Oh, The Ear Inn . . . shrine for swing among friends.
The Glorious Past (June 19, 2016) —
DIGA DIGA DOO, with Danny Tobias, cornet; Dan Block, clarinet; James Chirillo, guitar; Kelly Friesen, string bass:
The Recent Past (April 9, 2023) —
HAPPY FEET, with Jon-Erik Kellso, Puje trumpet; Scott Robinson, bass saxophone AND trumpet; James Chirillo, guitar; Russell Hall, string bass:
and!
this coming Sunday, May 7, the EarRegulars will be Messrs. Tobias, Block, Chirillo, and the wonderful bassist Pat O’Leary . . . wow, yeehaw, and hot damn!
It’s not my living room, I assure you: too neat, no CDs.
Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpet; Chuck Wilson, alto saxophone; Ehud Asherie, piano; Kelly Friesen, string bass; Andrew Swann, drums. “Sweet Rhythm,” October 26, 2008, THERE’LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE:
Tal Ronen, string bass; Mark Shane, piano; Dan Block, tenor sax. “Casa Mezcal,” October 26, 2014, I’LL ALWAYS BE IN LOVE WITH YOU:
(This is not a post about numerology or the significance of October 26 in jazz.)
Tim Laughlin, clarinet; Connie Jones, cornet; Clint Baker, trombone; Chris Dawson, piano; Katie Cavera, guitar; Marty Eggers, string bass; Hal Smith, drums. “Sweet and Hot Music Festival,” September 5, 2011, TOGETHER:
Ray Skjelbred and the Cubs: Ray, piano, composer; Kim Cusack, clarinet; Clint Baker, string bass, Katie Cavera, guitar; Jeff Hamilton, drums. “Sacramento Music Festival,” May 25, 2014, BLUES FOR SIR CHARLES:
I will explain.
“Sweet Rhythm” was once “Sweet Basil,” a restaurant-with-jazz or the reverse, in New York City. Now it is just a restaurant. “Casa Mezcal,” across the street from the Tenement Museum, also offered jazz as well as food. Now, only food. The two California festivals depicted above are only memories now. (I could have included the Cajun, Bourbon Street, Roth’s Steakhouse, Banjo Jim’s, the Garage, the Bombay Club, Jazz at Chautauqua, and perhaps a dozen other vacancies in the cosmos — in my time, which isn’t the whole history of the music.) Jazz clubs become apartments, drugstores, dormitories, nail salons. Or what was once a jazz bar now has karaoke night and game night.
That’s not difficult to take in. Everything changes. “Things are tough all over,” as my father said.
But I’ve included the chair and ottoman because so many jazz listeners prefer the comforts of home to live music, and thus, venues collapse and are not replaced.
The expression I’ve heard from festival producers is the blunt ASSES IN SEATS. It presumes that other body parts are attached to the asses, of course. But it’s simple economics. When a club owner looks out at the landscape of empty chairs and tables with napkins undisturbed, when there are more musicians on the stage than there are people in the audience, you can imagine the mental cogitations that result. This has nothing to do with musical or artistic quality — I’ve heard terrible music played to filled rooms, and once in a New York club I was the audience (let that sink in) — not even me, myself, and I — for the first few songs by a peerless band. And if you think that musicians are a substantial part of the club budget, it isn’t so: a world-famous jazz musician told me once of being paid sixty dollars for three hours’ work, and some of my favorite musicians go from fifty-and-seventy-five dollar gigs, or they play “for the door.”
And as an aside, if you go to a club and sit through two sets with your three-or-five dollar Coke or well drink or standard beer, you are subsidizing neither the club or the music. Festival economics are different, but even the price of the ticket will not keep huge enterprises solvent. I hear, “Oh, the audience for jazz is aging and dying,” and the numbers prove that true, but I think inertia is a stronger factor than mortality, with a side dish of complacency. And people who study the swing-dance scene say that what I am writing about here is also true for younger fans / dancers.
So before you say to someone, “I’m really a devoted jazz fan,” or proudly wear the piano-keyboard suspenders, or get into arguments on Facebook over some cherished premise, ask yourself, “How active is my commitment to this music? When was the last time I supported it with my wallet and my person?”
I do not write these words from the summit of moral perfection. I could have gone to two gigs tonight but chose to stay home and write this blog. And I do not go to every gig I could . . . energy and health preclude that. And I am also guilty, if you will, in providing musical nourishment for viewers through technology, so that some people can live through YouTube. I admit both of these things, but on the average I go to more jazz gigs than some other people; I eat and drink and tip at the jazz clubs; I publicize the music here and elsewhere.
But you. Do you take the music for granted, like air and water? Do you assume it will go on forever even if you never come out of your burrow and say hello to it, that other people will keep supporting it? Do you say, “I must get there someday!” and not put wheels under that wish? Mind you, there are exceptions. Not everyone lives close enough to live music; not everyone is well-financed, energetic, or healthy. But if you can go and you don’t, then to me you have lost the right to complain about clubs closing, your favorite band disbanding, your beloved festival becoming extinct. Jazz is a living organism, thus it needs nourishment that you, and only you, can provide. Inhaling Spotify won’t keep it alive, nor will complaining about how your fellow citizens are too foolish to appreciate it.
If you say you love jazz, you have to get your ass out of your chair at regular intervals and put it in another chair, somewhere public, where living musicians are playing and singing. Or you can stay home and watch it wither.
Nothing fancy. No theorizing, no dramatizing. Just four jazz masters having a good time on Sunday, June 19, 2016, at The Ear Inn: Danny Tobias, cornet; Dan Block, clarinet and tenor saxophone; James Chirillo, guitar; Kelly Friesen, string bass. Without a moment’s thought of imitation, this group got closer to the spirit of the exalted Kansas City Six than any I’ve heard recently. That’s a serious thing!
