The Jazz Club of Sarasota presented its prestigious Satchmo Award to Rachel Domber and her late husband Mat, founders and operators of Clearwater-based Arbors Records, on March 12 at a reception that was part of the pandemic-interrupted Sarasota Jazz Festival. The presentation had been planned as an important part of the Jazz Club’s 40th Anniversary Festival and was hastily rescheduled as musicians and audiences departed under an advisory from governmental officials. Ed Linehan, president of the Jazz Club and managing director of the Sarasota Jazz Festival, said, “We are very pleased to honor the work of Rachel Domber and her late husband Matthew by presenting them with the Satchmo award, the Jazz Club’s highest recognition. This recognition commemorates the contributions of  jazz great Louis Armstrong, nicknamed ‘Satchel Mouth’ or ‘Satchmo. We also thank The Harold and Evelyn R. Davis Memorial Foundation, which sponsors the award in memory of Jazz Club founder Hal Davis.

“The Jazz Club created the Satchmo award in 1987 to honor those who have made a unique and enduring contribution to the living history of jazz, our original art form. I can’t think of anyone who fits that definition better than the Dombers,” Linehan said. “Through their efforts, Arbors has produced hundreds of albums since 1989, representing many classic styles of Jazz. The Arbors catalog reads like a Who’s Who of American jazz of the last half century, including recordings by our own Dick Hyman--an NEA Jazz Master--and Ken Peplowski.”

Mat Domber was a New York-based lawyer with real estate interests in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He was also a jazz fan, record collector and listener, beginning with his preteen visits to Nick’s in Greenwich Village. He and his wife Rachel founded Arbors Records as an act of generosity, creating a culture of support and kindness that continues to this day.

“We started in 1989 without thinking of establishing a record label, but only to try to give our friend Rick Fay something he could sell on the bandstand. It grew into a labor of love and we now have over 400 recordings in our catalog,” Rachel said. The impetus was their friendship with Rick Fay, an outstanding reedman, singer, and composer who had been in the music business for over 40 years, mostly as a performer at the Disney parks in California and Florida, but who had never recorded as a leader.

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