Let’s just say that you have to go back to work on Tuesday morning, September 3. You’ve had a lovely summer or, at least, a pleasing long Labor Day weekend. How to bridge the gap, or jump the chasm without falling in?
Ben Webster, living his last years in Copenhagen, had a tape of what he called his “wakin’ up music”: a mix of Art Tatum, Fats Waller, and others — Ben fancied himself a homegrown stride pianist, and in his own seriously idiosyncratic way, he could cover the keyboard.
I offer this to JAZZ LIVES readers as a salutary alarm clock, something that might make the journey back to the world of work seem, for the moment, tolerable. It’s a performance of Eubie Blake’s TROUBLESOME IVORIES by a trio calling themselves GROOVUS — a subset of the Holland-Coots Jazz Quintet (yes, a band-within-a-band) that is Brian Holland, piano; Steve Pikal, string bass; Danny Coots, drums.
GROOVUS has also recorded their first CD, called ALL WE KNOW: details here. And if you’d like to hear the version of TROUBLESOME IVORIES that Brian and Danny recorded recently, nothing’s simpler: look here.
For those who love the music, this reminder may be superfluous. But there are always new people whom we hope to attract into the world of jazz and dance for great fun. So, first, hereis the Bash’s Facebook page, and hereis their website. Several truly pertinent facts — from personal experience. March in Monterey is balmy, and I recall it as shirt-sleeve / eat gelato with Italians weather. All of the music at the Bash happens under one roof, on several floors of the same building, and there is (as I recall) an elevator. There are eight venues — which, loosely translated, means an immense number of choices, enough to produce vertigo. Approximately 154 sets of music from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. Seven dance floors. All under one roof, a fact worth repeating.
There are also a few names that didn’t fit on the poster, people you’d know and applaud. Jacob Rex Zimmerman, Steve Pikal, Clint Baker, Jeff Hamilton, Paul Hagglund, Sam Rocha, Chris Calabrese, Sue Kroninger, Ed Metz, Jerry Krahn, Howard Miyata, GROOVUS, Don Neely, and more. I expect that the final schedule will be posted soon on the website so that people like me can start planning strategy with brightly colored highlighters.
A little personal history: I encountered the Jazz Bash by the Bay in 2011, on my first visit to California — out of the womb, that is — and this is what I encountered. Dawn Lambeth had a bad cold, but even congested, she sounds thoroughly endearing: with her, are Clint Baker (drums); Marc Caparone (cornet); Howard Miyata (trombone); Mike Baird (clarinet); Katie Cavera (guitar, banjo); Paul Mehling (bass):
And another piece of vintage joy from 2011, featuring Katie Cavera, the 2019 Musician of the Year, in the center, with Clint Baker, Paul Mehling, and John Reynolds on various banjos — with Marc Caparone on bass and surprises (Clint has a surprise for us, too), and Ralf Reynolds on washboard:
Now, this blogpost isn’t a Trip Down Memory Lane, although I must say I nearly went down the largest rabbit-hole I can imagine when I started searching my own videos to see when I’d first visited Monterey. I couldn’t believe: “Wow, you recorded that? And THAT?” The air was thick with immodesty and gratitude.
No, this is to remind people what glories happen at Monterey, and will happen in less than two months: March 1, 2, 3 of this year. And — let us leave subtlety aside for those who need it — to encourage people to get out of their chairs and be at the Bash. See you there — maybe in the elevator or rapt in the first row.
JAZZ LIVES 