Here are a few highlights:
I’M CRAZY ‘BOUT MY BABY (at an easy lope, reminding me of Ruby Braff and Scott Hamilton):
I NEVER KNEW (where the two-person front line evokes the 1938 Basie band while the gentlemen in the back row do a fine job of becoming that band’s rhythm section — I find this performance completely thrilling, quiet as it is):
OUT OF NOWHERE (thinking of Bing and all the great rhythm ballad performances, or simply on the quest to make beauty):
BLUE ROOM (at a sweetly wistful tempo one never hears these days):
DIGA DIGA DOO (for those who need to visit the jungle before they can head home to their apartment):
A few comments. First, these time-honored standards offer such luxurious room for improvisation for those who care to enjoy the freedom to roam: the old songs are far from dead when played [or sung] by vividly alive musicians. Second, the art of counterpoint or ensemble playing isn’t something that died when the last New Orleans forbear went to the cemetery: one of the great pleasures of this set is the easy playful witty conversations between instruments. And, finally, I note with great pleasure that this quartet played quiet music for listeners. And the listeners did what they were supposed to do. How nice is that?
As always, I entreat my readers to find live music and savor it when possible. Marvels are all around us. We dare not take them for granted. Thank you, Swing wizards!
I hope that by now, in 2015, people know Billy Strayhorn as more than the composer of LUSH LIFE and of TAKE THE “A” TRAIN, more than half of a team with Duke Ellington out front. This year is Strayhorn’s centenary (his birthday is November 29) and he is receiving some well-deserved attention, although perhaps there will never be enough compensation for the limited attention he received while on this planet.
The Billy Strayhorn Orchestrawill be performing a concert of Strayhorn’s music — with, as always, some surprises — on November 20, 2015, at Baruch College Performing Arts Center in New York City. The very creative and energetic saxophonist Michael Hashim leads the orchestra, which includes Kenny Washington, Mike LeDonne, Art Baron, Bill Easley, Lauren Sevian, Shawn Edmonds, Ed Pazant, David Gibson, Kelly Friesen, Joe Fiedler, Tad Shull, Marty Bound, Jordan Sandke, and Charlie Caranicas.
Here are extended samples from concerts given in 2013 and 2014 by the Orchestra:
PENTONSILIC:
STRAYHORN IN THE FOREGROUND:
The events page for the November 20 concert is here. Beautiful and rare music awaits those who can attend.
Here’s what I wrote about a recent performance by Michael Bank and his remarkable group.
I first heard pianist Michael Bank play a decade ago, in a situation that would have unsettled a lesser musician: he was set up behind a keyboard — with three or four other players — in a Brooklyn bar / restaurant. The clientele, well-heeled young men and women enjoying their Sunday brunch, talked loudly and incessantly about their possessions: “my architect,” “Emily’s play group,” “the worst cleaning service we’ve ever used,” “our financial advisor.” But Michael’s beautiful individualism cut through the self-absorption. He knew his swing well: when the leader called ALL OF ME, Michael immediately started off with Teddy Wilson’s introductory passage from the 1956 PRES AND TEDDY — before moving into inventions of his own. Michael had studied with Jaki Byard, a master of surprises, and Michael’s own work, although never written in capital letters, goes its own happily quirky ways.
That refreshing quirkiness (that’s a deep compliment) is even more in evidence when Michael leads his own small band, usually a septet, playing his compositions and arrangements. I always think his bands have the good stomping feeling of the Johnny Hodges small bands of the Fifties (I think Panama Francis would approve of this music for dancers) but there are quiet delicious explosions of color throughout that evoke Byard and Mingus.
I offer five performances from a recent (January 20) evening at Somethin’ Jazz (212 East 52nd Street, New York City), a congenial harbor for all kinds of improvised music, where Michael had with him these fine players (ensemble, solo, and reading charts): Charlie Caranicas, trumpet; Noah Bless, trombone; Tim Lewis, Mike Mullins, saxophone; Kelly Friesen, string bass; Steve Little, drums.
In honor of Chick Webb’s band, a difficult chart, HARLEM CONGO:
“A nice blues,” BLUEVIEW:
SWEET GEORGIA BROWN:
TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE, featuring Kelly Friesen:
Ellington’s GOIN’ UP:
For those of you who want to hear and learn more, I offer three previous blog-celebrations of Michael Bank and his bands. From 2012, here. Then, some words about Michael’s CD, aptly titled THE DAO OF SWING, here, and a 2013 session here.
And here is the first part of this swinging evening’s concert.
I first heard pianist Michael Bank play a decade ago, in a situation that would have unsettled a lesser musician: he was set up behind a keyboard — with three or four other players — in a Brooklyn bar / restaurant. The clientele, well-heeled young men and women enjoying their Sunday brunch, talked loudly and incessantly about their possessions: “my architect,” “Emily’s play group,” “the worst cleaning service we’ve ever used,” “our financial advisor.” But Michael’s beautiful individualism cut through the self-absorption. He knew his swing well: when the leader called ALL OF ME, Michael immediately started off with Teddy Wilson’s introductory passage from the 1956 PRES AND TEDDY — before moving into inventions of his own. Michael had studied with Jaki Byard, a master of surprises, and Michael’s own work, although never written in capital letters, goes its own happily quirky ways.
That refreshing quirkiness (that’s a deep compliment) is even more in evidence when Michael leads his own small band, usually a septet, playing his compositions and arrangements. I always think his bands have the good stomping feeling of the Johnny Hodges small bands of the Fifties (I think Panama Francis would approve of this music for dancers) but there are quiet delicious explosions of color throughout that evoke Byard and Mingus.
