Jazz Night
BLDG lounge
Hotel Marcel
New Haven
Jan. 8, 2025
The automatic doors of the hotel slowly opened, letting a rush of frigid January air enter along with a couple bundled up in long wool coats. They followed the sound of sultry bass licks to the sunken lounge, found a corner seat framed by pillows, and ordered two glasses of wine.
This scenario isn’t from the beginning of a chapter of a classic romance novel or the opening of a newest Netflix series. It’s real and it’s right here in New Haven. Last night in the lounge of the Hotel Marcel, this month’s installment of Jazz Night brought music lovers in from the cold for two hours of hot tunes as well as a select menu of food and drinks created by BLDG, the hotel’s restaurant.
Presented by New Haven Jazz Underground, Jazz Night has been going strong since June 2025. A different act has performed at this free to the public event every first Thursday from 5- 7 PM, thought tonight’s was held on the second Thursday due to last week being New Year’s Day. On this evening the performers were the Darren Litzie Trio which included Darren Litzie on keys, Jeff Fuller on upright bass, and Jerrod Cattey on drums.
New Haven Jazz Underground founder Nick Di Maria was there to introduce the musicians, also giving the attendees a brief explanation of NHJU’s mission and letting them know of other NHJU events happening weekly throughout the city (and a new one in Clinton as well).
“It’s an absolute pleasure to be doing this work,” he added after talking about their fundraising efforts this past holiday season and before introducing the trio who began with a spirited version of Nat King Cole’s “Walking My Baby Back Home.” They would revisit that legendary performer’s catalog later in the evening with a sultry version of “Unforgettable” as more and more seats filled.
The sunken lounge is accessible by either two steps or a ramp, and patrons have their choice of high-top long tables or cushioned benches framed with long pillows. There are also more standard tables and chairs surrounding the sunken part and those filled up eventually as well. Patrons were offered a menu with a selection of small bites and drinks, which included select beer, wine, and cocktails. Multiple platters of sliders made their way around the room as well as many glasses of wine. After the trio made their way through a bubbly version of “Wave” by Antonio Carlos Jobim (which you can see in the video below), this reporter made her way through the menu and decided to try the Old Bay wings and Amber Spice cocktail.
As patrons clapped their hands and tapped their toes through a spirited version of “How About You?” originally made popular by Frank Sinatra, I partook of the chai and nutmeg spiced spirit I ordered that also included vodka, honey, and lemon. Not unlike the music floating through the space, it was deeply warming and totally cool.
The trio got a little spicy and saucy as I dug into my Old Bay wings, also a little spicy and saucy, combined with an herbed blue cheese dressing that, by the time I was scraping the last drops out of its cup, became a new obsession. My lips were humming right through the band’s short break and through the beginning of their second set which included more Sinatra – “Baubles, Bangles, and Beads” and “Witchcraft” – as well as Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are.” No matter the song, the trio sailed through each one perfectly in sync with each other even when one of them was in the midst of a solo, Fuller coaxing and conjuring the smoothest of sounds out of his strings, Litzie letting his fingers practically float across the keyboard, and Cattey caressing his drums with his brushes like a painter across a canvas. There was something quite magical about it all, even with songs that are considered classics it felt as if they were being communicated in bold new ways.
Earlier Di Maria joked about the backed-up traffic on I-95 South that could be seen through the windows behind the band. I wondered if those drivers would have a less stressful drive if they could have had a taste of this music for their own. Based on the smiles upon the faces of the musicians, the attendees, and even Di Maria himself, it seemed that jazz was the antidote to what ailed everyone that evening. He said he was “excited” to be in this location which he called “a landmark,” one that he had never been in until NHJU started the event there. Last night happened to be my first time there as well. Interestingly enough, nearly every single person I told I was going there told me that they had never been there and always wanted to go.
So, here is your chance, New Haven music lovers. Free jazz, fab food and drinks, and a respite from the occasional dreariness of daily life once a month. And who knows, maybe you’ll begin a new chapter of your own story there as well.
