Jazz Legends From West, South Orange Pass Away: Juris, Roditi

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The memory of two jazz legends from West and South Orange continues to be honored in New Jersey.

Jersey Jazz Magazine recently paid tribute to guitarist Vic Juris of West Orange and trumpeter Claudio Roditi of South Orange in its March-April issue.

Juris passed away at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston on Dec. 31, 2019 at the age of 66. His wife, jazz singer Kate Baker, said the cause was complications from cancer.

According to his obituary:

“Vic Juris, a guitarist whose stylistic breadth, technical fluency and selfless poise made him a first-rate sideman for more than 40 years, as well as an influential educator and a perennially underrated solo artist... But Juris’ sterling reputation among fellow musicians was disproportionate to his low-key public profile, despite a trail of solo albums stretching back to the late ‘70s. A sideman to saxophonist Richie Cole during that decade and beyond, he also recorded with Hammond B-3 organists Don Patterson and Jimmy Smith, bassists Steve LaSpina and Gary Peacock, and keyboardist Peggy Stern. He’s most widely known for a long affiliation with saxophonist, flutist and NEA Jazz Master David Liebman; they began recording together in 1991.”

Juris earned praise from the likes of the late John Abercrombie and Pat Metheny over his long career.

Jersey Jazz wrote that like many other jazz greats, Juris was better known among his musical peers than among the general public.

“He should have been more famous,” iconic saxophonist Dave Liebman said.

‘A PRETERNATURALLY SMOOTH TONE’

Roditi passed away on Jan. 17 at the age of 73. According to his obituary, his accomplishments include:

• Over a career spanning five decades, the trumpeter worked worldwide as a performer, recording artist and teacher. Has more than 20 albums to his credit as a leader, and dozens more as a sideman or featured performer.
• Has performed and recorded with many jazz and Latin music greats, including Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Mann, Tito Puente, and Paquito D’Rivera
• In recent years, he was a featured performer with Trio da Paz and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band
• Grammy nomination in 2009 in the Best Latin Jazz Album category
• Grammy nomination in 1994 in the Best Solo Performance category
• In 1966, he was named a trumpet finalist at the International Jazz Competition in Vienna, Austria

According to Jersey Jazz, Roditi was born in Rio de Janiero in 1946 and came to the United States in 1970 to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He was known for his signature blend of bebop jazz and Brazilian rhythms.

“He was capable of a preternaturally smooth tone that could take the edge off his ferocity or delve beautifully into a tender ballad,” Jazz Times’ Michael West wrote about Roditi, adding that “the warmth of his playing was matched by a warm personality.”

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