I offer six performances from a recent (January 20) evening at Somethin’ Jazz (212 East 52nd Street, New York City), a congenial harbor for all kinds of improvised music, where Michael had with him these fine players (ensemble, solo, and reading charts): Charlie Caranicas, trumpet; Noah Bless, trombone; Tim Lewis, Mike Mullins, saxophone; Kelly Friesen, string bass; Steve Little, drums.
AZTEC TWO-STEP:
I SHOULD CARE:
LOWER LEVEL 3:
Q Q:
FOR JAKI:
ONE NOTE:
For those of you who want to hear and learn more, I offer three previous blog-celebrations of Michael Bank and his bands. From 2012, here. Then, some words about Michael’s CD, aptly titled THE DAO OF SWING, here, and a 2013 session here.
You could say many things about Eric Offner. You could note his birthplace (Austria, 1928) or the date of his death (June 3, 2014). You could sum up his distinguished career in trademark law, or refer to his autobiography. But what might be most important about Eric is that he was transformed by the experience of jazz, and, as a result, founded the Sidney Bechet Society which produced 17 seasons of live hot jazz concerts. (The true-to-life photograph of Eric was taken by our friend, photographer Geri Goldman Reichgut.)
We know that people can contribute greatly to the health and vitality of an art form without being artists themselves, and Eric was one of those people. His distinguishing characteristic, to me, was a determined focus on an ideal: the kind of music his hero Sidney Bechet both played and embodied: hot, intense, impassioned, reaching back to a New Orleans past but simultaneously alive in the present.
The Sidney Bechet Society is honoring its president and founder with a concert this coming Monday (at the late-twilight hour of 7:15) at Symphony Space, which is at 95th Street and Broadway in New York City. It features the clarinetist Evan Christopher, trumpeter Byron Stripling, pianist Bobby Floyd, string bassist Kelly Friesen, and drummer Marion Felder. I know they will fill the room with music that both celebrates and mourns a man wholly devoted to the sounds that have so often healed us.
Like the music he believed in, Eric was determined — devoted to an ideal. And that ideal will show its durability, its joy and ferocity this Monday night.
Good news from the energetic and devoted Michael Hashim:
On Thursday, November 21st, The Billy Strayhorn Orchestra, under the direction of Michael Hashim, will present a free concert at the Miller Theater, 2960 Broadway at 116th Street, at 7:30 PM.
Simply RSVP to: ym189@columbia.edu and give your name and the number of tickets you need.
The fifteen piece orchestra will play some rare material by Mr. Strayhorn, including the New York premiere of a major work — and fully restored versions of classics like “Raincheck” and “Chelsea Bridge” as well as some surprises.
This band is so truly All-Star that I must list the full line-up below. If that isn’t enough, we will also have a presentation by the renowned author David Hajdu, Strayhorn’s biographer.
And remember: we DO NOT want your money. We really, sincerely, want YOU!! All of you!! Thanks and see you there.
THE BAND: Rhythm section – Kenny Washington, drums; Mike LeDonne, piano; Kelly Friesen, string bass;
Saxophones- Michael Hashim, Ed Pazant, Scott Robinson, Tad Shull, Lauren Sevian;
Trumpets- Shawn Edmonds, Freddie Hendrix, Jordan Sandke, Marty Bound;
Trombones- Art Baron, Clarence Banks, David Gibson.
I can’t attend this, but I urge you to do so — it’s one of those heartfelt delights that New York offers to those who are able to savor them. I don’t have any video of this Orchestra, but here are Michael Hashim and pianist Spike Wilner performing two Strayhorn compositions: one obscure, the second famous.
DAO (or more commonly TAO) is a Chinese word and concept meaning loosely “the way,” “the underlying principle.” SWING should be a more familiar word to readers of this blog. The title of Michael Bank’s new CD might be read on the surface as “The Way To Swing,” but it suggests something more profound: that happy unity when the musicians connect with the deeper rhythms of the universe. An ambitious aspiration, but Michael Bank’s Septet makes it come alive.
I first met Michael at a Sunday brunch gig in Brooklyn, with, among other friends, Jesse Gelber, Craig Ventresco and Kevin Dorn. In the most unmusical setting (well-fed young couples speaking loudly about their investments, their architect, and their renovations) Michael’s playing always caught my attention. He had an unerring sense of what to add to the musical conversation. (Working alongside and learning from Jaki Byard, Dick Katz, Al Casey, and other veterans had affected him, audible through his playing, arranging, and compositions.)
Last year, I heard his Septet for the first time. Most of the group’s repertoire was given over to Michael’s compositions. Unlike some “originals,” in this century, they had memorable melodies and voicings. See the end of this post for three examples from that session:.I was delighted to learn that Michael and the Septet had issued a compact disc of his music. Swing, yes; imitation, no — creative evocation, yes. When heard casually from another room, the sound might suggest the rocking little band of Johnny Hodges in the early Fifties, but close listening reveals quirky, surprising touches. The Septet is rhythmically rooted in the great oceanic motion of Mainstream, but Michael’s melodic and harmonic language moves easily between Fifty-Second Street and the present, grounded in the blues and mood pieces. (His compositions are more than disguised reheatings of overplayed chord changes.) Michael’s skills as an arranger are on display through the disc — perhaps most so in his witty reinvention of WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING — the Celts go uptown.
