Category Archives: Press

Want It All: Morgan and Grimmett find themselves in the Fogg

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from The Phoenix – August 2, 2006 by Sam Pfeifle

Morgan Fogg & Grimmett - This Is What You Want

Morgan Fogg & Grimmett, like Medeski Martin & Wood, eschew the comma on their debut release together, but they embrace the period on This Is What You Want. Seriously, it’s got a period at the end of the title, which is why that period you see at the end of that sentence is technically in italics (also causing serious dilemma as to whether that sentence should have ended with two periods — it was just too silly to actually do).

After the first track, you might even think they were headed MMW’s way musically. “Blues for Steve” opens like Steely Dan’s “Reeling in the Years” but without the bite, and guitarist Scott Morgan (Tribe Describe) doesn’t get too carried away in trying to imitate the song’s title, leaving us with an interesting extended solo to sink our teeth into early. Plus, you’ve got to love the tone of pianist Matt Fogg’s organ (I’m pretty sure it’s a Wurlitzer, but he plays Fender Rhodes and Hammond C3 here as well, and I’m not going put myself all the way out there).

But on track two, “Bottle Down,” when vocalist Cheri Gaudet Grimmett (Tribe Describe, too) makes her debut, it’s clear this trio-plus aren’t going to be quite that adventurous, though they do get a little bit Santana on “Huntin’.” Shawn Boissoneault goes with the brushes, and Grimmett does the lounge-singer thing.

From there on out, the album is something of a mixed bag. Rock elements from Morgan are interspersed with more-jazzy solos from clarinetist Brad Terry and flautist Carl Dimow (Casco Bay Tummelers), and Fogg’s piano and organ takes are certainly virtuosic, but the album has a hard time establishing a rhythm with a wide variety of song styles, including a cut that opens with a decidedly Middle Eastern vibe.

As a jazz album, this is very mainstream accessible, and at times ambitious, benefiting especially from original cuts instead of the standards that populated the last release from Fogg, Live at the Azure Cafe. But I’m not totally sold on the songwriting, either — “Go Down Moses”? “Pharaoh, let my people go.”

The Night Is Young

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from The Portland Press Herald – August 2, 2006 by Aimsel L. Ponti

Morgan Fogg & Grimmett - This Is What You Want

I listened to “This Is What You Want,” the debut release from Morgan, Fogg & Grimmett, over dinner on Monday night and quickly realized I had made a good decision.

Matt Fogg is something of a jazz piano virtuoso, not to mention an accomplished arranger. He also fell in love with Wurlitzer and Hammond organs. Scott Morgan, of another local act, Tribe Describe, also shines on the record with his guitar. Singer Cheri Gaudet Grimmett ties it all together with her bright, polished voice.

The record starts out on an instrumental note with “Blues in the Water,” which has a bluesy guitar feel courtesy of Morgan and is laced with the sound of Fogg’s vintage organ. Then we are introduced to Grimmett’s singing via “Bottle Down,” which also shows off the dazzling, free-flowing piano chops of Fogg.

The record has a fantastic flow to it and is genre-bending throughout. “Go Down Moses” clocks in at over 7 minutes and starts off with the distant sound of African drums, among other instruments. It sounds like a nouveau olde spiritual.

Jazz fans will dig this record for sure, but so will anyone looking for something as refreshing as a Mojito on the beach with added shots of soul, spirit, heart and sparkle. Visit www.mattfogg.com, where you can dig some samples off the record and read more about the twists and turns that culminated with the release of “This Is What You Want.”

Morgan, Fogg & Grimmett CD release show, 7:30 p.m. Saturday [August 5, 2006] (followed by reception), Maine Sound Stage, Fort Andross, Brunswick, $10, reserve by calling 229-2738 or 837-2955.

First Review of Morgan, Fogg, & Grimmett’s This Is What You Want

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from www.MuzikReviews.com by Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck

Morgan Fogg & Grimmett - This Is What You Want

This is one of those great CDs where I have a hard time figuring out where to start, which is a good omen for the artists.

Morgan Fogg & Grimmett say This Is What You Want, and you know what? It most certainly is. This is a great indie release; there really is not a thing about it that I dislike. It helps to have a deep love and understanding of the jazz idiom to feel this way. Jazz is not and never has been cut and dried. What this band accomplishes in the twelve tracks on this CD is to shine a light on all the best components of the genre. Rather than performing dutifully, they give the genre all the respect it deserves and have fun at the same time.

