Jane Jarvis
Encyclopedia
Jane Nossette Jarvis was an American jazz
pianist
. She was also known for her work as a composer
, a baseball
stadium
organist
and a recording industry executive. She was born in Vincennes, Indiana
to Charles and Luella Nossette.
prodigy at the age of five and she studied under a Vincennes University
professor as a young girl. Her family moved to Gary, Indiana
soon afterward, and Jarvis was hired to play the piano at radio
station WJKS in Gary in 1927. At the age of 13, she was orphaned when her parents died in a train-auto wreck and she returned to Vincennes, graduating from high school in 1932. By then, she had already studied music at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, the Bush Conservatory of Music
, Loyola University Chicago
and DePauw University
.
By 1954, Jarvis was on television
at station WTMJ-TV
in Milwaukee
, hosting a show called "Jivin' with Jarvis" while serving as staff pianist and organist. At the time, the Milwaukee Braves
had just relocated from Boston and sought out Jarvis to be the organist at Milwaukee County Stadium. In a 1984 interview, Jarvis told John S. Wilson of The New York Times
that she asked when she would get to perform and a Braves official replied, "When the umpire says 'Three outs
.'" Jarvis, a sports neophyte, then asked, "And when would that be?"
Jarvis stayed with the Braves for eight seasons and then headed to New York City
, where she took a position with the Muzak
Corporation as a staff composer and arranger. She would rise to become a corporate vice-president and its director of recording and programming.
In 1964, she was hired by the New York Mets
to play the organ at Shea Stadium
. She is remembered at Shea for playing the Mets's theme song, "Meet the Mets
", as the team took the field before every game, as well as for her renditions of the Mexican Hat Dance
during the seventh-inning stretch
.
Jarvis left Muzak in 1978, and the next year she left the Mets to concentrate on her first musical love, jazz piano. She became a fixture at New York nightclubs, frequently playing alongside bassist
Milt Hinton
. She became a founding member of the Statesmen of Jazz, a group of jazz musicians age 65 and older, sponsored by the American Federation of Jazz Societies. One goal of the Statesmen is to present the wonders of jazz music to young audiences across the United States. The Statesmen have also traveled abroad, performing in Japan
, among other places.
Jarvis released several albums of her jazz piano work, including Jane Jarvis Jams (1995) and Atlantic/Pacific (2000). In addition to Hinton, Jarvis has often collaborated with trombonist
Benny Powell
and bassist Earl May. As a member of ASCAP, she also had over three hundred compositions to her credit.
Married and divorced three times, Jarvis lived in Cocoa Beach, Florida
, where she was honored in 2003 by the Space Coast Jazz Society for her lifetime achievement. On March 15, 2008, Jarvis was displaced from her New York City residence when a construction crane collapse
d, damaging her building on East 50th Street.
Jarvis spent the final years of her life and died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home
in Englewood, New Jersey
. She is survived by a son, Brian, a daughter, Jeanne, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. She was also known for her work as a composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, a baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and a recording industry executive. She was born in Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...
to Charles and Luella Nossette.
Biography
Jarvis was recognized as a pianoPiano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
prodigy at the age of five and she studied under a Vincennes University
Vincennes University
Vincennes University is a public university in Vincennes, Indiana, in the United States. Founded in 1801 as Jefferson Academy, VU is the oldest public institution of higher learning in Indiana. Since 1889, VU has been a two-year university, although baccalaureate degrees in seven select areas are...
professor as a young girl. Her family moved to Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...
soon afterward, and Jarvis was hired to play the piano at radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
station WJKS in Gary in 1927. At the age of 13, she was orphaned when her parents died in a train-auto wreck and she returned to Vincennes, graduating from high school in 1932. By then, she had already studied music at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, the Bush Conservatory of Music
Bush Conservatory of Music
The Bush Conservatory of Music was a conservatory of music established by William L. Bush in 1901. It flourished for the first part of the 1900's and was the first music conservatory to offer dormitories for out-of-state students who wished to study with its illustrious faculty...
, Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...
and DePauw University
DePauw University
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...
.
