What live music are you going to see tonight?

[mjazzg]

Tomorrow at Ronnie's, Xhosa Cole with a sextet plus tap dancer interpreting Monk. Should be interesting. Will at the very least be an opportunity to see Cole live for the first time 

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Tomorrow at Ronnie's, Xhosa Cole with a sextet plus tap dancer interpreting Monk. Should be interesting. Will at the very least be an opportunity to see Cole live for the first time 

Saw him at Swanage last year - where he covered some Monk tunes as well. No tap dancer though.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

On 2/19/2023 at 2:10 PM, bresna said:

I am watching the weather this week, as Ricky Ford is making his first trip to the Boston area in many years on Thursday (2/23) when he is scheduled to play at Arthur's House of Jazz in Methuen. They are currently predicting an ice storm. Shit.

I honestly can't remember the last time I saw Ford play live but I'm thinking it was sometime in the late-90s. I'm a bit surprised that he's chosen to play at Arthur's, as it is a rather small club and I have to wonder if he wouldn't pull a crowd at one of the larger venues in the area. Maybe he wants to go small?

Postponed. Bummer.

[ejp626]

Weather is not great.  Roads should be in better shape tomorrow.  Assuming transit (and esp. busses) is more or less back to normal tomorrow, I will plan on seeing Allison Au at The Rex.

[kh1958]

This evening, Shelley Carrol at the Kitchen Cafe.

[BFrank]

On 2/21/2023 at 11:32 PM, Gheorghe said:

Sounds interesting. Well I still saw Mingus himself, and the first ghost bands still they all were musicians who had played with him. But in general there are few musicians around who play Mingus compositions. I did it when I was young and we were just a band that rehearsed for the few gigs we had. I remember having to "sing" the "Mingus rap" on "Cumbia" . It would have been supposed that the bassist does the rap, but they said that I have more that snarled voice to get the sound. Oh my god, me and "singin´" , I get hoarse as quick as  making announcments ...😀

Sadly I never saw Mingus. The closest I got was seeing the Adams/Pullen Quartet a few times. The only musician in this edition who played with Charles was Earl McIntyre

[Gheorghe]

1 hour ago, BFrank said:

Sadly I never saw Mingus. The closest I got was seeing the Adams/Pullen Quartet a few times. The only musician in this edition who played with Charles was Earl McIntyre

I had to look to find informations about him. Wikipedia only says that he worked with Mingus in the 70´s but I couldn´t find sources (record dates, touring dates etc. ). Being a trombonist I suppose he might have worked in a larger band format for studio recordings, like maybe "Let My Children Hear Musik" or something similar. 

I only saw touring bands. Then the personnel was Jack Walrath, Ricky Ford, Danny Richmond of course, and piano was on one occasion Danny Mixon and on the other occasion Bob Nelmons. 
The Adams-Pullen unit I also saw immediatly after Mingus had died. Then, they still performed Mingus repertory. 

I saw a Mingus-Ghostband only once, and they still had some Mingus musicians in there. George Adams, John Handy as much as I remember. It was conducted by no one less than Jimmy Knepper, but it was very very disappointing and even embarrassing to look at. Jimmy Knepper seemed to be completly uninterested in it and his "conducting" just was like a parody of conducting, and hot players like George Adams and John Handy just sat in their rows and didn´t have the fire they had when really playing with Mingus.....

Maybe Jimmy Knepper still was mad with Mingus even posthumous and this uninspired spectacle was his way of paying back for the incident that had happened before the Town Hall Concert. 

When Jimmy agreed to play trombone on some of Mingus´ last compositions I had thought that they had made peace, since it was Mingus, who had phoned Knepper telling him "Jimmy, please come and help me, they are destroying my music!" So I had thought they had made piece. I don´t have no idea what had happened on that Mingus-Ghost Band. 

There is another possibility: After Mingus´ death there was an interview with Knepper who refused to comment the posthumous attempts of keeping Mingus´ music alive , stating that "no one could play his music than he himself" ... or something like that. 

Maybe they offered him a fortune to conduct the Mingus Ghost Band, but maybe money is one thing and thinking as an artist is another thing....

[BFrank]

On 2/23/2023 at 10:29 PM, Gheorghe said:

I had to look to find informations about him. Wikipedia only says that he worked with Mingus in the 70´s but I couldn´t find sources (record dates, touring dates etc. ). Being a trombonist I suppose he might have worked in a larger band format for studio recordings, like maybe "Let My Children Hear Musik" or something similar. 

I only saw touring bands. Then the personnel was Jack Walrath, Ricky Ford, Danny Richmond of course, and piano was on one occasion Danny Mixon and on the other occasion Bob Nelmons. 
The Adams-Pullen unit I also saw immediatly after Mingus had died. Then, they still performed Mingus repertory. 

I saw a Mingus-Ghostband only once, and they still had some Mingus musicians in there. George Adams, John Handy as much as I remember. It was conducted by no one less than Jimmy Knepper, but it was very very disappointing and even embarrassing to look at. Jimmy Knepper seemed to be completly uninterested in it and his "conducting" just was like a parody of conducting, and hot players like George Adams and John Handy just sat in their rows and didn´t have the fire they had when really playing with Mingus.....

Maybe Jimmy Knepper still was mad with Mingus even posthumous and this uninspired spectacle was his way of paying back for the incident that had happened before the Town Hall Concert. 

When Jimmy agreed to play trombone on some of Mingus´ last compositions I had thought that they had made peace, since it was Mingus, who had phoned Knepper telling him "Jimmy, please come and help me, they are destroying my music!" So I had thought they had made piece. I don´t have no idea what had happened on that Mingus-Ghost Band. 

