He is feeling brave tonight, so he signs his name on the list and anxiously awaits to be called onstage. He takes a deep breath before opening his mouth to sing, his fingers already moving on the piano keys. He looks out at his audience.
After a long and stressful week, Rick Naimark looks forward to sitting in a room filled with the sounds of jazz, his favorite kind of music. He walks 15 minutes from his home to The Nash, a jazz club near First and Roosevelt streets, and pays the $5 fee to get in.
Naimark, the Deputy Phoenix City Manager, has spent the last 27 years working for the city, but has carried his love for music with him his entire life.
Naimark remembers family sing-alongs in his living room and belting out songs with his siblings on road trips as a little kid.
“My dad had a mandolin and my mother played the ukulele, so I had music in my house all the time,” Naimark said.
He hated taking piano lessons, like other 6-year-olds uninterested in classical music, but his family’s musical background helped him to become quite good at the art.
Naimark discovered his interest in jazz music in high school, where he juggled playing piano for the jazz band and singing vocal solos for the jazz choir.
“That kind of music just spoke to me,” he said.
His college jazz group, Jazz Company, even got the chance to record in a professional studio.
“We actually went to Hollywood and recorded,” Naimark said. “We didn’t sell any albums or anything; we just got to spend a day in a recording studio and make some recordings.”
Today, Naimark volunteers as the musical director for his temple, Or Adam Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, which he founded along with his wife and another couple when he moved to Phoenix in 1986.
Naimark said that although he mostly performs through his choir, he also regularly attends Sunday night jam sessions at The Nash.
He said he enjoys the relaxed atmosphere at the club and seeing the same people every week since he started coming last summer.
One person who joins him every week is his co-worker and friend Lisa Takata, who has worked with Naimark for nearly three decades and bonded with him over their love of music.
Takata said it was Naimark who encouraged her to go to the jam sessions and she has gone every Sunday since.
“It is fun to have interests you share with people aside from the work you do every day,” Takata said.
The Nash manager Joel Goldenthal said the sessions have attracted a diverse group of people, including students and local and traveling musicians.
“It’s bringing together people around the joy of jazz music,” Goldenthal said.
The club’s urban contemporary setting is inviting to the community, he said.
“Rather than sitting at home, I am at The Nash listening, enjoying and doing some of my work there, which for me is obviously not the most efficient working environment, but it is relaxing,” Naimark said.
When he is at home, where his audience is only his wife and two sons, Naimark said the song he plays the most is “Angel Eyes.” He said he likes the tune and the fact that it is a classic song.
“(Music’s) always been part of my life,” Naimark said. “Whenever I sing it makes me happy, it makes me relaxed.”
Contact the reporter at Stacia.Affelt@asu.edu
