Basking Ridge Trio To Perform At NJ Jazz Society's January Concert

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — A trio of Basking Ridge musicians will perform as part of the Rising Stars opening act at the New Jersey Jazz Society's January 5th Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert in Madison on Jan. 5.

The trio will be led by alto saxophonist Anish Alur, a senior at Ridge High School. Alur was a member of the 2024 New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble and was the only New Jersey student musician in the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra led by Gerald Clayton at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He was also a 2024 Young Arts Award recipient.

The other members of the trio will be bassist Chris Maratea and drummer Ishan Alur, Anish’s brother. Maratea is a Ridge High School graduate who now attends College of the Holy Cross. He is a past member of the New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble. Ishan Alur attends Newark Academy in Livingston, which finished first in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2024 Essentially Ellington competition.

The main concert will feature multireedists Will and Peter Anderson, well known for their Songbook Series, which showcases jazz interpretations of Great American Songbook composers.

On Jan. 5, the twin brothers will be joined by guitarist Adam Moezinia to play an eclectic version of that series. This time, according to Will Anderson, rather than focusing on one composer, the concert will be "a mix of a lot of composers. And, we will talk a little about how they differ."

Some of the writers, Anderson added, "had jazz in their heads — George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Hoagy Carmichael. Others, like Jerome Kern, did not."

The Andersons met Moezinia when they were all students at Juilliard about 14 years ago. The sound of the trio, Anderson explained, will be "kind of like the chamber jazz aesthetic, softer, more intimate. But, when the rhythm gets going, we can swing out!"

The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission is $10 for NJJS members and $15 for non-members. Student ad­mission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for pur­chase. To order tickets in advance, visit artsintrinsic.ticketleap.com/njjs-anderson-brothers-01-05-25.

Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a part­ner agency of The National Endow­ment for the Arts. This event is sponsored by Rachel Domber/ARBORS Records.