Helen Daley

The Arizona Classic Jazz Society is happy to announce that they are starting their new season of Traditional Jazz at the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort. The Sun City Stomperz will take the stage on September 17 to showcase the wonderful music of the first three decades of the 20th Century.

The Sun City Stomperz have been delighting music lovers on the west side of the Valley since 2005. It’s always a treat to host them on the east side in Chandler. Their bandleader Ernie Landes plays trombone and became enamored with Traditional Jazz while attending Stanford University. Bob Scobey and Turk Murphy were popular in the San Francisco area at that time. Ernie started playing for free beer in college hangouts on Friday afternoons and he hasn’t stopped playing yet (I don’t know about the free beer). The band manager Harry Schlafman plays banjo in the band. His music experience is extensive, starting piano at age nine, then moving on to violin, banjo, cornet, string bass and soprano sax. He has played almost continuously since forming the “Red Hot Stompers” at Cornell University. Harry could be an entire band by himself. However, the Sun City Stomperz are well rounded out by the addition of clarinet/soprano sax, tuba, trumpet, piano and drums.

These “Purveyors of Polyphonic Counterpoint” (their many instruments create wonderful melodies) will perform for your listening and dancing pleasure from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 17, 2017, at the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort, One San Marcos Place, Chandler. Cost is $15 for ACJS members; $20 non-members (become a new member and get in free on the 17th; yearly membership $35 couple; single $25). For more information, go to www.azclassicjazz.org or call 480-620-3941.