The three featured artists are Matt Fogg (Piano, Wurlitzer 200A, Hammond C3, and Fender Rhodes) Cheri Gaudet Grimmett (vocals), and Scott Morgan (guitar). Fogg is an accomplished keyboard wizard; he jumps back and forth between the acoustic piano, the fabulous Wurlizter 200A, and to the old standby the Hammond C3. Fogg colors each track with variations on each particular theme through different textures, as if there was a selection of buttons in front of him to push and engage a mood or atmosphere that was appropriate to the lyrics that Gaudet was singing. Gaudet is also a seasoned veteran fronting a unit; she swings with the best of them and gives it her all on every track. Her energy seems to be a good fit for the rock solid instrumentation provided on this release. I really liked her upbeat tone and style; no doubt, she was made for jazz. Laced in between and all around this activity is the guitar of Scott Morgan, a very capable individual, his playing is consistently outstanding and versatile throughout.

I especially enjoyed the opening track, the instrumental “Blues For Steve,” a bluesy shuffle that highlights a band that is in total alignment with each other. Being partial and more critical of instrumentals, because there is only one ingredient to focus on, I am not easy to impress. I must say that the track was very enjoyable and I could have easily listened to an entire CD of this style of music, but then I would be missing the wonderful vocals of Ms. Gaudet. There is just so much to like here! “Huntin’” was one that really perked my ears up because of the rockin’ guitar courtesy of Scott Morgan. It is still jazz mind you and some good solid fusion that lets everyone know that indeed they can cut loose, rock out, and still be a jazz band. I liked “Go Down Moses” too, the title and the words are great, and the melody sublime, a jazz composition does not get much better for simplicity and snappy freshness.

I could on forever about this CD but I won’t. This is a wonderful selection of songs featuring a superb band delivering the goods-it is as simple as that.

The Jazzman of Orr’s Island: Matt Fogg Steps Quietly Into The Limelight

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from Coastal Journal – Issue 34: August 25, 2005 by Earl Swinson

HARPSWELL – Can you remember the day your life’s path changed?

Jazz pianist Matt Fogg of Orr’s Island can.

Fogg’s CD, Live at the Azure Cafe, recorded with vocalist Nicole Hajj and a quartet of backing musicians, has garnered such glowing reviews – Good Times magazine said it “could be the finest disc of any genre produced in Maine this year” – that one might assume the piano and/or jazz has been his passion for as long as he could remember.

Not so, according to the extremely affable and almost alarmingly modest 26-year old.

Fogg, who hails from Biddeford, turned to music because “I wasn’t very good at sports. I was awkward and overweight, and my parents got tired of seeing me in tears every week from football or Little League.

“But in the fourth grade, I saw my school’s fifth grade band concert, and I can remember the day very clearly. They were doing the theme from M*A*S*H, and they weren’t doing very good, but I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard.”

Fogg said his parents were always very supportive (even of his less than stellar athletic career), so his father took him to a pawn shop, and Matt came home with a trumpet. He’s not sure why he chose a trumpet, but does recall that he wanted to play in the school band, and that limited his instrumental options. Matt joined the Middle School band but wasn’t exactly another Louis Armstrong.

“I was truly terrible at it,” he laughs, “but fortunately that was not a harbinger.”

He continued playing the trumpet into high school, eventually auditioning for a spot in the Southern Maine Music Festival. He didn’t make it, but as he was leaving the building, he heard the jazz auditions in another room.

“I poked my head in,” Matt recalls, “and they were having a great time, and I told myself, ‘I gotta get hip to this.’”

He noticed there was no trumpet players evident and knew that the piano was a preferred instrument for jazz ensembles, and he realized it might be time for a change.

Setting the trumpet aside

“We had a piano at home and I used to bang on it and even had about a summer’s worth of lessons in elementary school,” Matt says. “And the day after seeing the jazz auditions, I went to my hip band director (Terry White) and asked, ‘What do I have to do to get good enough to play piano for them?’” White led him to instructor Alex Johns of Portland and, at the age of 16, Matt Fogg began his piano playing career – and made the Music Festival the very next year.

