Sax & Harmonica Bless The Branford Green

Top: Hank Bolden, Alex Nakhimovsky, Dan Klug and Morris Trent, and Chris DePino. Bottom: Musicians in action. Kiara Guevara-Cragwell Photos. 

The drums began to patter as Chris DePino announced, “You’ll know this one, if you’re over the age of 27.” Alex Nakhimovsky’s fingers danced along the keys. As soon as DePino’s voice roared the intro of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon,” listeners rose from their seats with a slow dance and began to applaud in unison.

Side conversations fell to a hush as attendees sang along with the band. The crowd watched and listened attentively, completely immersed in the present.

That sound graced the Branford Green last Thursday, as jazz legend, atomic veteran and sax player Hank Bolden joined members of the Chris DePino quintet (Christopher Morrison on guitar, Morris Trent on bass, Dan Klug on drums, and Alex Nakhimovsky on keyboard) for a mellifluous night in the heart of the shoreline town.

Playing for over an hour, musicians created a place that felt safe and free, where attendees could soak in an endless energy that came from the stage, and sing, clap, and dance to the harmony as each member of the band played as one.

The series is organized by Branford Jazz, and runs Thursday evenings on the Branford Green through August 20 (the next performance features artist Kahlil Kwame Bell and The Gift on July 30). Cancellations and postponements are posted to the organization’s website; the full schedule and more information is available here.

Musicians in the quintet, from an opening of DePino’s original “Train Conductor Blues,” (inspired, no doubt, by the musician’s years as a Metro-North conductor), were completely in sync with each other—and the audience could feel it.

Nakhimovsky’s finger tips glided across from one side of the piano to the other without a single hiccup in sight. That level of smooth and quick technique had attendees thinking each note was its own individual song. Trent kept the crowd intrigued as he plucked the double bass, making it sing in perfect, soulful pitch. Morrison strummed his guitar to the rhythm of the beat, and Klug left a mark on the audience each time he hit the drums.

Even before Bolden and DePino joined in, the crowd was in awe. “Aren’t they amazing?!” quipped an attendee wearing a sky blue shirt that seemed right on time for summer night.

Entering the set, DePino played his harmonica with such intensity a listener could feel it in their veins. Each note came out gliding and glittering, not a single sound unnoticed. Gone was the stereotypical soundtrack of a mournful spaghetti Western or kid just starting out with the whiny harmonica—DePino treated the instrument as an extension of his body, and a person could feel his love and respect for it all the way from the audience.

“The harmonica chose me,” he said at one point, and the truth of the words was abundantly clear. After discovering the instrument in the spring of 1971, at just 18 years old, “we’ve been best friends ever since.”

As DePino, now fully enthralled with Joseph Kosma’s "Autumn Leaves,” ceded the floor to the piano, Nakhimovsky’s calming set on the keys brought the audience back to a place of warmth. Some people may not have even realized that goosebumps had appeared on their arms while DePino played, and at last they were able to let their shoulders relax, as they sank back into a more mellow sound.

The name of the song wasn’t just a foreshadowing of the moment, but emphasized the way the ensemble, through its music, made the crowd feel. It was something that didn’t need to be communicated with words at all. The music translated the feeling onto the wind.

“Music is life!” DePino said. “It’s good for all of us because it helps us communicate; we need it.”

Bolden, meanwhile, was luminescent as he played, just as he has been for decades. At 88, he sees the sax as more of an old friend and constant companion—and his breadth as a musician is astounding.

He wasn’t kidding when he said, “music is like my heart beat:” when he joined in, every note was crisp and unique. The way he took his time to let every sound have its own solo was pure perfection. He isn’t an original member of the quintet, but fit in so seamlessly with the band that it felt as though he could have been.

In their encore song, Oscar Pettiford’s iconic “Blues in the Closet,” musicians graced the crowd—and each other—with solos that showed each member's individual talent. DePino’s harmony had the leaves on the trees whispering with delight and the crowd stunned, so as to not disrupt his moment. Morrison made the crowd feel at ease with his smooth strumming of the blues.

Bolden sent everyone to another planet with his tactile, rich playing that had everyone up from their seats in a standing ovation. Trent kept the bass deep woody tone throughout his entire piece and it surely rattled everyone's bones in the best way possible.

And Klug held a steady rhythm that moved every listener's heart and soul to immerse themselves in this one specific evening. It was impeccable.

Klug, the youngest member of the group at 40, said that “I enjoy playing music with people that are older than me,” for the intergenerational teaching that happens in every song. He elaborated on how fellow musicians continue to inspire him to follow his pursuits of music he had since he was ten years old.

No one in the crowd wanted them to leave. The way they played together was inamoring and left a mark on the green forever. Like Nakhimosky said, “It was magical!”

This article comes from the ninth and current cohort of the Arts Council's Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). From June 29 through August 21, YAJI students pitch, report, write and edit stories with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman, Program Assistants Abiba Biao and Grayce Howe and Mentor Ruby Szekeres. Kiara Guevara-Cragwell is a recent graduate of Branford High School and plans to attend the University of Connecticut this fall.