By 1954, Jarvis was on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
at station WTMJ-TV
WTMJ-TV
WTMJ-TV, digital channel 28 ; branded as "Today's TMJ4", is the NBC-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the flagship station of the Journal Broadcast Group. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha,...
in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, hosting a show called "Jivin' with Jarvis" while serving as staff pianist and organist. At the time, the Milwaukee Braves
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball club based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Braves have played in Turner Field since 1997....
had just relocated from Boston and sought out Jarvis to be the organist at Milwaukee County Stadium. In a 1984 interview, Jarvis told John S. Wilson of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
that she asked when she would get to perform and a Braves official replied, "When the umpire says 'Three outs
Out (baseball)
In baseball, an out occurs when the defensive, or fielding, team effects any of a number of different events, and the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a player is called out, he is said to be retired...
.'" Jarvis, a sports neophyte, then asked, "And when would that be?"
Jarvis stayed with the Braves for eight seasons and then headed to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where she took a position with the Muzak
Muzak
Muzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1934, Muzak Holdings is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....
Corporation as a staff composer and arranger. She would rise to become a corporate vice-president and its director of recording and programming.
In 1964, she was hired by the New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
to play the organ at Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
. She is remembered at Shea for playing the Mets's theme song, "Meet the Mets
Meet the Mets
"Meet the Mets" is the fight song of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. It was written in 1961 by Ruth Roberts and Bill Katz. A rewritten and modernized version was recorded in 1984....
", as the team took the field before every game, as well as for her renditions of the Mexican Hat Dance
Jarabe tapatío
The Jarabe Tapatío dance in its standardized form was first choreographed by the Mexican, in the early twentieth century to celebrate a government-sponsored fiesta that commemorated the successful end of the Mexican Revolution....
during the seventh-inning stretch
Seventh-inning stretch
The seventh-inning stretch is a tradition in baseball that takes place between the halves of the seventh inning of any game – in the middle of the seventh inning. Fans generally stand up and stretch out their arms and legs and sometimes walk around. It is a popular time to get a late-game snack as...
.
Jarvis left Muzak in 1978, and the next year she left the Mets to concentrate on her first musical love, jazz piano. She became a fixture at New York nightclubs, frequently playing alongside bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Milt Hinton
Milt Hinton
Milton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".-Biography:...
. She became a founding member of the Statesmen of Jazz, a group of jazz musicians age 65 and older, sponsored by the American Federation of Jazz Societies. One goal of the Statesmen is to present the wonders of jazz music to young audiences across the United States. The Statesmen have also traveled abroad, performing in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, among other places.
Jarvis released several albums of her jazz piano work, including Jane Jarvis Jams (1995) and Atlantic/Pacific (2000). In addition to Hinton, Jarvis has often collaborated with trombonist
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
Benny Powell
Benny Powell
Benny Powell was an African American jazz trombonist. He played both standard trombone and bass trombone....
and bassist Earl May. As a member of ASCAP, she also had over three hundred compositions to her credit.
Married and divorced three times, Jarvis lived in Cocoa Beach, Florida
Cocoa Beach, Florida
Cocoa Beach is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 12,482 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates of 2008, the city had a population of 11,920...
, where she was honored in 2003 by the Space Coast Jazz Society for her lifetime achievement. On March 15, 2008, Jarvis was displaced from her New York City residence when a construction crane collapse
March 2008 Manhattan construction crane collapse
On March 15, 2008, a crane owned by New York Crane & Equipment collapsed at 303 East 51st Street on 51st Street in Manhattan, New York, United States. Seven people were killed and 24 others were injured. It was a luffing-jib tower crane manufactured by Favco that was 200 feet tall at the time of...
d, damaging her building on East 50th Street.
Jarvis spent the final years of her life and died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home
Lillian Booth Actors Home
The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an assisted living facility in Englewood, New Jersey operated by the Actors Fund. The facility was the subject of the 2000 film Curtain Call. The facility was established in 1928 at the former mansion of Hetty Green.-History:On May 8, 1902, the...
in Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
. She is survived by a son, Brian, a daughter, Jeanne, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.