[ Mid-tempo piano music plays ] >> Jazz is when it's really coming from you fresh.

In short, it's a way of expressing your feelings about life.

It's a way of being creative.

And in a sense, the creativity is spontaneous.

So it's not a prepared thing.

Or when it is, it's not really jazz.

You play the same tune three days in a row, and three days in a row it'll be different.

And that's what it should be.

>> WITF Music has teamed up with Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz, and organization devoted to embracing jazz and helping to move it forward to highlight midstate jazz artists.

>> My stage name is Jimmy Wood.

My Christian given name is Byron James Wood.

My first trip to this area -- was in Harrisburg -- was when I was eight years old, for a summer.

My mother's name is Marjorie Wood.

She was a pianist.

She actually sang too.

That's where the genes came from.

So as a toddler, I mean, music was in the ears constantly.

When I was tall enough and could stand long enough to reach a keyboard, I would be plunking on keys.

And I could find melodies, even very early.

But that's...

I don't even want to say it grew on me.

It was almost innate.

Couldn't avoid it.

[ Chuckles ] My mother, unfortunately, she died young.

She was 50 when she passed away.

But she loved the music, and she could play it and she could write it, and it was her.

Marj and the Majors.

That was the name of her group that performed all over the place.

[ Mid-tempo trumpet music plays ] I got to know about Ronnie because he lived right around the corner from where I lived.

He played with my mom.

My mom used him as a musician in some of her groups.

>> My mother, I think, all the records that she had in the house were jazz.

That's the only thing I heard.

I always wanted to play, you know, and when I got to a point where I could read music and hear it, anybody that had an instrument in the neighborhood, I would just call them to my house and have a rehearsal.

It might be just one snare drum or a clarinet or a trombone.

>> He was playing music all the time, and he was hanging around with guys who were playing music all the time.

Since he's my elder [Laughs] I used to sort of like be in the background while these guys were working on stuff and trying to get things together musically.

>> He always wanted to learn, 'cause he was around the house asking a whole bunch of questions.

In my day there were tons of big bands always passing through Harrisburg.

When I came up, they didn't have, you know -- things were advertised in the paper or on plaques, and you saw it on a telephone pole.

A band would be here, you'd be there.

I had seen Duke Ellington with his big band at the Forum.

Several times I had seen Cab Calloway at the State Theater, which was downtown.

There was a restaurant there.

But, you know, music at that time was live and it was going on.

>> As a kid, I used to stay up late.

I'd ride my bike uptown, and I'd be listening in the doors to the players in there.

And I mean, lots of players came to Harrisburg.

>> Jimmy is -- he's just a great person, you know?

All around.

He's a great friend.

[ Both laugh ] >> He's a knucklehead, Ronnie.

How would I describe him?

I would describe him as a very reliable, straightforward, good friend.

Uh [Clears throat] Very sharing.

Whatever he has, he gives it out.

[ Mid-tempo trumpet and piano music playing ] >> I can't imagine life without music.

I can't imagine life without music for anybody in the world, period.

[ Down-tempo jazz music plays ] [ Up-tempo piano music playing ] >> Jazz is a feeling.

I know it when I hear it.

>> It's a spontaneous interpretation of music.

♪ Holding hands at midnight 'neath... ♪ >> The jazz art is really living in the moment and being able to respond to whatever happens.

Because you never know what's gonna happen.

It's the most fun puzzle to put together.

>> ♪ Strolling with the one boy, sighing sigh... ♪ [ Mid-tempo piano music plays ] >> Hi, I'm Steve Rudolph.

I'm a jazz pianist and composer living in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

I started playing piano when I was five, I guess.

I was struck by the sound of music real early and always had an affinity for the emotion that it carried and the colors, just everything about it.

It was totally fascinating.

I was on the Tommy Dorsey band, which was a very famous jazz orchestra from the swing era.

We were staying at the hotel, and I'm sitting there playing in the morning, and this guy walks by in a suit.

Well, it turns out -- you know, it's one of those little windows in your lifetime that kind of switches things up forever.

It turns out he's the new manager of the hotel, and he's looking for a jazz band six nights a week.

So I gave notice to the Dorsey band and was back here in three weeks and lined up all these great artists out of New York.

That's where I first met Cathy.

>> Hi, my name is Cathy Chemi, and I am an interpreter of jazz singing.

♪ Holding hands at midnight 'neath a starry sky ♪ ♪ Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try ♪ My love of music began when I was born.

My mother was a musician, and I remember my first memories are of music, really.

When I was a teenager, I began singing.