Now – ten years later – Fogg’s technical ability on the ivories is nothing short of astonishing, as evidenced on the Azure Cafe recording. But for many listeners and reviewers, it is his talent as an arranger (JazzNow says, “He is an exceptionally gifted arranger, capable of making the oldest standards sound contemporary and fresh”) that sets Fogg apart. While admitting he seems to have an ear for harmony, Matt says his approach to music and arranging can be traced to a music history class at the University of New Hampshire, where he continued his musical education after graduating from Biddeford High School.

“The teacher was a real purist,” he says, “and he asked if we could name any good 20th century composers. A friend said, ‘John Williams’ (the legendary composer for Star Wars and many other Hollywood blockbusters), and the teacher just ridiculed him.

“After that,” Matt continues, “I decided I was not going to deny the music I like.

“I’m usually influenced by pop music,” he says, naming sources from 60′s Motown to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys to the 80′s Toto to Ben Folds, who Fogg likens to a “modern Burt Bacharach.”

“I like to take a few pop hooks,” he says, “and incorporate them into my arrangements to make the songs more accessible.

“I also like to explore the way certain sonorities can actually elicit a physical response – anything to elevate the mood.”

It was at UNH that Fogg met fellow student Hajj of Andover, Mass. Hajj was a classical piano major and had no real experience singing jazz and she asked Fogg to back her for a school recording project.

Discovering a voice

“That’s when I realized she could sing,” Matt says, and he began doing her vocal arrangements. Before long they had compiled an extensive repertoire of songs, and by senior year they were performing together commercially – Fogg citing the Colony Hotel in Kennebunkport as their first steady gig.

The partnership has continued to this day, but both have also had to take on “day jobs” to supplement their jazz careers. For Fogg, that meant teaching, both as a private piano instructor and as a public school teacher. After student teaching in Old Town, he knew he wanted to teach at the high school level. He sent out the usual spate of applications but was invited for just one interview – at Morse High School. That turned out to be enough, as he was hired as the school’s choral director in 2001, a position he kept for three years.

“It was a great experience,” he recalls, “and I tried to do as many things with it as I could (including starting a Music Boosters program).”

But ultimately, it wasn’t enough, Matt realized.

“I was actually pretty depressed,” he admits, “and it was because for 25 years I had done what I was supposed to do. But having a job, and a credit card, and buying things – it wasn’t working for me.

“I knew I had to do what I loved, and that was playing music.”

But something else was happening at the same time.

While still at Morse, Fogg was hired as the Sacred Arts Coordinator at the Bath United Church of Christ on Congress Street. It was initially a part-time position, but his enthusiasm for spreading the joys of music just took over, and as he says, “There was so much stuff to do, that it became a full-time position.”

So he left Morse in 2004 to concentrate on his duties at the church, which included directing the choir, establishing a coffeehouse and fostering musical education at the church and in the community. Fogg’s work at the church led to his introduction to Taize, a monastic community in Southern France which was established to promote a reconciliation of Christian beliefs and practices; and he has incorporated that goal into his work in Bath, offering Taize services as part of his education program.

“One of the features of the service is sitting together and singing these very simple, almost chant-like songs,” he notes. “At the very least, you learn to relax for that one hour.”

But even with this new undertaking and his continuing performing career, there were still a few spare hours left in Matt’s weekly calendar, so he became a jazz instructor at Bowdoin College and a director of the Jewish Youth Chorus of Maine through the Jewish Community Center.

“I am a Christian,” Matt continues, “but even beyond that, I’m a student of Faith, and I find that I continue to learn from both churches.

“It all helps me in my dealing with people, and adds an element of spirituality in my approach to music. Music is the common denominator for so many amazing things.”

The church is also where Matt met Steve McKay of The Hermitage on Orr’s Island, and he credits McKay with helping him get where he is today.

A mentor builds confidence

“He’s been such a great influence on my attitude,” Fogg says. “He convinced me I was good enough to do this, to reach people.”

And it was that new-found attitude that culminated in the release of Live at the Azure Cafein January of this year. The CD was recorded October 28, 2004 at the Azure Cafe in Freeport and was produced by Fogg and mixed and mastered by Steve Drown of Portland.

