by Jarrett Hoffman
A guitarist walks up to a clarinetist and asks, “You play any jazz?” What sounds like the start of a bad joke was actually the start of a musical relationship that hits 45 years this month.
That makes two reasons to celebrate. Both that milestone and the festival of Mardi Gras will be in the air when guitarist Guy Van Duser and clarinetist Billy Novick visit Akron’s Arts @ Holy Trinity series on Fat Tuesday, February 16 at 7:00 pm.
For the occasion, they’ve put together a pre-recorded concert largely built around classic New Orleans jazz, a staple of their repertoire. The playlist includes works by Jelly Roll Morton, George Gershwin, Andy Razaf, Hoagy Carmichael, Scott Joplin, Jimmie Noone, and Duke Ellington, as well as an original by Novick.