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Cornetist Nick DeCarlis has become a leading source of information on the life and music of Bobby Hackett. After a lifetime of listening to every Bobby Hackett record he could get his hands on, his research expanded to seeking out more information from books, personal interviews, and numerous clippings from long-ago issues of Metronome and Downbeat. While long-past any overt attempts to sound like “the Master,” nonetheless many listeners find the Hackett influence unmistakable in his playing.
From a very early age, Nick grew up hearing the gorgeous tone and lyrical improvisations of cornetist Bobby Hackett, as his father was a huge fan, and constantly played his records. Other musical influences would eventually include Warren Vache, Jr., Ruby Braff, Scott Hamilton, and Chet Baker.
After quitting the junior high band at age 13, Nick didn’t touch the cornet until his college years, first re-learning to play the instrument, then teaching himself to play improvised jazz. His first gigs were in 1982 with the Gainesville, Florida group “Moondancer.”
Nick founded “The High Note Jazz Club” above Gainesville’s historic Florida Theater in 1991, and performed there frequently during that year.
While he has played professionally for more than 20 years, Nick has had a renewed interest and sense of purpose in playing jazz since 1998, and in that time has performed with nationally-known swing and traditional jazz performers, including Dan Barrett, Jim Cullum, Jr., Bobby Gordon, Ron Hockett, Ed Metz, Jr., Tom Pletcher, John Sheridan, Jim Snyder, and Johnny Varro. Additionally, Nick has traveled to San Antonio, Texas on numerous occasions to play with the famous Jim Cullum Jazz Band, stars of Public Radio International’s “Riverwalk Jazz.”
Of special interest to Nick is creating, producing and performing in “themed concerts” which combine musical performance with brief, but informative and often amusing historical asides.
In 2001 he produced and played in “A Tribute to Bobby Hackett” for the Gainesville Friends of Jazz. At the time, it was the best-attended concert in the society’s history.
That attendance record was broken in 2004 when Nick produced and played in “Songs Sinatra Sang,” also for GFOJ.
This was followed by by “Double Take” in 2005, with Nick being joined by Syracuse, NY trumpeter Jeff Stockham, for a salute to the songs made famous by the greatest jazz trumpet & cornet players. A new attendance record was set for GFOJ.
Nick is a founding member of the Gainesville Friends of Jazz & Blues as well as current board member. He also collects and restores antique cornets dating from 1860 to 1942, and is a founding member of the so-called “Cornet Conspiracy,” a group of like-minded cornet player/collectors from across the U.S. who have met on an annual basis since 2001.
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