♪ Two or three cars parked under the stars ♪ ♪ A winding stream... ♪ I wrote songs at an early age, and my mother and I would go to New York to the publishing houses, and she'd play the piano and I'd sing.

And I would do what they called demos or demonstration records.

♪ How clearly I see ♪ ♪ Somewhere in heaven you were fashioned for me ♪ I did that for a few years, and then I started traveling, doing one-nighters.

At that time they called them cabaret rooms.

After that I got almost a two-year contract with Playboy Clubs at the time.

And there I met so many brilliant jazz players.

Then I did Vegas, and it happened that one night Harry James' piano player came to sub.

And when I was done with the evening he said to me, "Gee, you know, Harry is looking for a new girl singer.

Do you think you'd like to do it?"

I said, "Oh, tell him to call me.

I don't know."

You know, I thought, "Sure.

Right."

>> Now we would like to introduce Miss Cathy Chemi.

Cathy.

All right.

>> ♪ I never cared much for moonlit skies ♪ ♪ I never winked back at fireflies ♪ ♪ But now that the stars are in your eyes ♪ ♪ I'm beginning to see the light ♪ And there was a trumpet player on the band.

And I didn't know it, but that was my future.

That's where I met my husband, Skip.

♪ I'm beginning to see the light ♪ You were not supposed to be married if you were on the band.

We decided to say we were gonna leave.

We moved almost immediately to Lititz.

I didn't sing for almost three years I guess.

I was very happy raising the family.

>> Someone mentioned that the singer from the Harry James Band had moved to Lititz.

[ Laughs ] "Oh, really?

Well, maybe I'll call her up."

And she was a fantastic singer, really swings, and, you know, great pitch.

Everything.

>> And then Steve put a big band together, and my husband was playing lead in it.

And then one night Steve said, you know, "Do you think Cathy would like to sing with the big band?"

Therein began with Steve and I a relationship that's lasted over 40 years.

>> ♪ I took a trip on a train, and I thought about you ♪ ♪ I passed a shadowy lane, and I thought about you ♪ ♪ Two or three cars parked under the stars ♪ ♪ A winding stream ♪ ♪ Moon shining down on some little town ♪ ♪ And with each beam, same old dream ♪ ♪ At every stop that we made, I thought about you ♪ ♪ And when I pulled down the shade, I really felt blue ♪ ♪ I peeked through the crack and looked at the track ♪ ♪ The one leading back to you ♪ ♪ And what did I do?

♪ ♪ I thought about you ♪ ♪ I took a trip on a train, and I thought about you ♪ [ Chuckles ] ♪ I passed a shadowy lane ♪ ♪ And I thought and thought and thought about you ♪ ♪ Two or three cars parked under the stars ♪ ♪ A winding stream ♪ ♪ Moon shining down on some little town ♪ ♪ And with each beam, same old dream ♪ ♪ And every stop that we made I thought about you ♪ ♪ And when I pulled down the shade, I really felt blue ♪ ♪ I peeked through the crack, and I looked at the track ♪ ♪ The one leading back to you ♪ ♪ And what did I do?

♪ ♪ I thought about you ♪ ♪ What did I do?

♪ ♪ You know I thought about you ♪ ♪ I thought about you ♪ [ Chuckles ] Steve and I were together, I think, 20 years at the Hilton.

When we work together, people who haven't seen it say, "Oh, there's just something about it."

And I say, "That's because we're friends."

We trust each other.

He worries that he does the best for me.

I worry I do the best for him.

>> She's great.

She's just a loving adorable woman who is quite gregarious and really loves the music.

>> The music has been wonderful, but the friendship even better.

Really.

♪ Dearly beloved ♪ ♪ Dearly beloved ♪ ♪ Dearly beloved, be mine ♪ ♪ Be mine ♪ >> My name is Thomas Michael Strohman.

I go by Tom Strohman.

I've been a member of the group Third Stream musical group.

I'm one of the founding members and the band's been together for 47 years.

To me, the interesting thing about playing jazz is the fact that I'm going to arrive at a certain moment in time and I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do yet.

I always thought that was fun.

[ Laughs ] It's risky but fun.

I mean, it's a high, you know?

[ Saxophone and piano jazz music continues ] My father and mother were both music teachers in the Lebanon city school district.

At the age of six I went to my dad, and I said, "I'd like to play a musical instrument."

And he said, "Which one would you like to play?"

I came back with a piccolo.

That's what I started on, and then I added the flute shortly after that.

And in seventh grade my father was my junior high band director, and he hands me a saxophone.

And I said, "What's this?"

