The Summit Stompers
Dixieland Jazz Band

Dixieland band for all occasions covering northern and central NJ.

	The musicians...
		<-Kent Blair - Trombone and Band Leader Kent lives in Summit, NJ. In 2000, he retired from Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corporation after spending more than 30 years as a securities analyst on Wall Street. He led his high school band, was Student Director and Drum Major of the Red Raider Marching Band at Colgate University. His father was a trumpet player and his parents started him on music lessons when he was seven years old. He formed the Summit Stompers Jazz Band in 1992 to play traditional Dixieland jazz for parties, dances, concerts, street fairs, outings and other events where a high-energy band can add to the fun.
	Bart Bartholomew - Cornet -> Currently lives in Teaneck, NJ, having been banished from Lincoln, NE and Eugene, OR for relentless promotion of atonal, athematic, and electro-acoustic music. In the 1970s he founded and directed the Omaha Jazz Workshop big band, helped form the Lincoln Neoclassic Jazz Orchestra and the Lincoln Improvisation Ensemble (LIE), and for four years he was director of bands, jazz studies, and music theory at Lane Community College in Eugene where he also directed the Eugene New Music Project and played in the Eugene Symphony. He has fond memories of playing trumpet and flugelhorn in Lincoln with the jazz quintet, Orion, and in Eugene with Le Jazz Hot and with the big band, The Starlighters. Since 1980 he has devoted himself to music composition and to teaching, since 1987, at Yeshiva University where he is a professor of music. His musical interests vary wildly, from Armstrong and Adderly to Willeart and Wolpe."	Photo by Judy Helderman
	Fred Fischer - Piano Fred Fischer is a classically trained pianist and church organist, but his first love is jazz. Fischer has been playing professionally since the age of 12, when he and 15-year-old jazz clarinetist Brad Terry played a New Year’s Eve party in their Connecticut hometown. By the age of 13, Fischer was taking the train to Julliard each week to study with well-known jazz instructor Johnny Mehegan. At 16, he entered Boston University. There, on the advice of jazz commentator and radio broadcaster Father Norman O’Connor, Fischer studied piano with Margaret Chaloff, mother of the great jazz saxophonist, Serge Chaloff. After soloing in Greenwich Village clubs for a time, Fischer took on a partner---banjo player Patty Groll, whom he later married. Billed as the Glad Rags, the two moved to Scotch Plains (NJ) and began a twelve-year stint at Auntie Mame’s in Stirling. The group swelled with the addition of Fred’s sister Liz on guitar, and later Fred and Patty’s son Chris on drums.	Fred Fischer - Continued The Glad Rags cut two albums (now being made available on CD), and played many concerts in the area until Patty’s death of cancer in 1993. In 1999, Fischer retired as director of choral music at the Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison. Since then he has been able to devote full time to performing and private teaching. He played solo piano at Freshwaters Restaurant in Plainfield, was a regular with Joe Racina’s Big Band and has recently been playing with clarinetist Sol Yaged. He continues to play with Connie Tarentino Orchestras, the Tony Cilli Octet, and the Summit Stompers Jazz Band. He also performs with Nancy Nelson, Bob Ackerman and Pam Purvis, Calvin Hill, Bob Leive, Peter Adams, and Brad Terry, clarinetist and virtuoso jazz whistler. In July of 2005, Fischer and Terry appeared as a jazz duo with Robert Skoglund “the Humble Farmer” in a live show at the Deertrees Theatre (Harrison, Maine), which was recorded for broadcast on Maine Public Radio. Fischer solos in hospitals, nursing homes, and community centers, and plays for weddings and private parties---either solo or with additional musicians. He has also played at the Cornerstone in Metuchen, The Priory in Newark, and Shanghai Jazz in Madison. Most recently Fischer played a solo jazz concert to a packed house at the Watchung Arts Center in Watchung, NJ. Fischer is the organist and choir director at the United Church of Christ in Plainfield, a position he has held for the past 20 years. He plays a jazz service there the last Sunday of each month, often with guest artists.
	Sy Helderman - Clarinet -> Sy is from Morris Plains, NJ. He has played on Broadway over the years.	Photo by Judy Helderman
	Photo by Judy Helderman	<-Mike MacBurney - Tuba Mike is and electronic engineer currently living in Chatham, NJ. He played tuba in the Clifton HS Mustang Band in the late 60's and early 70's. The tuba collected dust as he perused electronics and electronic music in college; playing on one of the early Moog Synthesizers at Syracuse U. Summers were spent playing the Hammond organ and synthesizer (the latter not always welcomed) at some NJ Shore restaurants. It wasn't until about 1985 that he picked up the horn again and played in brass quintets at Long Hill Chapel and with the Chatham Community Band.
	Jon Martin - Banjo -> Jon has played around the country including The Johnny Carson Show in the 60's and 70's. If you've ever heard a banjo player doing "The William Tell Overture", then you heard Jon. More about him later.
		<- Don Robertson - Drums Don lives in Brookside (Mendham Township). He took up drums at the age of 12 after showing little talent for the piano. He retired the sticks after college and pursued a professional business career for 32 years. His good friend, drummer/leader Chuck Slate, encouraged him to resume playing in the 1970s . After retiring from the business world in 1983, Don studied drums seriously with top pro Sonny Igoe for five years. Besides playing in several other jazz combos, Don has played in several big bands including The Elusive Eleven ("The Doctors' Band") and Reeds, Rhythm & All That Brass. Don is a past president of the New Jersey Jazz Society and edited their publication, Jersey Jazz , for 9 years.