At 10:30 p.m. each Thursday, John D’earth’s band has performed at Miller’s in Charlottesville. He’s done that for about forty years. And he’s been playing the trumpet even longer – taking it up at the age of eight. As a teenager he was on stage at the Newport Jazz Festival, and this month, he’ll headline the free jazz fest in Salem’s Longwood Park with a new vocalist – Richmond’s Laura Ann Singh.
“John and I have been in each other’s orbit for a while," she says. "We have a lot of mutual friends and colleagues, We have recorded a lot of his music and some of Dawn’s songs."
Dawn Thompson was John’s partner and wife. They had worked together since he was 21, and he was in awe of the lyrics and songs that she wrote -- railing against the impersonal, corporate world and foretelling the climate crisis.
“I was always struck by her originality and the purity of her artistic, philosophical and political vision that she had," he explains.
Their band – Cosmology – was renowned in New York, but in 1981, they came to Charlottesville to take a summer break from the big city They rented a house in Green County – a world away from Manhattan.
“I was running up the dirt road one morning, and this old farmer was across the road in his tractor," D'earth recalls. "I stopped to talk to him, and I said, ‘Hi, I moved into Galen Morris’s house up the road. My name is John. What’s your name? And he said Debussy. I just bit my tongue from saying, ‘Did you know that’s a famous French composer? How did you get that name Debussy?’ I just said, ‘Okay, Debussy. Nice to meet you.’ Ran up the road and saw his mailbox: W.C. Owens. W.C.!”
Neighbors were friendly to the newcomers and left fresh vegetables at their door. D’earth and Thompson were hooked!
Many productive years followed -- Dawn writing dozens of songs before she passed away 2017. D’earth wanted to revive her music, and this year he found a way -- inviting Laura Ann to join the band. She teaches voice at VCU and has an incredible creative range, from Latin music, jazz and rock to holiday classics.
“When we met Laura Ann, we realized she had the sound – that rich alto sound, and she has the chops and the same interests that Dawn had, and it has just taken off!" D'earth says. "I’m so happy to say her husband is freaking out over this music we’re recording. He thinks it’s good.”
“My husband, grew up going to Miller’s to hear John as a legend and just being like in awe," Singh explains. "When I started working with him, Tim was like, ‘I’m a little star struck.’”
Seth Green and Julian Carta are also fans – so much so that the two professional musicians are doing something different – making a documentary.
“This has been going on for a long time, and this is a real treasure.Somebody should document this, and then we were chatting with one of the members of the band and they (half jokingly) said, ‘You should document this.’”
The musicians, they say, are easily as good as any you might find in New York, but Charlottesville affords them creative freedom.
“A lot of folks seem to play differently at Millers, and they have this exploratory energy. They feel like they can try things.”
"When I was in there last night, there was a guy from Virginia Beach who was up here on business and had just stumbled in there, and I could see on his face this feeling of, ‘What have I found?”
It is, they conclude, like the solar system – with great jazz musicians in Dearth’s orbit.
“After all these years, he still comes at this with such passion, and it’s just contagious. So many people that we asked – what is it about this scene that makes it so unique. Sooner or later they all said, ‘It’s John. He’s just a magnet.’”
Green and Carta hope to release their documentary at the Virginia Film Festival in 2027 and may have a new album to accompany it. In the meantime, watch for single releases on streaming platforms and a vinyl recording featuring Laura Ann with the quintet this fall.
For details on the Salem Jazz Festival, go to https://salemva.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/586
