Nick Di Maria Brings Connecticut Jazz to New London’s Newest Music Room

Nick Di Maria Brings Connecticut Jazz to New London’s Newest Music Room Friday, Sept. 25, when the New Haven trumpeter, composer and bandleader takes the stage at The Marquee on State Street for a 7:30 p.m. performance.

Di Maria arrives with bassist Jason Santini and drummer John Soni, giving the night the compact instrumentation of a trumpet-led trio. For a musician whose career has moved between straight-ahead jazz, funk, fusion and more experimental territory, that stripped-down lineup leaves plenty of room for improvisation.

It also puts one of Connecticut’s established jazz musicians inside a venue that is barely two months old.

From Straight-Ahead Jazz to Funk and Fusion

Di Maria has been leading his own groups on the Connecticut jazz circuit since 2006.

A graduate of Western Connecticut State University’s jazz performance program, he studied with acclaimed trumpeter Eddie Henderson and has worked with musicians including Abraham Burton, Brian Charette, Peter Bernstein and Mike Clark.

But Di Maria’s musical history doesn’t stay neatly inside jazz.

He spent part of his early career playing in Connecticut’s ska and punk scene with The Flaming Tsunamis before developing his own jazz projects. Over the years, his original music has incorporated post-bop, electronic jazz, funk, groove music and fusion.

That range is particularly apparent in SkyLab, Di Maria’s jazz-funk-fusion project.

Its 2025 album, SKYLAB, was recorded at New Haven’s Firehouse 12 and moves through electric keyboards, horns, bass and drums with an emphasis on groove and improvisation. Di Maria wrote and arranged the album’s music, with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt producing several tracks.

It’s music that can reward close listening without treating jazz like something that has to be studied before it can be enjoyed.

More Than a Performer

Di Maria has also spent years working on the other side of Connecticut jazz: creating places for musicians to actually play it.

He founded and directs the New Haven Jazz Underground, a grassroots organization devoted to producing and preserving jazz in Connecticut.

That matters in a genre where the ecosystem depends heavily on small rooms.

Major jazz festivals and concert halls may attract the attention, but working musicians develop bands, test material and build audiences in clubs, bars, restaurants and listening rooms.

Which makes Friday’s location particularly interesting.

The Marquee Is Brand New

The Marquee on State Street opened in July 2026 at 312 State Street, in the former DEVS/Nico’s space in downtown New London.

The concept combines a jazz bar with the visual atmosphere of classic cinema.

The intimate room has seating for roughly 45 people, a performance stage, classic-movie memorabilia, cocktails and small plates. The venue describes the atmosphere as bringing together the glamour of old movies and live jazz.

That adds another music room to a downtown already unusually rich in performance spaces.

The Garde Arts Center is just down State Street. The Oasis Room operates inside the Garde complex. Hygienic Art has its outdoor and indoor performance spaces nearby, while clubs and bars around downtown regularly book local and regional musicians.

The Marquee fills a somewhat different niche: a small room deliberately built around sitting down with a drink and listening to musicians play.

For jazz, that’s a useful thing to have.

A Trio Leaves Nowhere to Hide

Friday’s lineup should also make for a different Di Maria performance than one of his larger ensembles.

With trumpet, bass and drums, there isn’t a dense arrangement surrounding the soloist.

Space becomes part of the music.

The bass can move from accompaniment into melody. The drums can shift the direction of a piece without waiting for an arrangement to tell them where to go. And the trumpet has enormous freedom to move over both.

It’s one of the things that can make a small jazz group fascinating even when the audience doesn’t know the composition.

You don’t have to know what is supposed to happen next.

Often, neither do the musicians.

That’s the point.

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

Details

Event: Nick Di Maria at The Marquee on State Street
Date: Friday, Sept. 25, 2026
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Venue: The Marquee on State Street
Address: 312 State St., New London, CT
Performers: Nick Di Maria, trumpet; Jason Santini, bass; John Soni, drums
Music: Jazz and improvisational music
Venue: Intimate jazz bar and performance room with cocktails and small plates

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.