Lunchtime Learning: Improv Jazz – Wednesday, October 1

Join us on Wednesday, October 1, at noon for a very special Lunchtime Learning with jazz musicians Jim Slattery and Jim Scarpulla.

Registration is appreciated.

Jim Slattery grew up in a home resonating with music, from opera to country western. But by far the most influential genre for him was Jazz. The American Songbook voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday, to name a few, filled his home. His parents loved to sing. They and could often be heard harmonizing while doing the dishes after dinner.

Jim started singing publicly when in Florida where he taught chemistry for several years. He appeared in the musicals “Oliver” as the undertaker Mr. Sowerberry and in “Oklahoma” as the simple and good-natured cowboy Will Parker. Back home in Ithaca Jim found favor locally with open mic nights reconnecting with longtime friend Jim Scarpulla who was instrumental getting him crooning the American Songbook Jazz standards.

Jim is an active member of The Savage Club of Ithaca, a nonprofit charitable organization established in 1895 whose mission is to build community through music and the performing arts and makes sure to sing at least a little every day.

Jim Scarpulla has been involved with jazz and jazz education for more than 40 years. As a club date pianist, he has performed at more than 2000 events , including weddings, parties, clubs and concerts in the Ithaca and Rochester areas. He was 16 when he played his first public gig. He began to study jazz improvisation in his early twenties, attending jazz clinics across the country with such renown jazz educators as  Jamey Aebersold, David Baker and Jerry Coker. He studied privately with Robert Stein, Robert Klein’s arranger pianist and minored in music at SUC Brockport.

Jim worked for the Ithaca City School District for 41 years as Special Educator and Dean of Students. He founded the “Players”, a student group at Ithaca High School that focused on improvisation and was the accompanist for the school’s vocal Jazz Ensemble. He also wrote a curriculum for and taught a jazz history course, “Jazz in American Society”.

While living in Ithaca, Jim performed with various groups and was the pianist for the Joe Salzano Big Band. Jim considers himself a lifelong student of jazz improvisation and enjoys sharing that which he has learned with anyone who shares this passion.