Anthony Hervey and All That Disney Jazz
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem house band celebrates the music from Disney's first century.
“We try to pick a really diverse range of music from a lot of different films,” says Anthony Hervey of “When You Wish Upon a Star: A Jazz Tribute to 100 Years of Disney,” a traveling show put together by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
The celebration of music popularized by the Walt Disney Company since its founding in 1923 weaves in selections from more contemporary and culturally diverse productions — Encanto, The Princess and the Frog, and Soul among them — “that kind of deal with a lot of different people, in ways you can see yourself represented.”
That said, many older Disney titles have proven themselves to be classics with wide and long-lasting appeal — such as Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King.
“It’s interesting,” he says. “When we play these shows, I look out in the audience and I see older people and then I also see little children sitting in the front row, [and] everybody’s listening to the music and they’re having a good time. Everybody has the same smile on their face.
“There’s a timeless quality to a lot of these things. A lot of us have seen these movies. And from talking with people after the show, this music has been really impactful. And there’s something for everybody in the music, whether you’re six years old or 86. No matter where you’re coming from [or] whether you’re white or Black, gay or straight.”
Hervey singles out Toy Story as the Disney film he grew up with appreciating the most. Yet the Miami native stresses he was far more consumed with playing basketball and hanging out with friends than he was in going to the movies.
He had even less interest in playing music or a musical instrument — at least until middle school, when his mother encouraged him to follow in his great-grandfather’s footsteps and take up the trumpet.
“I reluctantly agreed to do so, because she told me I could quit after a year if I didn’t like it,” he says. “Literally within a couple of weeks of being in school, I was watching TV and I saw this clip of trumpeter Freddie Hubbard — I had never heard a trumpet played like that in my life. I’d never heard music like that.
“When I found out it was jazz music, I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.’ So from that moment on, I basically just started practicing every day as much as possible.”
In the years since earning two degrees from Juilliard, Hervey has gone on to work with everyone from his mentor Wynton Marsalis to Michael Bublé. He also featured on Christian McBride’s Grammy-winning album For Jimmy, Wes, and Oliver. And earlier this year, he released his own debut album, Words From My Horn.
Through the remainder of 2023, however, Hervey’s focus is on performing in the Disney music concert as a member of the recently established house band of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Two singers/storytellers tour with the five-piece ensemble, led by Sean Mason as pianist and music director, representing the Smithsonian-affiliated museum.
“A lot of the arrangements that we do, we actually take from the tradition of all these great jazz artists,” says Hervey. “So, even though they’re Disney songs, you might hear a little bit of Duke Ellington or you might hear a little bit of Charles Mingus.
“[As] the trumpet player, I actually start the show. Sean told me, ‘Start in whatever key you want to, but don’t tell us.’ That’s kind of like the art of what we do as jazz musicians: We kind of deal with the unexpected and we make something happen.”
But it only truly works as long as they stay closely attuned to one another. “That’s actually extremely crucial because jazz music, it has improvisation, but an important part of the music [is] listening and playing together. That’s really where the magic happens in the music.”
“When You Wish Upon a Star: A Jazz Tribute to 100 Years of Disney” is Saturday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m., at The Alden Theatre, 1234 Ingleside Ave., in McLean, Va.
Tickets are $20 to $25. Visit www.aldentheatre.org or call 703-790-0123.
Also on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the Weinberg Center for the Arts, 20 W. Patrick St., in Frederick, Md. Tickets are $20 to $35.
Visit www.weinbergcenter.org or call 301-600-2828.
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