Bands go big, in size and sound, at Morristown Jazz and Blues Fest (REVIEW, PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

JAY LUSTIG

Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg sings with his Rock ‘n R&B Big Band at this year’s Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival.

Sept. 14 was a good day to be a horn player in Morristown. There were five bands at this year’s edition of the annual Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival, and four of them filled the large stage with casts of musicians that included robust horn sections. It’s a kind of maximalism you don’t see very often at free, outdoor music festivals, which often seem to be focused on rushing as many different acts onstage and offstage as possibly. The five groups in Morristown performed for a total of 10 hours (from noon to 10 p.m.) with 90-minutes sets followed by a half-hour of set-up time for the next act.

Last year’s festival was partially rained out. A bonus Friday night program took place as planned, but the Saturday marathon had to be cancelled. Three of those Saturday acts — Louis Prima Jr. & the Witnesses, The Hot Sardines, and The U.S. Navy Band’s Commodores Jazz Ensemble — were able to make it back this year, when the weather was absolutely ideal for a fall festival. “You couldn’t ask for a better day,” said Morristown mayor Tim Dougherty, addressing the crowd before the first set of music.

JAY LUSTIG

Joanne Shaw Taylor at The Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival.

The three acts postponed from ’23 were joined by British blues singer-songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor, and New Jersey rock scene veteran Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg and his Rock ‘n R&B Big Band. And the show’s location, Morristown Green in the center of the city, stayed full all day.

This festival’s band order usually follows a similar pattern, with the more jazz-oriented acts appearing early on, and some brawny blues-rock to cap the day. And this year was no exception.

Taylor headlined, with the fest’s smallest band (five pieces, including Asbury Park native Sarah Tomek on drums) and its hardest-hitting sound. As a guitarist, Taylor is an explosive soloist in the Stevie Ray Vaughan vein — the loping beat of her “Watch ‘Em Burn,” incidentally, made me think of Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” — though her songs did occasionally show some pop catchiness, as in “Wild Love” (from her 2023 album Heavy Soul) or the positively breezy “Runaway” (from 2022’s Nobody’s Fool).

Louis Prima Jr. — the son of the King of Swing — and his band The Witnesses played second to last, mixing energetic versions of his father’s hits (including “Jump, Jive an’ Wail,” “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “Sing, Sing, Sing” and “I Wanna Be Like You”) with equally intense covers and originals. A long portion of the show — mid-set and featuring Prima, mostly, on drums, with various band members handling lead vocals — seemed designed to prove that these guys can play anything; it ranged from Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” to Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” and beyond.

JAY LUSTIG

Louis Prima Jr. with singer Kate Curran at The Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival.

They also performed “Pennies From Heaven” — which Prima said he has recorded as a virtual duet with his father, for an upcoming album — and closed with “When the Saints Go Marching In,” in a nod to his, and his father’s, hometown.

LaBamba’s Rock ‘n R&B Big Band, in the lineup’s middle slot, featured many current or former members of Southside Johnny’s Asbury Jukes in its 20-piece, 14-horn lineup, plus an added guest: singer and harmonica player Rob Paparozzi, who sang playful songs associated with Ray Charles (“It Should’ve Been Me”) and Little Milton (“She Knows How to Wear a Hat”) as well as the blues standard “Key to the Highway” and a sublime version of John Hiatt’s ballad, “Feels Like Rain.” Paparozzi also played harmonica on LaBamba’s boisterous trademark cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up” and helped LaBamba and his longtime musical partner, trumpeter Mark “The Luv Man” Pender, sing Sam & Dave’s “I Thank You.”

(LaBamba currently lives in California but will be back in New Jersey for “LaBamba’s Holiday Hurrah,” Dec. 13 at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank; visit ticketmaster.com. Undoubtedly, some of the same musicians from The Rock ‘n R&B Big Band will be featured.)

Performing second on the bill, The U.S. Navy Band’s Commodores Jazz Ensemble played instrumental big-band jazz numbers (they didn’t have a vocalist) by Thad Jones (“Low Down,” “Samba Con Getchu”), Duke Ellington (“Such Sweet Thunder”), Count Basie (“Tall Cotton”), Ellis Marsalis Jr. (“Swinging at the Haven”) and others. They played flawlessly, and with an uncompromising devotion to their complex material that, I’m sure, was very much appreciated by the hardcore jazz fans in the audience.

(The U.S. Navy Band’s Commodores Jazz Ensemble will present a free show at The State Theatre in New Brunswick, Nov. 3; visit stnj.org.)

JAY LUSTIG

From left, DeWitt Fleming Jr., Evan Palazzo and Elizabeth Bougerol of The Hot Sardines in Morristown.

Opening the show, the New York-based Hot Sardines played with just as much virtuosity as the Commodores Jazz Ensemble but with a far lighter feel, offering charming versions of vintage songs like “Goin’ Crazy With the Blues,” “T’ain’t Nobody’s Business,” “Some of These Days,” “Love Potion No. 9” and a “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön/Diga Diga Doo” medley.

“This is a tune from 1901 about doughnuts,” Elizabeth Bougerol said when introducing “Jelly Roll.”

They made “A Spoonful of Sugar” (yes, the “Mary Poppins” song) swing. Fats Waller’s “Your Feet’s Too Big” was the comedic highlight; “It Had to Be You,” their most sumptuous ballad. Plus they had a tap dancer, DeWitt Fleming Jr., on hand, to add percussive solos to some of their songs.

(The Hot Sardines will perform at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, Nov. 8; visit mccarter.org. They will also be at The South Orange Performing Arts Center, Dec. 6; visit sopacnow.org.)

Each band on the bill had a totally different approach to their material. Yet there were plenty of common threads among them, starting with jazz and blues, of course, but drawing in elements of rock, R&B and pop at times, too.

I’ve been to most of these festivals, over the years, and this was definitely one of the most consistently enjoyable, from start to finish.

The 2025 Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival will take place on Sept. 13. Visit morristownjazzandblues.com.