just have to seek them out.”
YAJI Director Markeshia Ricks contributed to this report. This article comes from the 2023 Cohort of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative. Dontae James is a rising sophomore at Wilbur Cross High School and the Educational Center for the Arts. To read more about the YAJI 2023 cohort and read more from students and alumni, click here.