Dual bill Friday, November 7, 2014
Matt Wong
Carol Hamersma & Diane Perry
Herb Eckert Auditorium in the Senior Center
South Brunswick Municipal Complex
540 Route 522, Monmouth Junction
Admission $6 at the door
Doors open 7:30pm, 732.329.4000 x7635 • arts@sbtnj.net
For more jazz throughout the state, www.NJJazzList.com.
Matt Wong, from West Windsor, New Jersey is far from ordinary. Only 17 years old, the teenager is on his way to becoming one of the finest in today’s guitar scene. He has toured the tri-state area, released two solo albums, and was nominated for Top 18 & Under Instrumentalist in the 2013 Jersey Acoustic Music Awards.
Matt picked up the guitar at age six and has been playing ever since. He currently focuses on playing what he calls, “fingerstyle,” which allows him to hold down the melody, rhythm, and bass parts simultaneously, while adding a little percussion.
As a touring artist, Matt performs throughout the tri-state area, and Pennsylvania. Wong has been invited to perform at notable events including Communiversity in Princeton, NJ, and Art All Night in Trenton, NJ, and has played concerts at venues such as the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, the Legendary Dobbs in Philadelphia, The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ, and the Record Collector Store in Bordentown, NJ. Matt has shared the stage with GRAMMY award winning guitarist Earl Klugh, Canadian fingerstyle guitarist Bryan Rason, and singer/songwriters Sarah Donner, and Avi Wisnia.
Carol Hamersma is a versatile multifaceted artist, well versed in classical, jazz, and pop. As both guitarist and vocalist, she has performed extensively in the metropolitan area leading her own combos. She has been heard at major hotels in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia, appearing for such dignitaries as Governors Florio and Whitman, Mayor David Dinkins and Donald Trump. She has appeared at the Barron Art Center Series Women in Jazz and Four Guitars and is a regular performer at Trumpets jazz club in Montclair. Classical performances have included the Montclair Art Museum and the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center. As a member of the Metropolitan guitar trio, she appeared on the Saturday Evening Concert Series sponsored by the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship. She has done several New Jersey Cable television spots including the Comcast 57 Steve Ames Show. She played with the female rock band She at CBGB’s and at Cami Hall with Electix. She has played production shows at the Trump Plaza and backed Regis Philbin and Kathy Lee at Caesar’s Palace. She also performed in the orchestra of Kean College’s production of “Ragtime” doubling on guitar, banjo and mandolin.
Performing the American Popular Songbook she fell in love with as a teen, and in the vein of Diana Krall’s moody and intimate interpretations, Diane Perry delights audiences with new perspectives on old standards.
Classically trained at Juilliard, her violin playing combines the tone of the concert-hall virtuoso with the growl of the blues and the weighty swing feel of the big bands. An alumnus of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks as well as symphony orchestras across the eastern seaboard, Diane Perry has performed with Travelin’ Light, John Stubblefield, The DMP Big Band, Quartette Indigo, Jeff Tyzik, and Tom Harrell.
With her group, which can vary from a quintet down to a duo with a pianist, Diane Perry explores the darker emotional side of the oft performed standards, as well as lesser performed but still familiar tunes associated with some of her favorite singers, which include Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Carmen McRae, Doris Day, Susannah McCorkle, Rebecca Kilgore, and Mel Torme’.