CAPE COD – Bart Weisman, founder of the Provincetown Jazz Festival, educator, and leader of four local jazz groups is also known by several informal titles.
“He is the jazz mayor of Cape Cod,” said Jen Villa, co-owner of The West End in Hyannis, which hosts Weisman’s Jazz Jam (like an open mic) on rotating Sundays.
Natalie Sheeler, music teacher at Sturgis Charter Public School East, where Weisman is the Jazz Band Director, said, “the kids refer to the band as the Bart Band. They love him. They call him Mr. Bart.”
“I refer to him as Mr. Jazz on the Cape,” said Sheeler. “He knows everybody.”
(See also, Bart Weisman Jazz Group, Music VIDEO.)
Alan Clinger of Barnstable, a guitarist who has worked with Weisman said, “Bart is the local impresario of the jazz world. He keeps a good many people employed.”
That local impresario keeps a good many more entertained.
“If you like jazz music and you live on Cape Cod and you don’t know Bart Weisman, something has happened to you where you are trapped in a basement or something,” said Villa.
He “knew” His Path When He Saw Drums For The First Time
When Weisman, 62, of Orleans, was 13 years old growing up in Washington D.C., he improvised the path of his life and became a musician.
It happened like this: He had an older brother who was invited to a party and Weisman tagged along. There was a band set up at the party. Weisman said, “I saw the drum set and I just knew. It was love at first sight.”
Weisman prophetically thought upon seeing the drums but not yet ever playing them: “I will play this instrument and I will play it the rest of my life, and I will play it well.”
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