Spotlight: Pita Jungle Jazz Jam celebrates 15 years on April 2
By Patricia Myers
After Pita Jungle in Chandler started a weekly jazz jam session in April 2000, new patrons began to fill the restaurant’s tables, coming from all over the valley, attracted by the music and enjoying the food. That jazz jam has continued every Thursday since, and celebrated that on April 2, 2015.
Pita Jungle co-owner Bassel Osmani said, “All three of us owners were avid jazz listeners, so when regular customer Bart Salzman came to us and talked about a jazz jam session, we wanted to do it. Thursday was a slow night for us, like dead compared to our Tempe store. Back then (1998) there was no 101 freeway, and everything around us was pretty much farmland with cattle and sheep, not as vibrant as today.
“Part of our original concept was to recruit the arts community to come by having art on the walls that changes every month. So we thought a high-culture music like jazz was a perfect fit. Bart said he would market the event and get the word out. We are thrilled to be associated with such a movement; it fits with the artistic element of Pita Jungle.”
Osmani his two partners, Nelly Kohsok and Fouad Khodr, met in the mid-1980s while students at Arizona State University. “Two of us had engineering degrees, and Nelly had a master’s in broadcast media, and then we opened a restaurant.”
Salzman, a trumpeter from Chandler, started the jam session after the first Chandler festival in 2000, which he conceived and that also has continued for 15 years. “I realized there was, in fact, a jazz audience in Chandler. I went looking for a venue to pay a trio $225 a week on a slow night, and allow me to emcee and market it. It took six weeks to pack the venue with jazz musicians and fans, and from then on, it took on a life of its own.”
Regular customer Pete Gitlin, a guitarist, was in the first band and still performs, now with Dave Ihlenfeld on keyboard and Cleve Huff on drums. The founding band was Salzman on trumpet, Sam Marshall and Gitlin alternating on guitar and bass, and Gerry Reynolds on drums. Pianist Curt Foster took over for Marshall; Ihlenfeld became the keyboardist in 2006; Andy Ziker was drummer from 2010 until last year when he moved to California.
Gitlin said, “The owners have been so kind to us to support live music here in the Valley for these 15 years. One of our greatest highlights was when world-renowned trumpeter Irvin Mayfield was playing the Chandler Jazz Festival, and Bart brought him in to play with the band, an incredibly wonderful player.”
Reynolds said, “For a few hours a week, we were all transcended to another place. I pictured myself in a dark club somewhere in the East, and some new Jazz Messengers recruits sitting-in with me on a fast bebop tune. Then it was time to lug our gear back to the car, and re-enter the real world of our jobs on Friday.”
Vocalist Renee Patrick started in the jams in 2002. “I met guitar player Stan Sorenson there, which led to him playing on my first CD, also some private duo gigs. I met many wonderful friends/fans that I’m still in contact with today. Remembering the Pita Jungle days makes me smile — great food, great music and great memories!”
Ihlendfeld said, “A number of pros around the valley stop in from time to time, and we get junior and senior high school students just learning, college kids and adults who are doing this for fun. The owners support ASCAP, paying the monthly dues for our live music.”
Pita Jungle’s dining focus is balanced healthful meals, 80 percent vegetarian or vegan and made from mostly local and organic ingredients. Pita Jungle has expanded to 19 restaurants via franchises, including two in California.
If You Go: 7 to 10 pm Thursdays, Pita Jungle: 1949 W Ray Road, Chandler, AZ 85224, 480-855-3232, www.pitajungle.com
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