Michael Bank, piano, arrangements and compositions; Simon Wettenhall, trumpet / fluegelhorn; Kris Jensen, Mike Mullens, Geof Bradfield, Ray Franks, saxophones; Kelly Friesen, string bass; Steve Little, drums. The songs are ALTAIR / AZTEC 2-STEP / FOR JAKI / MINOR CHANGES / LL3 / ONE NOTE (by Michael’s mentor, Jaki Byard) / BLUEVIEW / WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING. The players are more than equal to the material: I’d known Simon Wettenhall, Kelly Friesen, and Steve Little before this, but the collective saxophonists are just splendid: everyone understands the tradition but easily moves in and out of it.
Here are three videos from the May 2012 gig:
GOIN’ UP
FOR JAKI
BLUEVIEW
To hear the music on the CD, the usual suspects: CD BABY, itunes, and The-Dao-of-Swing . Better yet, come to one of the Septet’s gigs. And one is taking place this Tuesday, September 17 — from 4 to 4:45 PM at the East River Bandshell in lower Manhattan. Michael will be joined by Simon Wettenhall, trumpet; Noah Bless, trombone; Jay Rattman, alto; Andrew Hadro, baritone; Michael Bank, piano; Matt Smith, guitar; Trifon Dimitrov, bass; Kevin Dorn, drums.
Dan Barrett thinks ahead . . . and he is coming to New York City for an all-too-brief sojourn, with stops at The Ear Inn, Birdland, Little Branch, and other places. But after his work on the First Traditional Jazz Workshop at Chautauqua, New York and the party — Jazz at Chautauqua — that follows, he will be putting his horn together the following Monday night to join the Grove Street Stompers at Arthur’s Tavern at 57 Grove Street (that’s Greenwich Village, New York) for a 7-10 PM musicale. Dan will be joined by pianist Bill Dunham for the first set, Ehud Asherie for the two following sets; Giampaolo Biagi, drums; Jack Stuckey, clarinet; Barry Bryson, trumpet; Kelly Friesen, string bass.
I am sure that others will drop by . . . get there early, as Arthur’s has been known to fill up with the faithful!
Something good. And about time! It’s trombonist / singer / composer / arranger / bandleader Emily Asher’s debut CD, sweetly titled DREAMS MAY TAKE YOU.
Along with Emily, you will hear Wycliffe Gordon, on sousaphone and trombone; Bria Skonberg, trumpet, vocal; Philip Dizack, trumpet; Dan Levinson, tenor sax, clarinet; William Anderson, alto sax; Nick Russo, guitar, banjo; Gordon Webster, piano; Kelly Friesen, bass; Rob Adkins, bass; Kevin Dorn, drums; Rob Garcia, drums. For those of you familiar with the hot New York scene, those names are a guarantee of fine swinging inventive jazz.
Much of the repertoire would appear to be “good old good ones,” including SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET and SOMEDAY YOU’LL BE SORRY, but the CD is anything but by-the-numbers. Emily is more than a fine trombonist and a sweetly winning singer: she is an imaginative musician, so the CD doesn’t bog down in the same thing; every track is its own vignette.
It begins with a romping version of ORY’S CREOLE TROMBONE, which Emily delivers with a fine gutty fervor (and her own version of a trombone cadenza). The soloists share Emily’s high-flying enthusiasm, and the rhythm sections couldn’t be better. So the chestnuts have a delightful 2012 Condonite bounce and looseness. The CD’s title comes from an Asher original — by Emily’s father — called LULLABY FOR A LITTLE ONE, on which Miss Asher sings with winsome charm. (And she knows when to leave an audience wanting more: the LULLABY is a delicious cameo, slightly over two minutes.) It’s followed by a New Orleans “second line” version of CHANGES MADE, which would cause the sedentary to start dancing. The original SWEET PEA is part cowboy-ballad, part rocking barcarolle, with touches of Fifties West Coast cool arranging. HEY, LOOK ME OVER is Emily’s childhood party piece — which begins in an easy waltz-time before morphing into sleek swing — that won me over when I saw her do it (with apt choreography) at Radegast. A streamlined EMPEROR NORTON’S HUNCH has shed all its two-beat trappings, and bursts forth gracefully. SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET features the duet stylings of Asher and Skonberg — neatly warbling the hip variations I associate with John Birks Gillespie — before the ensemble gives way to a piano / trombone duet. Emily’s original GREAT BIG WALL will be the only song you know (I would guess) that mixes Latin rhythms and Middle Eastern tonalities. Successfully, I must add. YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE begins with a slide guitar / trombone duet and then blossoms, lyrically. MUSKRAT RAMBLE begins with the Hot Five introduction and rocks from the first note (not too slow, not too fast, either) — with a splendidly tapping drum solo by Kevin Dorn in the middle. SOMEDAY YOU’LL BE SORRY, taken at a brisk clip, is another trombone-piano outing, very delicate in its earnestness, with a straight-from-the-shoulder vocal by Emily, taking the lyrics with a gentle seriousness that would have pleased its creator. And the disc ends with LIMEHOUSE BLUES, a version that had the energy of the World’s Greatest Jazz Band of fabled memory.
Nothing’s dull or forced on this CD: it’s one of those rare creations where you want to play it over again when it ends.
I couldn’t attend Emily’s May 29 CD release party at Radegast — a true Garden Party, I hear — but the CD is its own jubilant party. You can purchase one here — either as a digital download or a physical CD.
And the GP will be strolling around the New Jersey Jazz Society’s JAZZFEST on Saturday, June 16, which begins at noon and ends at 9 PM. And when Emily and company need a rest, you can hear Jon Burr, Lynn Stein, Andy Farber’s Swing Mavens featuring Champian Fulton, the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, the Tony DeSare trio, Eddie Monteiro, Swingadelic, and more. Tickets can be ordered at 908.273.7827 or online at http://www.njjs.org.