“The CD was really several years in the making,” Fogg says, “and yet it was going to be a one-shot live recording, so I really wanted it to sound great.”

Backed by Shawn Boissonneault on drums, Lucas Cantor on guitar, Andy Rice on bass and with a guest appearance by clarinetist extraordinaire Brad Terry, Fogg got his wish.

This from JazzNow: “The CD is pure delight from start to finish, full of fresh musical surprises from the band and Hajj’s wonderful voice.

“But what truly puts it over the top are Fogg’s playing and arrangements.

“The music is highly accessible, rich without being overbearing with a modern sensibility that will appeal to a broad spectrum of listeners.

“This is a local group deserving of far wider recognition. Let’s hope they get it.

“If you live in the area or are traveling through New England, you should definitely check them out.”

And from Good Times: “Live at the Azure Cafe is certainly a treat for contemporary jazz lovers – but is tuneful and accessible enough for music fans of any stripe to enjoy.

“Azure Cafe proves these jazz musicians as talented as any performing today.

“It’s only a matter of time till this disc – and these musicians – break through on a national level.”

And what does Mr. Fogg think?

“It took me five months to really like it” he says.

The CD can be purchased at Magnolia in Bath, Bull Moose in Brunswick and elsewhere, at Borders in Portland, or through Fogg’s web site, www.mattfogg.com (which also includes photos, a biography, reviews, and a calendar of his upcoming appearances).

What about the future?

While he will continue to perform with Hajj (as well as solo or with the quartet, depending on the venue), Fogg is currently working on a new CD project with new musicians, vocalist Cheri Gaudet-Grimmett and guitarist Scott Morgan. This time around, Matt is playing original tunes, and as he says, “My arranging has led me to being able to write melodies; but when it comes to lyrics, nothing happens. But Cheri is a great lyricist.”

He’s also expanding his instrumental inventory for the upcoming CD, playing a Hammond B3 organ, a Fender Rhodes piano, and “other vintage keyboards.”

Anything else?

He’ll keep playing live (he does his own booking), keep teaching; continue his church work, and anything else that piques his interest.

“I’ll keep doing what I do,” he says, “and taking it as it comes.

“It’s really all about taking what you’re given, and giving of yourself to others.”

Review of Live At The Azure Cafe

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from www.JazzNow.com - August, 2005 by Linda Goshay

The dynamic duo of pianist Matt Fogg and vocalist Nicole Hajj can normally be heard performing in upscale clubs and restaurants in Maine and New Hampshire. For this live debut, recorded in October 2004 at the Azure Café in Freeport, Maine, the pair was augmented to a sextet consisting of themselves plus Brad Terry on clarinet, Lucas Cantor on guitar, Andy Rice on bass, and Shawn Boissonneault on drums.

The CD is pure delight from start to finish, full of fresh musical surprises from the band and Hajj’s wonderful voice. But what truly puts it over the top are Fogg’s playing and arrangements. He is an exceptionally gifted arranger, capable of making the oldest standards sound contemporary and fresh. The music is highly accessible, rich without being overbearing with a modern sensibility that will appeal to a broad spectrum of listeners.

This is a local group deserving of far wider recognition. Let’s hope they get it. If you live in the area or are traveling through New England, you should definitely check them out.

Review of Live At The Azure Cafe

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from Good Times Magazine – Issue 18; June 9 – July 7, 2005 by Syl Nathan

Independently produced but as major league as any self-produced disc you’ll ever hear, Live at the Azure Cafe is certainly a treat for contemporary jazz lovers – but is tuneful and accessible enough for music fans of any stripe to enjoy.

Fogg, from Maine, performs constantly in the region with vocalist [Nicole] Hajj, and it’s not hard to see why. Fogg’s arranging skills are the equal of his fluid, expert piano style, and this disc of 11 tracks recorded during an intimate performance at Freeport’s Azure Cafe proves these are jazz musicians as talented as any performing today. It’s only a matter of time till this disc–and these musicians–break through on a national level.

At risk of laying on the hyperbole too thickly, we’ll tell you there isn’t a bad note on this entire disc. Hajj is a lilting, smooth vocalist with great range and style. Fogg’s playing is innovative without being overwhelming, proving himself a musician’s musician. And the band–bassist Andy Rice, guitarist Lucas Cantor, drummer Shawn Boissoneault and clarinetist Brad Terry–provide perfect backup for the talented duo.