He said, "Well, you're gonna be a little bored playing flute in band, so why don't you play the saxophone?"

So I played the saxophone.

A little later I added the clarinet.

[ Playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" ] It was fun.

I'd play, and you know, I'd look at -- every once in a while I'd glance at the clock and go, "An hour just went by?"

It was always fun.

I mean, it still is.

We had three junior high schools in Lebanon when I was when I was in junior high.

One of them was Henry Houck -- where I went -- one of them was Harrison, and then there was Harding.

The Harding Junior High School had a jazz band, and they came to Henry Houck, and they did a performance for us.

And the minute I heard it, I thought, "Wow, this is the neatest thing I've ever heard."

It could have been the rhythms, it could have been the fact that the saxophones were sitting in the front.

In the concert band, they don't sit in the front.

You know, it could be the fact that, you know, I maybe envisioned myself doing it.

I wasn't the only person that had that moment when we heard the Harding jazz band.

"Wow, that's pretty cool."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Next thing you know, you have like nine or ten people.

And we had a jazz band in our garage.

So that's how I got started.

Then when I got to high school, I started getting serious.

There was a offshoot of the jazz band.

There was a group called the New Jazz Quartet.

And we actually we went out and played a lot of gigs for a couple of years before Third Stream.

And then we broke apart, and then at that point in time -- so it was like 1974 -- myself and Jim Miller -- and Rick Kline was the drummer, from Harrisburg -- and we met a guitarist named Bruce Whitcomb.

And that's the first version of Third Stream.

But the group we have now, Jim Easton on guitar, John Peifer on drums, Jim Miller -- we're still together.

And that group's been together for about 30 -- over 35 years now.

Each one of us comes from a slightly different background, so we all bring something different to the table.

I think that's what makes us unique.

We had our biggest following was probably in the late 1970s into the mid-1980s, all right?

We were playing a lot of places.

We were doing concerts.

We came out with our own record album.

all original tunes [ Up-tempo jazz-funk music playing ] ♪♪ I met my wife after I got out of college.

We talked, and the next thing I know we went to get something to eat, then we went on a date, and then we got married, and so on and so forth.

And one day, you know, she says, "Hey, how about kids?"

[ Laughs ] >> Hi, my name is Greg Strohman.

Obviously I grew up in a musical household with my parents.

I grew up listening to music.

I listened to them teaching private lessons.

>> One of the things that gets said sometimes is, "Well, yeah, of course they're gonna play musicians.

You're both musicians."

I mean, I never really told any of my kids they need to do music or not do music, you know?

And, you know, it's whatever they wanted to do was was fine with me.

But he started playing, messing around on the piano at a very early age.

>> Oh, I was probably three or four years old.

They had a piano in their living room, and I used to, like -- a piano to a young child is just the most fascinating object that possibly exists.

I just went over to it and would start messing around with it and finding all the sounds that I could make with it, and that was kind of my introduction to it.

It's funny because when you're when you're that age, when you're really very young, you think -- you know, you play it for a few minutes, and you're like, "I pretty much have the hang of this.

Like, what else is there to learn?"

And then I've spent the rest of my life trying to figure out that answer.

>> And then he started playing trombone and stuff, and then it just kind of took off.

>> I had this idea that, like, my father did these things, and just like that was in a realm for him, and I just always assumed that I wasn't ever going to be in that realm, I was in my own realm.

>> I did a recital at the college with Third Stream, and I thought, "You know, we kind of need a little shot in the arm."

And then I said, "I have to ask the guys.

You mind if Greg joins us for a couple tunes?"

"Yeah, sure.

No problem."

So at that point in time he became a member of our group.

>> As you get older you start to realize that life is finite, and you start to have the sense of, like, this is something I get to do now.

And there's that sense of I feel really lucky to be able to share this at this point in my life.

And I know it's one of those things that won't be able to last, so it's really special and sentimental to me to be able to experience that.

>> It's a pretty neat feeling, yeah.

>> So, what is jazz?

My father and I actually talk about this question probably once a week.

I've concluded over the years that jazz is a word, and it's a word that's used to describe a lot of different music.

There's an element of blues in it.

There's an element of Dixieland and swing and the element of ragtime and, you know, big-band-era music and all this stuff.

So I think all of that somehow collectively gets called jazz.

>> If I had to get down to describing jazz, I would say it's it's about being yourself, okay?

And I can't think anything that's more pertinent to today's society, on the minds of people, than being yourself.

So with that in mind, I would think hopefully jazz has some sort of future.

[ Laughs ] [ Mid-tempo piano and flute music playing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