What live music are you going to see tonight?

[BFrank]

The Cookers tonight at Yoshi's.

Bobby Hutcherson was in the house, too!

[Cali]

Poncho Sanchez tomorrow night, The Cookers Sunday night.

[tomatamot]

To night at Jazz Middelheim, Antwerpen, Belgium:

Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Septet:

Randy Weston (piano),

Talib Kibwe (dwarsfluit, saxofoon),

Bill Saxton (tenorsaxofoon),

Robert Trowers (trombone),

Alex Blake (bas),

Neil Clarke (percussie),

Lewis Nash (drums)

And

Charles Lloyd Quartet:

Charles Lloyd (saxofoon, fluit, taragot),

Jason Moran (piano),

Reuben Rogers (bas),

Eric Harland (drums)

Edited August 17, 2013 by tomatamot

[Blue Train]

Anyone in the Houston area between Oct 7-9

Keiji Haino & Peter Brötzmann either solo, or together. The solo Brötzmann is free.


http://namelesssound.org/events/2013_10_07_09_brotzmann_haino.html

[jlhoots]

Terri Hendrix / Lloyd Maines

[king ubu]

yowzah!

[BFrank]

Just saw John Beasley's MONK'estra at SFJazz.

Solid and entertaining big band evening, and an enthusiastic crowd.

Can't complain ...

[Hardbopjazz]

I caught the George Coleman Quartet at Smoke last night. George's playing was extremely sharp. Two years ago he said he was retiring. I guess you can't stop fir good when music is your life.

Tomorrow, Endangered Species at Dizzy's Club.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Hardbopjazz

[Larry Kart]

9:30PM

at Constellation, 3111 N Western ($12)

• Michael Moore, Josh Berman, Jason Roebke, Frank Rosaly

[king ubu]

Damn! Cecil Taylor at Willisau, to take place Sunday, just got cancelled .... bad artritis, in medical treatment etc.

They got Braxton (with Hemingway and Taylor Ho Bynum) as replacement ... but damn I'm so pissed and sad about this right now I'm just about to tear up my ticket rather than go there. Damn, damn!

[jlhoots]

Slaid Cleaves

[kh1958]

Buddy Guy at the Bedford Blues Festival. Feels LIke Rain never sounded better than when played during an actual light rain, cooling off the brutal heat.

[king ubu]

Anthony Braxton / Taylor Ho Bynum / Gerry Hemingway - Willisau, 1 September 2013

couple o'bad snapshots:

[Al in NYC]

This past weekend at the Detroit Jazz Festival:

Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes, Mack Avenue Records Suberband - with a very cool vibes/marimba duet between Gary Burton and Warren Wolf, JD Allen trio, Charles Lloyd with Bill Frisell, McCoy Tyner (with Savion Glover tapping along), Tony Monaco & Fareed Haque, 3 Baris (Gary Smulyan, Howard Johnson, Frank Basile) with Mike LeDonne, a Bill Frisell group playing John Lennon tunes, Warren Wolf quartet with Benny Green and Carl Allen, Dave Leibman and Richie Beirach (sublime), Danilo Perez & Geri Allen, James Carter playing Don Byas on Don Byas' old sax with an all-Detroit band, Karriem Riggins with Orrin Evans, The Cookers (David Weiss, Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, George Cables, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, with Gary Bartz added - great stuff!), U of M jazz band with Lee Konitz, Quest reunion (Dave Leibman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure, Billy Hart - exceptional and deeply absorbing), Terrell Stafford quintet, Lee Konitz quartet with Dan Tepfer, Ray Drummond, Matt Wilson (cantankerous, in a beautiful way), Marcus Belgrave with several Detroit-raised trumpeters, a Miles Davis tribute with Wallace Roney, Rick Margitza, Larry Coryell, Ralphe Armstrong and Alphonse Mouzon.

[Justin V]

I just caught Lee Konitz with Dan Tepfer in Lewisburg, PA, having just caught him in 3 different setting in Detroit (in a duo with Tepfer, a quartet with Tepfer, Ray Drummond and Matt Wilson, and as a soloist with the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble). I can't say enough about him, as Konitz is as brilliant as ever. He really has something special going with Tepfer, who's one of the finest young pianists out there.