The song selection here provides a perfect showcase for the duo’s skills. “Twisted,” made famous by Joni Mitchell, is given a fresh face thanks to a jazzy new arrangement. Chestnuts such as “Night and Day” and “Cry Me a River”–miracle of miracles–sound fresh and vibrant for the first time in years. Even “My Funny Valentine,” thanks to a moving, bravura performance by Fogg, rings from the speakers like a new composition. We can’t stress this point too strongly: This could be the finest disc of any genre produced in Maine this year. If your ears are mature enough to appreciate it, run, do not walk, to spend an evening Live at the Azure Cafe.

Creating Student Musicians – One Note At A Time

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from The Times Record; January 29, 2003 by Christopher Cousins

Morse High School’s two 20-something music teachers may have been untested rookies when they arrived, but the respect they’ve gained from the students, teachers and parents in their 18 months here is universal.

Both came to Morse in September 2001.

Anthony Marro, 25, the band director, runs efficient, methodical rehearsals that have his student-musicians sometimes playing just a few notes over and over again until they’re perfect. By singing the notes – “da ba la la, da” for example – stomping his foot, snapping and clapping, Marro projects exactly the sound he wants. When the students succeed, he praises them. When they don’t, he tells them so.

“He knows what he wants from us,” said Celeste Bessey, a sophmore trombone player from Bath. “He’s still learning things, but we like him. Hopefully, he’ll have many years here.”

Matthew Fogg, 24, the chorus director, is more prone to alternately sitting at the music room’s grand piano – his forte, so to speak – and jumping up in front of a group of singers to help with pronunciation and phrasing. On a Bach piece during a recent rehearsal, Fogg spent several minutes teaching the students how to say the words correctly in German, breaking a one-syllable word into three sounds. Before the students begin, Fogg sings their notes for them – even though some of the parts, particularly the sopranos, are far out of his vocal range. To say Fogg is full of gusto is a half-truth, said his students.

“He’s got incredible energy,” said sophmore Shelby Kaplan of Woolwich. “I haven’t had a chorus director like him before. He makes me look forward to chorus.”

The student said both teachers are worthy replacements for their predecessors, David Aines in band and Wendy Ulmer in chorus. Aines, the 2001 recipient of the Dr. Patricia Ames Distinguished Teacher Award, moved away with his family, and Ulmer switched to teaching English at Morse.

Fogg and Marro have common goals for the music program, which start and end with giving the students the best music education possible. Along the way, they hope to expand the students’ musical tastes across the genres, classical to contemporary.

Both lead musically active lives outside the classroom. Fogg moonlights as a jazz pianist, playing with a variety of ensembles, including full bands and sometimes solo vocalists. Marro, a woodwind player is a saxophonist for the Terry White Big Band among other groups, and also writes his own songs.

Marro, of Portland, attended South Portland High School before earning a music education degree from the University of Southern Maine. Fogg, who lives in Bath, attended Biddeford High School and earned his music education degree from the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Both were hired in Bath at a starting teacher’s salary, about $25,000 a year. Both are still single, and they admit they’re still adjusting to their new careers.

“You’ve got to earn their respect,” Marro said of the students. “It can’t be given. It has to be earned. They’ve learned that although they liked the way Mr. Aines did things, my ways work too.”

Since they joined the school, the two new music teachers have started a music theory class and have plans to add a keyboard laboratory, but perhaps their biggest accomplishment was the formation of a new music booster group to help pay for what the department budget can’t afford.

This is especially valuable now, said Morse Principal Paul Pendleton, because of the budget situation in the city, which last year forced all departments to cut spending proposals by hundreds of thousands of dollars. This year, all department heads were instructed to submit proposals with no increases, but Pendelton said that didn’t dampen the spirits of Fogg or Marro to expand and enhance their programs.

“They both have a tremendous knowledge of music and they both work well with young people,” said Pendleton. “They’ve got energy and a plan for where they want the program to go; they’re not just going through the motions. They’re both real favorites of the other faculty. They’re very well liked and respected.”

The students agree.

“He makes it exciting to be in chorus,” said freshman Calista Young of Fogg. “He’s great at teaching us how to do challenging stuff.”

