The Tonight Show had Doc Severinsen. For Letterman, it’s Paul Shaffer. MorristownGreen.com has Gus Bacas and Timeless Jazz.
With all due respect to those other guys, we wouldn’t trade Gus and his band for anyone.
Timeless Jazz will be our musical opener at the Fifth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film Festival on Friday, Aug. 17, on the Green. Which is fitting, because these fellows got the whole enterprise off to a great start on a hot June evening in 2008.
Gus, a Frelinghuysen Middle School student at the time, rounded up some of his bandmates to perform at the world premiere of Flip Cam Madness.
That home-grown movie by the Morristown & Township Library staff exhorted residents to enter the first MorristownGreen.com Film Festival. We rolled out the red carpet for the film’s stars, who arrived in sporty Mini Cooper convertibles while the paparazzi clicked away.
Sweet Music: Growing up with Timeless Jazz. Please click icon below for captions.
Timeless Jazz had caught our eye at the first Morristown’s Got Talent! competition, which the band won with a spunky rendition of Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’.
The group has been a welcome fixture in Morristown Green land–Greenland, if you prefer — ever since. As our unofficial house band, this bunch has marched with us in chilly St. Patrick’s celebrations and on sweltering Memorial Days. It’s hard to imagine a big event without them.
“Playing for the fifth anniversary Film Fest is great. It really shows how the event and the band have evolved over time,” said Gus, who embarks on biology studies at Drew University this fall with an eye towards medical school.
Timeless Jazz will open for the Brian Cunningham Project, providing an all-jazz evening to inspire the crowd for the Morristown Jazz & Blues Festival, which follows us onto the Green on Saturday, Aug. 18.
Gus and his sax and keyboard will lead an ensemble that includes his kid brother, Peter Bacas, on tenor sax; Anthony Galante on alto sax; Ryan Gallagher on alto sax; Daniel Reardon on trumpet; Stephen Ferm on drums and last but not least, Ben Burgess on bass.
We’re pretty sure we know who will get the Timeless Jazz vote for Best Picture: Ben wrote and starred in one of this year’s comedies, When Macs Attack!
Gus remembers being crammed into the back of the library’s packed screening room for the four-minute premiere of Flip Cam Madness in 2008.
“Even though it was a little tight, the band enjoyed the opportunity to give back to the community,” Gus said.
Jazz may be Timeless, but time marches on for its devotees. The last of the original Timeless Jazz members are heading to college with Gus. Don’t despair, however. Peter Bacas, an incoming Morristown High School sophomore, will carry the torch.
“I have full confidence that it will continue to be a successful group under his guidance,” Gus said. “I will still be there to help him in any way that is needed, but Peter will be managing and directing the group while I’m in college. I look forward to watching Timeless Jazz continue into the future.”
So do we.
MORE ABOUT THE 2012 MORRISTOWNGREEN.COM FILM FEST
MORE ABOUT THE 2012 MORRISTOWN JAZZ & BLUES FEST