[jlhoots]

Tom Russell

[Steve Reynolds]

Saturday, Sep 07 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM

CHRIS LIGHTCAP - BIGMOUTH

Chris Lightcap, bass; Chris Cheek, tenor sax; Tony Malaby, tenor sax; Matt Mitchell, piano; Gerald Cleaver, drums

[Steve Reynolds]

Saturday, Sep 07 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM

CHRIS LIGHTCAP - BIGMOUTH

Chris Lightcap, bass; Chris Cheek, tenor sax; Tony Malaby, tenor sax; Matt Mitchell, piano; Gerald Cleaver, drums

Tony Malaby just got here and I'm first in line and ready as I'm gonna be

[Steve Reynolds]

Had quite a few mixed thoughts on the show on Saturday - but overall a very fine band and a very enjoyable night - always nice to be about 3 or 4 feet from the bell of Tony Malaby's tenor saxophone - I NEVER take this blessing for granted.

Lightcap writes some very nice tunes but he does very little besides keep time and provide accents for the band but maybe that is the plan - he didnt even have a bow with him which for me is always a let down from the standpoint of the bass. They played a set of two short compositions during both sets that were beyond striking and which contained no solos and the improvisation was basically Cheek, and to a greater degree, Malaby improvising off the theme and the melody.

First set took a while to get going with Cleaver playing well but not anywhere near with the aggressive force that he sometimes displays in other contexts. He did ratchet it up a bit during one of the stronger pieces in the second set - but never did we get the real powerhouse groove and vibe that sometimes vaults his playing to the level of the great drummers.

Mitchell is a very talented pianist but he tends to the more flowery, high note content playing that is sometimes a bit much for my ears - very impressive but sometimes for me the question is tho what end?

Cheek is like Warne Marsh on stroids - competely emotionally controlled and very mathematical in his approach and a couple of the solos he took were close to magnificent. His accents with Malaby when the two tenors soloed together during a couple of tunes were apt and invigorating.

Malaby finds himself with this band in a restrained and controlled environment and he was easily to most interesting voice in the band - as some know he is maybe strongest when he is really stretching out and improvising at length on either soprano and especially on tenor saxophone - but here that was not the context. He took a very strong short solo on the first tune of the night staying mostly within the normal range of the horn and towards the end of the first set he got some space and played some shit that was within the framework of what the band was doing but surprised me with incorporated those gnarly and skronky sounds without disrupting the flow of the music.

Second set stronger and Malaby at points had BOTH elbows cranking and Malaby aficianados know what that means.......

said good bye - Tony tells me to send Evan his love on the 18th and I was on the way home

and yeah - it is about the love and the vibe - and fwiw - the place was packed for both sets and the crowd loved this band.

Edited September 9, 2013 by Steve Reynolds

[relyles]

Saturday night I caught an impromptu group at the Jazz Gallery featuring Chris Potter, Mark Turner, Ben Street and Johnathan Blake. David Virelles was scheduled to perform with his group, but one of the members of the ensemble was unable to make it, his show was therefore cancelled and this group was the replacement act. Virelles did sit in on two songs at the end. When I received the email Friday announceing the schedule change, I knew this was one of those "events" that I should make the effort to take the 2 - 2 1/2 hour drive from West Hartford into Manhattan. The SRO audience, which included many musicians and music students as well as obsessed fans like myself confirmed my thought.

It was one of the best sets I have heard in a while. To my knowledge, these four musicians had never performed publicly as a group. Indeed at times their interaction on stage suggested some uncertainty about what to do next. I suspect the buzz that resulted in the large audience was because of the presence of Potter and Turner on the same stage. The two are considered to be amongst the top saxophonists of their generation. The differences between the two approaches are readily noticeable and I think they motivated each other to come with their A games. Every time I hear Street, I like him more. Good tone, nice ideas and very interactive/supportive of the soloists. I have also heard Blake a few times live. In some ways he functioned as the de facto leader - or at least he made all the announcements from the stage. A nice varied set list included Benny Golson's "Whisper Not", Monk's "Light Blue" (trio performance featuring Virelles), another standard that I can not remember and original compositions by Avishai Cohen, Paul Motian and Tom Harrell.