“Mr. Fogg won’t let you just get by and sing mediocre,” said Kaplan. “It shows maturity that we’re performing things you don’t hear a lot of other high school students singing.”

Trombone player Petra Hamilton-Denison, a junior, says she has never had a band teacher like Marro. Much to her regret, Hamilton-Denison and her family moved last week to a town outside the reach of the Bath school department.

“Mr. Marro is very serious about music,” she said. “He knows so much about music that he takes it apart in sections. It’s not so easy but he makes it so you can learn the pieces and it’s fun. It’s the best class I have and I’ll miss it.”

Sally Davis of West Bath, who has two daughters in Bath schools and who is a member of the music boosters club, said she was worried not so long ago about the prospect of Aines and Ulmer leaving and the effect it would have on the music department.

“I was sitting at the spring concert before they came and thinking how I pitied the people coming in because they had such big shoes to fill,” said Davis. “They’ve more than met my expectations. They’ve delivered a lot of energy and enthusiasm into the program.”

“I want to change people’s mind about what it means to be a high school musician,” said Fogg. “It’s about stretching the ears of the students, which will stretch the ears of the audience.”

He’s Biddeford’s Jazz Man

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from The Journal Tribune; January 7, 2000 by Tammy Wells

Matthew Fogg was just 16 years old when he took a job as the piano player in a Top 40 band on weekends at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway, N.H.

His parents gulped. But they bought him a car phone in case he had trouble driving home alone from the White Mountains.

“I was the youngest in the band,” Fogg, now 21, recalls about the six-month gig. “The rest of the group were in their 40s. Ladies tried to pick me up… It was a baptism by fire.”

Once, the band got a mid-week gig at The Big Easy blues club in Portland. He studied for a Spanish test at the bar during intermissions.

Now Fogg is in his thrid year in the Music Education Department at the University of New Hampshire. He is an accomplished jazz pianist who teaches elementary school students the basics of music, and still plays professional gigs.

He is also the first recipient of the Tommy Gallant Scholarship, established by Gallant’s family to help young jazz musicians through school and keep alive the memory of Gallant, who taught at the Berklee College of Music, Phillips Exeter Academy and UNH. He died of cancer at age 63 in 1998.

The Tommy Gallant Trio and the Tommy Gallant All-Stars were regular performers at the Press Room and the Metro in Portsmouth, N.H., and at Saunders in Rye Harbor, N.H. When the Portsmouth Jazz Festival floundered in 1996, Gallant and another musician, David Seiler of the UNH Jazz Band, revived the tradition by establishing the summer Seacoast Jazz Festival in Portsmouth’s Prescott Park.

When Fogg was a freshman at Biddeford High School, he had a chance to meet Gallant – an event that inspired the young musician – through the efforts of then band director Terry White.

“White took an interest in me and others, and invited us to a jam session at the Bridgeway Club in South Portland,” Fogg says. “I was listening to Don Doane on trombone and Tommy Gallant on piano and others. I was totally amazed. I said, ‘this guy is a pro.’

“It was great. When you see something that makes you so happy, you just smile and glow. I knew that was it. That was my life.”

When he was very young, Fogg took basic piano lessons from his grandmother. But he put piano aside in fifth grade, when he took trumpet in the school band program, and played the horn until eighth grade.

“I was really bad at it,” he says.

Fogg remembers auditioning on the trumpet at the Southern Maine Music Festival – “I didn’t make it” – and passing by the room where the jazz auditions were taking place.

“I thought, wow – what is this all about, with the piano and everything. I was mesmerized,” he says. “It was the kind of thing, you look at it and you know what you want to do.”

He asked White to help him learn jazz piano, and was able to study with the Portland musician Alex Johns for four years. After looking ar a couple of colleges, he chose UNH for its music education program.

Fogg was home in Biddeford during the university’s winter break, working for the city of Saco to help pay his college bills. For the past four summers he has been the pianist at Seascapes Restaurant in Cape Porpoise in the evening, and has worked as a landscaper during summer days.

Often, people don’t listen when he’s playing a restaurant engagement; it’s the nature of the work. They’re talking with their dinner companions, choosing from the menu.

“I used to be able to play for an hour before reaching my saturation point,” he says. “If no one’s listening, well, I go on auto pilot for a while and just play.”

