PRINCETON: JazzFeast draws a crowd

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Trumpet player Claudio Roditi filled Palmer Square with the jazz that thousands of music lovers came to hear Sunday.
   The Grammy nominated musician was one of five acts that performed at the 21st annual JazzFeast, a free concert that Palmer Square Management sponsors. Even with the concert coinciding with the opening weekend of pro football, the crowds came in large numbers to sit under the sun to hear the music.
   ”It’s a fun kind of afternoon at the right time of the year,” said Frank Mulvaney, president of the New Jersey Jazz Society, standing near the performance tent.
   A borough police sergeant estimated 10,000 people attended during the course of the day.
   The crowd, a mostly older audience, brought folding chairs or found someplace to sit in the crowded downtown shopping district. Others milled around the park space to munch on a hot dog or other food at the festival-style event.
   Anita Fresolone, the marketing director with Palmer Square, called it “an awesome celebration of coming to Princeton, (of) being downtown.”
   She said JazzFeast started out as a two-day event that was shrunk to a one day celebration, formerly held on Saturdays until this year. The date change came at the request of Palmer Square’s tenants, she said.
   Scheduled to last six hours, the concert was hit, said some in the crowd.
   ”The music is great. As long as it’s jazz, it’s great,” said Murray Rothstein of Hillsborough, a regular at the event.
   Princeton resident Anne-Marie Maman said she thought the concert gets better each year.
   The talent on stage included mostly first-timers to JazzFeast. In addition to Mr. Roditi, they included the Princeton Jazz Quintet, Alan Dale and the New Legacy Jazz Band, the New Harmony Rhythm Kings and Catherine Russell.
   Ed Polcer, a professional musician who graduated from Princeton University in 1958, has served as the musical director of JazzFeast for the past few years. He recruits the performers, always sure to get a cross-section of styles that appeal to different tastes.
   He said jazz fans tend to be opinionated about what they like. If they didn’t like one of the acts, there were other diversions. Sixteen food vendors were selling everything from pizza and hotdogs to more exotic fare.