In the land of Creative Improvised Music — let’s avoid the narrow little definitions for a moment* — all sorts of delightful cross-pollinations take place. In this wonderful performance of MUSKRAT RAMBLE that you are about to hear and see, of course the guiding spirits are Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory, Chicago, 1926 . . . but I hear a delightful simultaneous current of the Kansas City Six, 1938: Lester Young, Charlie Christian, Buck Clayton, Walter Page. See if you don’t agree.
The living creators playing MUSKRAT are, of course, Bria Skonberg, trumpet; Scott Robinson, metal clarinet; James Chirillo, guitar; Kelly Friesen, string bass.
Thank you, beloved EarRegulars, for filling the air so beautifully!
May your happiness increase.
*About those “definitions.” Some listeners like their cozy boxes. “I only listen to “Trad.” “Mainstream.” “New Orleans.” What difference does the name make if the music lifts you up? On my recent trip to the Sacramento Music Festival, I was suggesting to a new friend that she go to see one of my favorite bands, the Reynolds Brothers. “Oh,” she said, “I don’t know them. Are they Dixieland?” I smiled and said the first thing that came to me, “Gee, I don’t use that word.” I doubt that my reply acted as an effective inducement to hear the band, but I didn’t want to start defining terms . . . not while there was actual music to be heard.
Emily Asher certainly knows how to throw a party. And her brilliance isn’t a matter of laying in huge quantities of blue corn chips and IPA, nor is it because of those cookies she bakes. In fact, Emily comes to the party with little except her trombone, some sheet music, and her insistence that everyone have a good time and swing.
She accomplishes this nicely — and she’s also one of those musicians who seems to be growing and developing before our eyes . . . not that she was a novice when I first encountered her!
For her midweek session at the Radegast Bierhalle in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Emily assembled her “Garden Party,” a hot band despite its refined UK title. This version had our Ms. Asher on trombone / vocals; Bria Skonberg on trumpet / vocals; Dan Levinson on clarinet / tenor; Kelly Friesen on string bass; Nick Russo on banjo / guitar; Kevin Dorn on drums. And since it was a Wednesday during the two-week Dan Barrett Celebratory East Coast Tour, Dan came uptown from his earlier gig with David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Centennial Band and brought the fiery clarinetist Pete Martinez with him.
Here are a goodly handful of video performances from that night at Radegast. Expert dancing provided by Sam Huang and Michelle DeCastro — other dancers unidentified.
The Garden Party began with something fierce and New Orleanian — Jelly Roll Morton’s MILENBERG JOYS:
Then, the hot yet admonitory SOME OF THESE DAYS, with a Charleston beat:
Emily very sweetly offered a slow waltz-time HEY, LOOK ME OVER! — commenting that her father had taught her the song when she was three, and she retains some of the choreography from her childhood. I find it absolutely charming. (Thanks, Dad!):
And a perennial: ROYAL GARDEN BLUES:
I was embarrassed by my ignorance, having no idea of what this song was — but Emily told me in a kind way that it was EMPEROR NORTON’S HUNCH. I think I have to take Remedial Turk Murphy over the summer:
NOBODY’S SWEETHEART NOW featured a harmonized vocal chorus from Emily and Bria, who remain our sweethearts:
For the last few numbers of the third set, Dan Barrett and Pete Martinez joined in (up until this point, they had been enjoying the sounds) on an energetic but not-too-fast MUSKRAT RAMBLE (beginnig a compact Louis-tribute, but all jazz is a Louis-tribute, isn’t it?):
Dan borrowed Bria’s trumpet for a nifty BIG BUTTER AND EGG MAN, and I thought, “Where else on the planet could I hear Louis’ 1926 chorus played with such accuracy and fervor?”:
And we close this visit to Emily’s wonderful party with a sweet ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET, with Bria back on trumpet and Dan on trombone, trading phrases:
Wonderful! And if you get on Emily’s email list (visit her site at http://www.emilyasher.com.) you can find out when the next party is — as well as learning about her upcoming CD, which needs your support:
It’s always exciting to hear of a new club featuring jazz — and this one has all the right ingredients. The music will be curated by tenor saxophonist Vito Dieterle, someone whose taste I trust. (I heard Vito several times with Joel Forrester and Claire Daly: Vito’s a late Lestorian who likes to float his own melodies in the air — and a gracious fellow in addition.) The club itself is inside a 154-year old Tribeca townhouse. White tablecloths, interesting cocktails, beers, and wines. A French chef creating small plates full of flavorful food. A well-tuned piano. And the best musicians in town. I mean MUSICIANS.
On Wednesday, August 24, from 9 PM to midnight, Jon-Erik Kellso, Chris Flory, and Kelly Friesen will be there. That’s a wonderful trio — capable of creating the best kind of seismic disturbances.
Appropriately, this new place is called SILVER LINING, and it’s on 75 Murray St. between Greenwich and West Broadway, 212.513.1234.
I’ll have more to say about looking for — and finding — this SILVER LINING — when we are back in New York City in September . . . and my spies tell me that Michael Kanan and friends will be there one night, too.
The room seats about 100, so you might want to inquire about reservations: enterprises like these are worth supporting.
The excellent young pianist Michael Bank, whose jazz appearances usually take place north of New York City, is coming to Brooklyn to show off his understated swinging creativity.
He’ll be joined by the superb bassist Murray Wall, the young guitarist Matt Smith . . . and perhaps other friends as well. All of this will unfold on Thursday, October 28, 2010 from 6 to 8:30 at PUPPETS JAZZ BAR in Park Slope, located at 481 Fifth Avenue, (718) 499-2622.
