Jane Jarvis, the stellar Mets organist during their early years at Shea Stadium, passed away in January, but she has not been forgotten. Several of her friends and fans gathered for a musical tribute.
From Richard Sandomir in today’s New York Times:
… [I]t was fitting that at her memorial service Monday, the giant organ at St. Peter’s Church in Manhattan was silent and Jarvis’s friends in jazz played a swinging, joyful, soulful, occasionally mournful concert in her memory.
Jarvis died in January at 94.
Beneath the giant organ were Benny Powell on trombone, Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Ed Polcer on cornet, Richard Wyands on piano, Lisle Atkinson on bass and Frank Wess on flute. Before Powell led a combo in “Beautiful Love” — “our theme song” — he said: “This is closure for me. She was my partner for a long time.”
They formed a trio in the 1990s. “We called ourselves the world’s oldest trio,” he said. “I was the youngest at 72.”
Ira Gitler, a writer and historian, recalled a day in the 1960s when he joined Jarvis for a Mets game at Shea Stadium. “In the fourth inning, she played ‘Four,’ which Miles Davis recorded. I said, How hip is this? How many people were aware of that?”
Jarvis’s son, Brian, a drummer, remembered that in his 20s, he brought home a songbook filled with Chick Corea’s sheet music. He turned to one song, “Spain,” which he called a complex composition and said, “Hey, Mom, check this out.” He said she took one glance at the music and played it straight through without a mistake.
Chastened, he said to himself, “I’ll never do that again.”
Wess played his old friend a tribute on the flute, and said to those honoring her, “We’ll be together again.”
Photo courtesy New York Mets
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