Jazz gets better with age in Naples

Written by Glenn Miller, gmiller@news-press.com

The Naples Jazzmasters, with an average age of 81, are all about the music. That’s why they play. That’s why, even in the middle of the summer, they gather every Saturday afternoon at the Norris Center in Naples for concerts.

That’s why banjo player Mike Currao drives all the way from Punta Gorda. That’s why leader Jim Gover drives a few blocks from his home, where he has weekly jam sessions. That’s why 81-year-old pianist Jean Packard still revels in the joy of the music.

“I get goosebumps,” Packard said last Saturday, sitting at her piano shortly before the show began. The Jazzmasters have things under control from head to toe.

Gover is a retired dentist, and drummer Frank Michota was a podiatrist. Their backgrounds cover a bit of everything, as Gover pointed out about Dick Magill, who plays the clarinet.

“Dick Magill is a lawyer, but we love him anyway,” Gover said during the show.

“The Dixieland music of the 1920s is some of the happiest, liveliest music that ever was written,” Gover said. “And also the blues are some of the saddest songs ever written. So we got all the variety in the world here and the thing about our sort of jazz is that it’s extemporaneous. We make it up sort of as we go along.” They also love the Dixieland jazz they play. http://www.news-press.com/article/20110805/COASTAL_LIFE/110805026/1002/RSS01