Michael has played with a great many swinging small groups in New York and environs: his colleagues include Kevin Dorn, Dan Levinson, Craig Ventresco, Ben Polcer. He has a witty way of looking at the world — reflected not only in his amused commentaries on his surroundings but also in his playing: restrained, sly, epigrammatic.
Although he can launch into Waller-stride, he is much more likely (a la Basie, Nat Cole, and Wilson) to let a few notes ring out and ride the rhythmic flow. I’ve heard him in the worst situations — on an electric keyboard in a room full of noisy brunchers, in the middle of a wildly disorganized big band — and he always provides light.
Here’s Michael with Kevin Dorn’s THE BIG 72, something I recorded live in March 2010 at the Garage in downtown New York City. Joining him are Charlie Caranicas, trumpet; Adrian Cunningham, alto sax; Pete Martinez, clarinet and vocal; Kelly Friesen, bass; Kevin, drums.
Charlie Caranicas, trumpet / fluegelhorn player by night, lawyer by day, is an often under-acknowledged New York jazz hero. He can lead a “Dixieland” ensemble with power and grace, then turn around and play Monk with subtlety and deep feeling. Or he can create jazz that both enhances the melody but doesn’t scare away the uninitiated. I first heard him perhaps five years ago with Kevin Dorn’s band at the Cajun, and have delighted in his playing ever since.
New Yorkers have new opportunities to hear Charlie in low-key, intimate surroundings at two restaurants.
One of them, Pane e Vino, is in Brooklyn (www.panevinony.com). It’s located at 174 Smith Street, thirty seconds away from the F train’s Bergen Street stop. The music begins at 8:30 PM and goes until 11, more or less. Charlie appears there with his own trio — a guitarist and bassist, the latter often the admirable Kelly Friesen. The trio will be there on Tuesday, May 4th, and on May 18th.
I visited Pane e Vino a few weeks ago and was impressed by its quiet atmosphere (the trio plays near a small collection of overstuffed chairs and sofas) and cozy darkness. (The darkness defeated every camera that I had with me, but it lent the music a lovely intimacy.) With Charlie that night were Kelly on bass and the very fine guitarist Mark McCarron. The trio must have felt like honoring Benny Carter, because they began their first set with a walking WHEN LIGHTS ARE LOW (Charlie played his solo into a red-and-white metal derby) that showed off McCarron’s subtle chording and Kelly’s fine flexible pulse. After a version of DINAH that began medium-fast and then went into double-time, with Charlie bowing to Louis’s 1933 Copenhagen version, the trio returned to Carter with a yearning ONLY TRUST YOUR HEART, for which Charlie picked up his fluegelhorn, filling the room with his warm, cushiony sound. A pulsing THESE FOOLISH THINGS made me think I had gone back in time to hear Harry Edison, George VanEps, and Ray Brown — names to conjure with! Singer Lisa Hearns sat in for a trio of Basie-infused standards, APRIL IN PARIS, CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS, and OUR LOVE IS HERE TO STAY.
Wednesday morning beckoned with its chill finger, so I stayed for only the first set, but it was convincing jazz — relaxed but focused swing. I was amused to see that Charlie’s derby doubled as a tip jar, and some of the listeners seemed to know what it was for.
I haven’t been to Charlie’s New York City gig, but he’ll be at BOOM on Tuesday, May 11th. It’s a restaurant / lounge in Soho, also with a trio, 8:30 until 11:30. BOOM is at 152 Spring St., just east of West Broadway (www.boomsoho.com). Charlie’s website is www.charliejazz.com, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you asked to be added to his email list. He’s worth hearing!
Last night I went to another of Kevin Dorn’s late-Friday evening gigs at The Garage (Seventh Avenue South). The band, “The Big 72,” plays from 10:30 to 2:30. Staying for all four sets would require a preparatory nap, something I’ve never managed to do — but I was so delighted with the music that I stayed for two sets rather than my customary one. You’ll see why.
Like his hero Eddie Condon, Kevin likes to employ his friends for gigs (you’d be surprised at the rancor floating around the bandstand on some gigs — not Kevin’s) and he had a particularly congenial crew of individualists last night.
For lyricism, there’s the always-surprising Charlie Caranicas on cornet, who has a singing tone and many nimble approaches, not just one. The clarinet master (and occasional singer) Pete Martinez was in splendid form, murmuring in his lower register or letting himself go with whoops and Ed Hall-shrieks. I’d heard Adrian Cunningham only on clarinet before (at The Ear Inn and Sweet Rhythm): it was a revelation to hear him on alto, where he showed raucous rhythm-and-blues tendencies, bending notes in the manner of Pete Brown. In the background, Michael Bank took tidy, swinging solos and offered just the right chords behind soloists. He deserves a better piano, but he added so much. Kelly Friesen, hero of a thousand bands, pushed the beat but never raced the time, and his woody sound cut through the Garage’s constant aural ruckus. And Kevin — well, he was in his element, letting the music take its own path without getting in its way by “leading.” His solos were delicious sound-structures, full of variety and propulsion, but I found myself listening even more to his accompaniments: the sound of a stick on a half-closed hi-hat cymbal, the steady heartbeat of his bass drum, the tap of his stick on the hi-hat stem.
Here are ten performances I recorded. At first the Garage’s patrons were unusually chatty and ambulatory (or should I say Talky and Walky?) but many of them noticed that me and my video camera. Surprisingly, they executed sweet arabesques of ducking down and getting small so they wouldn’t walk in front of my lens. Thank you!
