Mary DiPaola brings her piano trio to Real Art Ways on Feb. 14. (Holly Williams / February 11, 2014)
By MICHAEL HAMAD, mhamad@ctnow.comCTNow
12:36 p.m. EST, February 11, 2014
Pianist Mary DiPaola was a classical performance major at The Hartt School when she was bitten by the jazz bug.
"I went to a concert of the student big band and it happened to be a night when [saxophonist and McLean Institute founder] Jackie McLean was featured as a performer," DiPaola told CTNow. "Everything about it was different and exciting. Everyone knew who he was, and they were excited he was performing. The musicians had a camaraderie with each other, and it was so different than the classical world."
The experience led to a lifelong journey as a jazz musician. "It really got me thinking about listening to jazz music, and I wanted to learn how to play that way," DiPaola said. "I ended up switching my major."
Twenty years later, DiPaola is an active musician in the Greater Hartford area and a teacher at Sunset Ridge Academy for Fine and Performing Arts and World Languages in East Hartford. She and her longtime trio — bassist Brian Jenkins and drummer Ben Bilello — will perform at Real Art Ways in Hartford on Valentine's Day immediately following a screening of "The Girls In The Band," a new documentary chronicling the lives of female jazz musicians from the swing era through the present-day.
Read more: http://www.courant.com/entertainment/hc-mary-dipaolo-at-real-art-ways-0213-20140211,0,2461370.story
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