Ready to Play
By Brent Hallenbeck
Free Press Staff Writer
The sounds of jazz will be just about everywhere in Burlington for the next week. Alex Toth will be just about everywhere, too.
Look on stage at the Flynn Center tonight, where trumpeter Randy Brecker is leading a tribute to Gil Evans and Miles Davis. Toth will be one of four trumpeters backing him up in the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival Big Band, and the only University of Vermont student in the ensemble.
Check out the jazz-poetry sessions Wednesday at the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts. Toth will be there, too, weaving his notes among the words of poet Amiri Baraka.
The 21-year-old was in the Big Band and jazz-poetry group last year, too, punctuating those dynamic sessions with sudden bursts of brassy air. He showed up at just about every Meet the Artist session, taking advantage of the opportunity to hear the wisdom of experienced musicians performing at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. And if there's a jam session to be had, whether at Nectar's or Radio Bean, Toth can often be heard wailing there as well.
He's one of several young jazz musicians making sweet sounds through town. He, guitarist Geoff Kim and bass player Rob Duguay, all of whom will be in Wednesday's jazz-poetry group, and pianist Shane Hardiman, who leads those Thursday evening Radio Bean jazz sessions, are among the fresh up-and-comers on the local scene who are seemingly out to dispel the notion that the face of jazz must wear a gray beard.
The slightly built Toth stands out for his omnipresence, his flamboyant style and his hunger to improve in a field where he's demonstrated impressive ability.
"I just, like, throw my entire being into it," he said.
Practice and practice
Toth surveyed his options in fourth grade when he joined his elementary-school's concert band in Lambertville, N.J. The guitar seemed cool, but not so unique or portable. Clarinet and flute? Those were for girls. Trombone? Too long for a short kid. Saxophone? Too complicated.
"The trumpet only had three buttons," Toth recalled as he sat recently on the front steps of the UVM Music Building, "so I'm like, 'Yeah ... .'"
By junior high, Toth was transcribing trumpet solos from Davis and guitar solos from Jimi Hendrix and Jorma Kaukonen. He became familiar with those musicians through the passionate love for music of his father, an employee of the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Toth said his mother, a fashion designer, gave him his intensity and creativity.
He came to UVM three years ago, and in his freshman year, his fondness for music became obsession. Two weeks before a campus battle-of-the-bands show, Toth formed a funk group with UVM musicians including Kim and Duguay that turned him on to the Burlington music scene. "You've got all this vibrant music, rock groups and reggae groups," Toth said.
He became a music major with a concentration in jazz, and hasn't stopped playing since. He hooked up with Hardiman's jam sessions, and often sat in with Jim Branca when the blues guitarist had weekly gigs at Nectar's. He's in a Latin-flavored band called Guagua that will play Mondayat Nectar's and at next weekend's Concert in the Park. He plays with the Spielpalast Cabaret, is in a reggae band an a 19-piece funk band. This week's jazz-poetry set, he said, "rings of hip-hop."
Toth has a knack for improvisation that's built for jazz, and said he brings an energy and charisma to his performances. The music appeals to Toth because it's so challenging, even difficult at times.
"Jazz is constantly humbling," he said. Sometimes he'll take off on an improvisation and think he's nailing it down. "Then all of a sudden you'll be playing and your head gets caught up and you can't make the changes. I feel I need to go back to the woodshed so to speak and just practice and practice."
Pushing buttons
Alex Stewart, an associate professor and director of UVM's jazz-studies program, has watched Toth develop. "It's remarkable," Stewart, who plays flute, clarinet and sax, said of Toth's growth. "The first time I heard him I was struck by the passion he put into it and his soulfulness. But he had trouble getting his ideas out of his horn."
Stewart said Toth has traits that will help him improve. "He has an intelligence," said Stewart, who's musical director of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival Big Band. "He does possess strong analytical skills. He's able to look at a situation and see how it can be improved, including his own interaction with other musicians."