NOBODY’S SWEETHEART NOW, a pop tune beloved by late-Twenties jazz players (I think of Teagarden and Condon among them):
A devoted, serious reading of SUGAR by Pete Martinez:
If Louis Armstrong didn’t invent THEM THERE EYES, he certainly owned this bright, silly song (until Billie Holiday came and reinvented it for everyone):
That probing, perhaps unanswered question (before Charles Ives), HOW COME YOU DO ME LIKE YOU DO?:
AFTER YOU’VE GONE, played as a Wettling-Davison romp rather than a lament:
MY GAL SAL (whose title musicians happily corrupted into “They called her Syphillis Sal”):
Homage to Bix Beiderbecke — here’s JAZZ ME BLUES:
IDA (Sweet As Apple Cider) is forever associated in my memory with Pee Wee Russell, whose choruses were always unusual in the best way:
BALLIN’ THE JACK, an eternally popular “here’s how to do this new dance” song:
Finally, BLUES MY NAAUGHTY SWEETIE GIVES TO ME, recollecting JAMMIN’ AT CONDON’S:
The Big 72 calls what they play music. Or what would you suggest?
March first is the middle of nowhere. Spring is still three weeks away. The Valentine’s Day candy has been eaten and the flowers are gone. You can’t wear your purple Mardi Gras beads to work for too long a time, or else your co-workers make jokes. It’s snowing, or it’s going to snow, or there’s dirty snow piled up somewhere.
And it’s a Monday, no less.
But relief is at hand! The Sidney Bechet Society is hosting a concert at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in downtown New York City on March 1, 2010. The leader is clarinetist Orange Kellin — a New Orleanian in many ways, including spiritually. He’ll be joined by Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpet; Scott Robinson, reeds and more; Matt Munisteri, guitar / banjo and more (do I detect a definite trend towards the Ear Regulars? Always welcome!), Ken Salvo, guitar (taking a Monday-night holiday from Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks), Kelly Friesen, bass; Ricky Gordon, washboard and percussion (he’s from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra); Ruth Brisbane, vocals. Hot breezes to counteract the chilly winds of March.
Practical details?
The concert is on Monday, March 1 at 7:15pm. The Lucille Lortel Theatre is at 121 Christopher Street in New York City. Tickets are $35 at the box office or Ticket Central (212) 279-4200: www.ticketcentral.com
My readers will catch the reference in the title to one of the great recordings of the early LP era (some might say one of the great recordings of all time) RINGSIDE AT CONDON’S, a collection of live performances by Eddie Condon’s 1951-52 band at the club named for him. The music is precise but utterly spirited, a collection of great idiosyncratic soloists forming a cohesive ensemble unit.
Drummer Kevin Dorn doesn’t have his own club, and he probably wouldn’t want one — but the music he and his band, THE BIG 72, played last night at The Garage (Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City) evoked the Condon band of the Fifties in the best way. Not as a repertory exercise (although listeners with long memories might hear a respectful nod to a famous recording here or there during the set) but as a Condon-inspired exercise: hire the best players, let them have space to blow on good, sometimes less-heard songs, and enjoy the jazz.
The crowd did. (As an aside, I have to say that The Garage has the most mobile — or perhaps fidgety? — audience I’ve ever seen in a club: an apparently steady stream of people who had come in for a drink, a chat, or one song, entering and leaving. Come and meet / those tramping feet — about two miles south of Forty-Second Street). Hear a woman in the audience, who had been dancing wildly to the music, shout out “We love you!” before the band sails into HOW COME YOU DO ME LIKE YOU DO?
And that band. Kevin, summoning up the driving energy of Cliff Leeman, Buzzy Drootin, George Wettling — while listening to and supporting the band, varying his sound as the music demands. Bassist Kelly Friesen, a rhythmic rock, whether walking the chords, slapping, or even bowing the bass — he cut through the chatter and lifted everyone up. Jesse Gelber at the piano, talking to it as a man inspired, grinning enthusiastically at the keyboard. Trumpeter and sometime vocalist Simon Wettenhall, fervent and animated but subtle, turning curves like a race-car driver. Michael Hashim, mixing a gentle Hodges-approach with a violent rhythm-and-blues side, always enjoying himself. And my hero of the night, clarinetist Pete Martinez, who was in full flower with his patented version of Ed Hall’s inspired rasp in his tone. And, in the fashion of the great informal aggregations of jazz, each of them is a particularly stubborn (although mild-mannered in person) individualist who keeps his identity safe while playing for the glory of the ensemble. What a band they are!
People in the know are accustomed to seeing and hearing this aggregation under the heading of the TRADITIONAL JAZZ COLLECTIVE. Kevin and colleagues have taken on a new name, somewhat mysterious — THE BIG 72. To find out what it means, you’ll have to ask Kevin at a gig.
Here they are on Friday, February 5. 2010:
Paying homage to Bix Beiderbecke (and to Condon’s BIXIELAND sessions) they began with a quick I’LL BE A FRIEND WITH PLEASURE, capped by Simon’s derby-muted improvisation on Bix’s recorded solo:
Then, perhaps in tribute to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, wherever, who formed the mass of the audience, they launched into a rocking FIDGETY FEET:
The aforementioned question (sometimes unanswerable) that reminded me of JAMMIN’ AT CONDON’S: HOW COME YOU DO ME LIKE YOU DO?:
Another Bix-inspired homage, although he never knew the song, composed later by Hoagy Carmichael: SKYLARK, with a rough-toned but convincing vocal by Simon:
And finally, in honor of Mr. Hall and perhaps Oran “Hot Lips” Page, here’s THE SHEIK OF ARABY, complete with verse:
I had a wonderful time listening to this band. And — don’t keep it a secret — they have a steady gig at the Garage, late night sessions two Fridays every month. You should see what they’re like live: I plan to!
I didn’t have to go to graduate school to learn that things come to an end, including the summer, the bag of potato chips, and the cup of Earl Grey tea. Of course we know that change may be the only constant. But I was saddened to find that Jon-Erik Kellso’s Sunday gig at Sweet Rhythm is no more.
