Bart Weisman studied
percussion with the National Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Percussionist and
completed degrees in music and computers.
As a member of the Diplomats, a part of the Air Force Band based in Washington DC,
he performed for presidents, heads of state and celebrities in every major
venue in the DC area. Weisman’s Jazz
Group featured such performers as Keter Betts (longtime bass player with Ella
Fitzgerald) and backed singers Lea DeLaria
and Rebecca Parris. He relocated to Provincetown in 2002 with his wife, artist
Amy Heller.
When
Weisman first arrived on Cape Cod, he found a
lack of booking agents and very little call for club gigs for drummers. He had to make his own way. Weisman initially worked with Boston musicians until he found what he was looking for on
the Cape.
In a relatively short time he put together his Jazz Group and began
working with jazz vocalist Carol Wyeth and with the help of the owners, created
Jazz Night at Clem & Ursie’s in Provincetown. Weisman, who has backed Lea DeLaria, Suede, and Zoe Lewis in Provincetown, performs for parties, concerts and in
nightclubs on the Cape.
Weisman’s new CD of popular jazz standards
features the recording debut of Brewster singer Carol
Wyeth whose stylistic phrasings are heard on all nine tracks. Tenor sax player Bruce Abbott, guitarist Alan
Clinger, pianist Ted Jellinek and bassist
Michael Ryle join Carol and Bart on Don’t Get Around
Much Anymore and I’m Beginning to See the Light. Abbott’s sweet sax gives a mini big-band sound
to both tunes. Pianist Joe Delaney and
bassist Laird Boles are heard on Summer Samba, Straighten Up and Fly Right,
Candy, One Note Samba, This Can’t Be Love, Surry with the Fringe on Top and
That’s All.
Weisman
is a generous leader, laying down a solid groove for the musicians on this CD engineered
and mixed in the Brewster studio of Cape
musician Tom Tracy. Weisman uses small
percussion instruments to spice up That’s All and Summer Samba and his solo skills are evident when trading
four bar stick solos with Carol Wyeth’s fine scat
work on One Note Samba and four bar brush solos with Joe Delaney on This
Can’t Be Love. Delaney shows why he
is considered one of the best pianists in New England
when he solos on seven of the nine tracks.
Wyeth’s rendition of Surry with the Fringe on Top is a delightful
departure from the familiar.
A
continuously solid rhythm section, effortless improvisations and the
vocal interpretations of Carol Wyeth
all work to make Bart Weisman Jazz Group a swinging CD.
LINDA WEISSENBERGER has been
a music educator on the Cape for over 30
years.