Ronald Naldi on stage at tonight’s jazz concert in the GA. He was marvelous singing two standards. Click once to enlarge. Paul Goldfinger photo. 9/6/21
Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net
We suspected something was up tonight when Ronald Naldi walked into the GA wearing a jazzy powder blue sport jacket. Eileen asked, “Do you think he will sing tonight?” I thought of Ron Naldi as an operatic and religious music performer, but what if he would actually sing jazz? That would be a historic moment in Ocean Grove.
But we concluded that he probably was just there to see his grandson Sean Gough perform on piano with a jazz trio.
The program was called “Jazz and Pizazz,” and we had never seen true jazz in the Great Auditorium It’s one of those sorts of music, such as country and Broadway, which almost never gets a chance by the CMA. It’s usually been ABBA, the Beach-boys, the Doo Wops and Neil Sedaka.
Although we have seen the likes of Tony Bennett, Peter Paul and Mary, and Ray Charles there, I had often wished to hear some jazz in the Grove. Even Asbury doesn’t usually showcase jazz, although we did hear Bucky Pizzarelli there a few years ago with Grover P.J Rassmussen in 2014.
But leave it up to Gordon Turk, and you get the wonderful concert which we witnessed tonight. Gordon opened on the Hope-Jones organ with two hymns, jazz style. The first one was in an unusual time signature piece with 5 beats to a bar. It immediately conjured up Dave Brubek who did “Take 5.” And then his second unique selection turned a familiar hymn into a bossa nova treatment, and I was amazed and thrilled by that, although Gordon Turk can do anything musical. The organ actually has a long history as a jazz instrument.
Then we were treated to some true-blue, honest to goodness jazz, and it was great! Sean Gough, a superb jazz piano player, brought with him two first rate jazz stars: Gene Perla was animated and creative on standup bass. He used a bit of amplification but that was fine for the size of the room. Doug Hirlinger on drums reminded me of the cool drummers of the 1960’s as he displayed a delicate and minimalist touch. I’m usually not big on drum solos, but his playing was so inventive that I totally enjoyed watching him–especially with his brush work.
The jazz trio was wonderful as they performed two standards: “I Should Care” and “All the Things You Are.” And they did terrific renditions of work by jazz greats such as Freddy Hubbard.
And then Sean surprised us as he introduced his “grandfather” Ronald Naldi who sang two standards with the trio. It was not only historic on the GA stage, but it was beautiful.
I could imagine Ron Naldi in the cast of Showboat or Carousel. Maybe he will evolve into a singer of standards, after all, Rod Steward changed over and is now a cabaret star.
Not all the music was jazz, and we especially enjoyed a duet with Sean on piano and Gordon on organ. Eileen managed to capture the last part of that piece which was “The Theme From the Apartment.”
Michael Badger the President of the CMA was happy to hear jazz presented in the GA. He was beaming, with a big smile on his face as he talked about the fabulous music in the Grove all summer long this season.