The reasons surely weren’t musical, and the audience had grown exponentially from the first Sunday to the fourth, which was November 16. No, the gig ended for economic reasons, understandable but sorrowful nonetheless. I envision this blog as a place to celebrate, so I will not embark on dark ruminations.
What I prefer to do here is thank the musicians who played so beautifully: Jon-Erik, Chuck Wilson, Will Anderson, Peter Reardon-Anderson, John Allred, Ehud Asherie, Rossano Sportiello, Kelly Friesen, Andrew Swann, and a host of gifted sitters-in including Lisa Hearns and Adrian Cunningham. And the Friends of Jazz who filled the room: the Beloved, of course; Jackie, Lala, and Nina Favara; Bill and Sonya Dunham; Dick Dreiwitz; Jim and Grace Balantic; Marianne Mangan and Robert Levin. And thanks to the people I didn’t get to meet who grinned and clapped and were moved along with us.
The music lives on in our memories and on YouTube. You can visit my “swingyoucats” account and Jim’s “recquilt” for clips on this band in action. But even the best live video isn’t the same thing.
A congenial quartet of the Beloved, myself, Erin Elliott, and Flip went to Sweet Rhythm this afternoon for what is becoming a delightful weekly ritual: to spend two hours in the happily inspired company of Jon-Erik Kellso and Friends. This week, the Friends included some familiar faces: pianist Ehud Asherie, bassist Kelly Friesen, and drummer Andrew Swann. Jon-Erik’s front-line colleague this week was his friend and (often) EarRegular, trombonist John Allred.
At times, I was reminded of the interplay between Bobby Hackett and Vic Dickenson, not that Jon and John imitated those masterful players, but in the easy, dancing way their lines intertwined and complemented, feinted and echoed. And the rhythm section was a joy, as always.
The band started off at a high level, with their comfortable, trotting version of the old standard MY GAL SAL:
They then offered a musing, sweet WRAP YOUR TROUBLES IN DREAMS, that optimistic piece of good advice courtesy of Harry Barris and Bing Crosby:
And I close this post with the first feature of the afternoon: Ehud, Kelly, and Andrew playing LOUISE at a deliciously slow tempo. I was so fascinated by the gliding pace Ehud had chosen that I missed the first half-chorus: I hope that I redeemed myself to watchers and readers by capturing the rest. This performance reminds me, not of Maurice Chevalier, but of Lester Young and Teddy Wilson in 1956, although the tempo they chose was brighter:
Magical music!
Later on, Lisa Hearns sang DON’T GET AROUND MUCH ANYMORE and AFTER YOU’VE GONE, and sitters-in proliferated: Chris Lacamac and Gerald Kavanagh on drums, and Adrian Cunningham, an Australian clarinetist who has already distinguished himself at The Ear Inn.
We’ll be out of the country next Sunday, but that’s the only reason we would miss one of these sessions at 88 Seventh Avenue South.
Here’s a sampling of the remarkable jazz that Jon-Erik Kellso and Friends (Peter Reardon-Anderson, tenor and clarinet; Rossano Sportiello, piano; Kelly Friesen, bass; Andrew Swann, drums) played last Sunday at Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South (5-7 PM). I’m still a novice cinematographer — someone who accidentally cuts off the top of heads — but the sound is good, so perhaps that counts for more?
First, the lovely Harry Barris song, immortalized by Bing and Louis, “I Surrender, Dear”:
Then, the Twenties pop hit, “Linger Awhile,” a jam tune much beloved of Forties players (Dicky Wells, Lester Young, and Bill Coleman did it magnificently on Signature). This version has a wonderfully twisty line, courtesy of Master Kellso, who calls his creation “Stick Around.” Somehow, that line summons up the 1945 band Coleman Hawkins led, with Howard McGhee, Sir Charles Thompson, Oscar Pettiford, Denzil Best, and (memorably) Vic Dickenson. Do you agree? (Wily man that he is, Jon-Erik quotes Mingus’s “Fables of Faubus” on his first bridge, but I had to have it pointed out to me by another listener.)
and
And here’s that lively Sophie Tucker warning, “Some of These Days.” This performance isn’t fast or loud, but it is the very definition of propulsive fun. Everyone in this quintet has his own sound, but the ghosts of Louis, the entire Basie band, Ed Hall, Milt Hinton, and Jo Jones were grinning, too:
The next two performances take us back to the glory days of 1938 — the hot summer when the Basie band appeared at the Famous Door, jammed in next to one another. Here’s Eddie Durham’s “Topsy,” a minor blues with a bridge:
From the same blue-label Decca period, here’s Herschel Evans’s “Doggin’ Around,” taken at just the right tempo:
Finally, in quite a different mood but just as impassioned, here is bassist Kelly Friesen’s eloquent version of the Ellington classic “All Too Sooon”:
If you’re looking for more of the same on YouTube, Jim Balantic (jazz fan and DVD videographer) captured this group doing a swinging “Limehouse Blues.” His account is called “recquilt,” and it should come up when these videos are selected.
And on November 16 (that’s this coming Sunday) we should all extricate ourselves from our computers to meet up at Sweet Rhythm and see Jon-Erik, pianist Ehud Asherie, trombonist John Allred, Kelly Friesen, and Andrew Swann.
As rewarding as these video clips are, isn’t it better when the musicians are life-size? I think so.
P.S. That being said, look for my postings of video clips from Kevin Dorn and the Traditional Jazz Collective and two from the Cangelosi Cards with members of the TJC sitting in — captured at Banjo Jim’s on Monday, November 10, 2008.
JAZZ LIVES 