Nick Colionne backing up Phil Perry and MAYSA 4/13/2019
I had the great pleasure of getting to know and cover Nick Colionne during the last seven years of covering the Berks Jazz Festival, where I first saw and heard him play at a ‘day party ‘program in 2015. So it was with great dismay that I heard the news that Nick passed away on New Year’s Day after being hospitalized on New Year’s Eve with what he described as “some pain”.
Nick Colionne backing up Phil Perry and MAYSA 4/13/2019
Rather than focus on the particulars of his death, I would prefer to share the sheer joy I experienced when he performed. First, he was a man of style, who stood out from the crowd of bland black suits with his double-breasted pastels and gangster hats. Nick was also an engaging talker and was famous for walking into the audience and serenading the ladies in the room.
2018 BJF Pieces of a Dream Day Party 4/7/2018 © 2022 Malcolm Lewis Barnes AKA DMV2020ARTS.COM
2018 BJF Pieces of a Dream Day Party 4/7/2018 – © 2022 Malcolm Lewis Barnes AKA DMV2020ARTS.COM
He was also very funny, and his best one liner was, “I’m buying everybody in the ballroom a drink, and 2,000 straws”! Nick was never the evening headliner, but usually played the afternoon ‘Berks Day Party’ collaborations and Mid-Night Jams with Walter Beasley but was never afraid to share the stage with up-and-coming horn players such as Eric Darius, who I reported upstaged him in 2017.
“Nick Colionne was in his usual sartorial splendor with a purple zoot suit, matching fedora, double diamond earpieces and white carnation, in contrast to his backup band in black with white NOLA ties, as the Crown Prince dug deep with his Barry White baritone to win the audience back”.
By 2018, Nick’s “Trippin ‘N’ Rhythm” CD under the title The Journey, catapulted Nick to the top of the Billboard Smooth Jazz National Airplay charts as the only artists in the history of the format to score five consecutive No. 1s, including “Say What’s on Your Mind”, “Morning Call”, “Uncle Nick”, and “Buckle Up” featuring one of my other favorite reed players, Najee!
Nick was a native of Chicago, taught public school music for 15 years in his hometown of Elgin, and spent the past 20 years mentoring children at a school in the suburbs of his hometown, Chicago, and received the 1996 Malcolm X College Alumnus of the Year Award, as well as the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award at the 2010 National Smooth Jazz Awards for his community work and his support of breast cancer causes.
REST IN PEACE Nick Colionne!
Saturday April 6, 2014 Day Party – © 2022 Malcolm Lewis Barnes AKA DMV2020ARTS.COM