It was so good that I would have stayed for the second show, which would have meant I would not have gotten back to West Hartford until around 3:00 a.m. This was one of those occassions, however, that the Jazz Gallery actually turned over the room because the second set was sold out. A little disappointing, but as I texted my wife before I got on the road to drive home, it is probably always best to leave wanting more.

[jeffcrom]

I played tonight with my Edgewood Saxophone Trio at the Elliott Street Pub in Atlanta. The only reason I'm posting about this is that the Elliott Street Pub was, back in the 1950s and 1960s, an after-hours joint called Dee's Birdcage. After the Royal Peacock and the Magnolia Ballroom closed for the night, the jazz and R & B musicians and hard-core late-night party crowd would gather at the Birdcage. The neighborhood it's in is now known as Castleberry Hill, known for its restaurants and art galleries, but back in the day it was called Snake Nation(!). Anyway, I always love playing there, in part due to the history.

[relyles]

It was a very musical weekend for me. Friday night i caught Gerald Cleaver and Black Host at Firehouse 12 in New Haven. In addition to Cleaver, the band features pianist Cooper-Moore, alto saxophonist Darius Jones, bassist Pascal Niggenkemper and guitarist Brandon Seabrook. Cleaver describes the concept of the band essentially as playing with a certain type of energy using grooves, simple melodies and "pop music". It really is hard to explain the experience. Before the set began Gerald handed out ear plugs to the audience, explaining that "this is a loud band". Indeed it is, but it is much more than that. It is a very intense experience and they do take it out - at times it feels like a sixties free jazz blowout, but underneath it there is always a groove and/or melodic content that keeps it grounded. Interestingly, a few of the Firehouse 12 regulars whose tastes I do not think go very far out loved the show.

Saturday night I traveled to Goshen, MA to hear Harris' Eisenstadt's Golden State with Nicole Mitchell, bassonist Sara Schoenback and bassist Mark Dresser. This was on the other end of the spectrum than Black Host, but very enjoyable. I think I am ready to leave my family for Nicole Mitchell. She is a flute player that forces me to actually listen to flute when most don't and there is something about her overall spirit that is warm and inviting. As is true with most of Eisenstadt's bands there is an emphasis on composition and most of the tunes had interesting grooves, twists and turns. Interestingly, most of the rhythm foundation fell to Dresser because Eisenstadt never seems to play a groove, pattern or beat more than once. Instead, he skitters around the drum set interacting with the band in more of a melodic manner. every time I hear Dresser I am reminded that he is a vastly skilled bassist.

Sunday was the Hartford Jazz Society's 52nd Annual Jazz Cruise. The featured artist was Nat Reeves' All Star Quintet with Eric Alexander, Steve Davis, Harold Mabern, Joe Farnsworth and a number of guests. They performed the expected hard bop repetoire, but played it with sincerity and conviction. Really hard not to enjoy. Since I am on the board of the Hartford Jazz Society the event was more work than pure entertainment for me and three hours into the seven hour cruise I was ready do go home. The music was also a bit too loud for my preferences. In any event, it was a great day on the river with non-stop good sounds from Reeves' ensemble and the other more local band that played.

[Hardbopjazz]

Oliver Lake Big Band at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola. 9/17/2013. It was a great show.

[Steve Reynolds]

Last night at The Stone:

Evan Parker, John Escreet, John Hebert and Tyshawn Sorey

Duets first set ending with a appetite enduring short quartet piece

Second set a mind blowing awe inducing 50 minute performance by the quartet ranging from very quiet passages to intensity unseen in other musical worlds.

Very very glad I overcame my little cold and irritation to experience brilliance from all four musicians with the giant of the saxophone in absolute prime life changing wall melting form.

Biggest surprise was how great the drummer was. With just a snare and the bass drum with cymbals. Like he had played with Evan for years. Also glad that my wife at the last minute decided to go so she could experience seeing the legendary saxophonist for the first time

After the show Evan thanked the group for allowing him to join them.

Will not forget this show ever.

[jeffcrom]

Jealous, Steve! I wanted to come to NYC for at least part of Mr. Parker's residency, but commitments here wouldn't let me.