By Mary Brienza, Staff Writer
The sounds of jazz filled the Senior Center on Route 522 Friday night as fans came to enjoy the music of the VooDUDES band.
About 112 people attended the concert, Nancy Delgado, 51, of Dayton, who is secretary of the Arts Commission, said.
Some members of the audience brought their own bottles of wine to the show, one of two BYOB concerts that the Jazz Café has out of the scheduled eight shows, Sandy Behrend, chair of the Arts Commission, said.
Off to the side, while the music played, Robert Wiedis, 84, and Marcy Feldheim, 76, were dancing.
Other people who came to ýPage=003 Column=001 OK,0041.06þ the event enjoyed themselves as well. Angela Adinolfi, 76, and Al Adinolfi, 77, of Dayton have attended the Jazz Café for the past four years, Mr. Adinolfi said.
“(The VooDUDES are) one of the better groups,” Mr. Adinolfi, who is also member of the zoning board, said.
Mr. Adinolfi said he comes to the jazz café all the time with his wife because “the price is right” and the “entertainment is good.” The cookies served at the event are the “best,” he said.
Sweat poured down the face of band member Andy Bernstein of Highland Park in between sets during the concert.
Mr. Bernstein said he has performed with the VooDUDES for 21 years, and has been playing music for 45 years.
ýPage=003 Column=002 OK,0036.06þ The VooDUDES, of Highland Park, have played four times at the Jazz Café, Mr. Bernstein said.
“I like the fact that people listen to it,” Mr. Bernstein said. “The general atmosphere is that of people having fun.”
The senior center auditorium was set up with tables and a refreshment table while the band played on stage.
“We always have a big crowd with the VooDUDES,” Ms. Behrend said, “(This is) the biggest crowd we have ever had.”
VooDUDES have toured in the past and are very popular, Laura Kuehner, 54, of Dayton, who is treasurer of the Arts Commission, said.
“This (band) is a favorite,” Ms. Kuehner said.
The VooDUDES are apýPage=003 Column=003 OK,0056.06þ propriate near Mardi Gras, since some of their music has a New Orleans beat, Ms. Behrend said.
Lalli Starr, 54, of Sayreville, who is a bookkeeper, has been a fan of the VooDUDES since 1994, attended the event with her mother, Leatrice McGuffin, who is a retired teacher living in Kendall Park.
Ms. Starr said she attends as many VooDUDES shows as she can, and she got her mother, sister, and sister in law listening to the band.
She said she is working on getting her son into them as well.
“I crave to hear them,” Ms. Starr said.
The Arts Commission receives CDs by musicians and bands interested in playing at the Jazz Café, while others are ýPage=003 Column=004 OK,0046.06þ recommended by other bands that have played at the Jazz Café before, according to Ms. Behrend.
Bands audition before they play, but the VooDUDES were so well known that they were not required to, Ms. Behrend said.
Andrea Brachfeld, a nationally known award winning flutist who also is a member of the Latin jazz band Phoenix Rising, founded the Jazz Café, Ms. Behrend said.
The Jazz Café was founded when she approached former Arts Commission chair Fran Niemeck to put together a jazz event since there was “no performing arts aspect at that point,” Ms. Brachfeld, who is a resident in Kendall Park, said.
Ms. Brachfeld has played flute since she was 6, and has played all over the world, and ýPage=003 Column=005 OK,0036.06þ currently teaches ESL classes at Princeton Middle School, she said.
Ms. Brachfeld said she created Phoenix Rising in 1998, and helped organize the township bicentennial that year after being approached by the Township Council.
“I wouldn’t trade my life for anything,” Ms. Brachfeld said. “What I live is what I play.”
The Jazz Café is held the first Friday every month, Ms. Delgado said. There will not be a jazz event in January, Ms. Behrend said.
The goal of the Jazz Café is to “get younger people into jazz,” Ms. Behrend said. However, she said, most of the attendees are middle aged.
Upcoming performers include Laura Hall, NJ Jazz Trio and Phoenix Rising, Ms. Behrend said.