Lately he says, he’s been trying to infuse some pop into jazz harmony.

“I love all kinds of music,” Fogg says. “I let it come out in my playing.”

Right now, he’s focused on finishing his undergraduate degree.

“I like the idea of having a master’s at 23 or 24,” he says, “I ought to do it while I have the energy.”

Then again, he went to a psychic to celebrate his 21st birthday. “She says within six months I would get an offer I couldn’t refuse, really far away,” Fogg says.

In the meantime, he’s plugging away at school and teaching music courses in Durham, N.H. Teaching elementary school youngsters began as part of his UNH program, but Fogg liked it, so he signed on to teach again.

“I love it, I love little kids,” he says.

The young ones have short attention spans, so his goal is mainly to have them keep the instrument playing as long as possible. With the other children, they can play and then you have a conversation, he says.

At the end of the classes, Fogg introduces students to constructive criticism.

“I want them to be specific, rather than just say it was good or bad,” he says.

Fogg, who used to practice six hours a day, is trying to work his own practice time up to four hours a day – although it’s tough during vacation when he’s lucky to get one. Nonetheless, he’s been doing some music arrangements and composing, writing his first voice arrangement and learning other instruments.

After a recent recording session, where musicians had taped tunes for UNH, Fogg and some other musicians held an informal jam session.

On the tape, Fogg is playing his piano while singer Julie Hardy belts out “My Foolish Heart”.

“This one really makes me smile,” he says. “There was no rehearsel, no nothing. It was the best thing we did.”

The Music Still Plays

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From a UNH scholarship announcement

Jazz Pianist Tommy Gallant is gone now, spirited away all too quickly in September, 1998, in his 63rd year of life. While the world of jazz in the Seacoast Region lives on, his absence is profoundly felt by the large circle of musicians, students, and fans who were central to his existence.

Gallant’s family, friends, and admirers have established a scholarship fund at UNH to ensure Gallant’s musical and educational legacy lives on by fostering future musicians. Through memorial contributions and the proceeds from a musical tribute to Gallant last spring, the endowed fund quickly grew to more than $50,000. Income from the fund will provide scholarships to students with financial need who demonstrate the values of jazz feeling, imagination, historical awareness, and commitment which were exemplified by Tommy Gallant.

Gallant, like many of his friends, lived to perpetuate the language of jazz. He was a great believer in the small jazz club, and along with the Tommy Gallant Trio and the Tommy Gallant All-Stars, was a regular performer at the Press Room and The Metro in Portsmouth, and at Saunder’s in Rye Harbor. He also entertained at private parties in the Seacoast Region and donated time to play for nursing home residents and school children.

“He was completely unselfish. He played in any venue, and his music moved the average person as much as the jazz afficianado,” says David Seiler, director of the UNH Jazz Band.

When the Portsmouth Jazz Festival floundered in 1996, Gallant and Seiler revived the tradition by establishing the summer Seacoast Jazz Festival in Prescott Park that same year, attracting New England’s finest jazz artists and this past summer, the world-renowned trumpet player Bobby Shaw. The two also founded the annual Harry Jones, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund, an annual concert which raises money for music students.

The less visible but equally vibrant legacy of Tommy Gallant continues in the music of his many students, who remember him as an inspiring, gifted teacher who was generous with his time and talent. Gallant taught at the Berklee College of Music, at Phillips Exeter Academy, and at the University of New Hampshire, through courses, workshops, and informal music events.

The first Gallant Scholarship recipient, Matthew Fogg, a junior music education major from Biddeford, Maine, has a special connection to Gallant. When Fogg was a freshman in high school, Gallant visited the school to play for students. “He was absolutely the first jazz pianist I ever heard play; he was amazing. I was so impressed that I dropped the trombone, which I was lousy at anyway, and started taking piano lessons,” Fogg says.

Today Fogg is an accomplished jazz pianist who would like to teach or go on to graduate school for music. He says the scholarship enables him to “work less and practice (the piano) more.”

“I feel very honored to receive the scholarship. Not only was Tom a great piano player, he was a great guy and very open and receptive to helping students,” Fogg says. “I’m especially honored because I’m the first recipient, and I knew Tom.”

In the lives of young musicians like Matthew Fogg, and in the vibrant Seacoast jazz scene, the Gallant spirit lives on.