There is another possibility: After Mingus´ death there was an interview with Knepper who refused to comment the posthumous attempts of keeping Mingus´ music alive , stating that "no one could play his music than he himself" ... or something like that. 

Maybe they offered him a fortune to conduct the Mingus Ghost Band, but maybe money is one thing and thinking as an artist is another thing....

Earl McIntyre was introduced that night as the only musician in the band who played with Mingus. I can't give you any more information than that, though.

I've seen various incarnations of the Mingus Big Band (mostly when Sue was alive and running the organization), but they were almost always engaged and put on a good show.

[kh1958]

11 hours ago, BFrank said:

Earl McIntyre was introduced that night as the only musician in the band who played with Mingus. I can't give you any more information than that, though.

I've seen various incarnations of the Mingus Big Band (mostly when Sue was alive and running the organization), but they were almost always engaged and put on a good show.

In the early days of the band at the Time Cafe, Britt Woodman was on trombone. Did he ever sound great.

[Guy Berger]

I caught James Brandon Lewis’s trio at SFJazz (it was an event in the Noise Pop Festival).  He was backed by an electric bassist and drummer who had a strong punk (and occasionally funk) vibe. Great music though very loud!

[BFrank]

10 hours ago, Guy Berger said:

I caught James Brandon Lewis’s trio at SFJazz (it was an event in the Noise Pop Festival).  He was backed by an electric bassist and drummer who had a strong punk (and occasionally funk) vibe. Great music though very loud!

I saw the 2nd show. Pretty interesting - kind of like Trane/Rollins/Ayler, but with a rock band.

On 2/21/2023 at 10:38 PM, BFrank said:

Saw the Mingus Big Band on Saturday in NY. Fun show, as it always is. Some of the players in this edition were: Eric Mingus, Wayne Escoffery, Earl McIntyre, Abraham Burton, Bruce Barth

[Guy Berger]

20 hours ago, BFrank said:

I saw the 2nd show. Pretty interesting - kind of like Trane/Rollins/Ayler, but with a rock band.

 

The guy that comes to mind when listening to Lewis in this context is David Murray - though “cerebral technique” is a bigger part of Lewis’s style than Murray.

[kh1958]

Last night, Buddy Guy, with Ally Venable and Eric Gales, at the Majestic Theater.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Not tonight, but tomorrow night - The Cookers at Scullers in Boston. I've caught this band on every swing through the area. This is a "can't miss" event for me. I'm posting a little early because there are still a few seats left to both shows. I'll be right up front for the first set.

[tranemonk]

On 3/10/2023 at 8:17 AM, bresna said:

Not tonight, but tomorrow night - The Cookers at Scullers in Boston. I've caught this band on every swing through the area. This is a "can't miss" event for me. I'm posting a little early because there are still a few seats left to both shows. I'll be right up front for the first set.

I was also there. Good show. Billy Harper was so impressive.

[adh1907]

On 2/22/2023 at 6:06 PM, mjazzg said:

Tomorrow at Ronnie's, Xhosa Cole with a sextet plus tap dancer interpreting Monk. Should be interesting. Will at the very least be an opportunity to see Cole live for the first time 

Bit late to this, I think that would be Annette Walker. I saw her tap dancing to Oleo at the Nu Civilisation Orchestra tribute to Joe Harriott in 2021. Xhosa was in the band but I think Nathaniel Facey accompanied her. She was brilliant.
 

Have booked to see Xhosa at Cheltenham with Black Top. Thin pickings at this year’s festival. Too much pop pap. Jazz has been mainly exiled to a small arts venue. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

8 hours ago, tranemonk said:

I was also there. Good show. Billy Harper was so impressive.

My seat was right in front of Billy. It was awesome to see him rip through those long solos.

[HutchFan]

43 minutes ago, bresna said:

My seat was right in front of Billy. It was awesome to see him rip through those long solos.

Thanks for sharing these pix, @bresna!!! 

Looks like it was a terrific show! 

 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

On 3/12/2023 at 6:41 PM, HutchFan said:

Thanks for sharing these pix, @bresna!!! 

Looks like it was a terrific show! 

 

Not my video but made very close to my seat.

[kh1958]

Yesterday, the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival at Southside Preservation Hall, an historic building dating to 1911, just south of downtown Fort Worth.

I heard three concerts from the festival's headliners, as well as a very interesting lecture from Justin Robinson regarding the West African roots of American music.

Jake Blount, on banjo, fiddle and vocals, accompanied by a percussive dancer. Not my usual area of interest, but a very fine musician for sure, focusing on music sourced to little recorded or unrecorded rural black and Native American musicians.

Tray Wellington, on banjo, in a group with acoustic guitar, mandolin/fiddle, and acoustic bass. This set was first-rate, a fusion of bluegrass and jazz. Superior original material, plus they played compositions by Roy Hargrove and Mississippi John Hurt. This slightly reminded me of seeing David Grisman's Dawg Jazz at the Caravan of Dreams years ago, except this group was much better. Immediately ordered the leader's last CD, Black Banjo.

Closing out the evening, Austin's Jackie Venson, was in incendiary form, accompanied by drummer Rodney Hyder. That was one of the best sets I've heard from her. Thrilling guitar playing on display.

Sound for the evening was nearly perfect. Kudos to the sound man.

The only disappointments were the size of the crowd was not that large (I hope the festival returns for its third year in 2024), and Kaia Kater was in the audience but did not perform.

Edited March 30, 2023 by kh1958

[jlhoots]

Bill Frisell Quartet - tomorrow

[jlhoots]

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet

[jlhoots]

Local folk hero Bill Hearne doing a house concert.

[Steve Reynolds]

Wilco last night & Saturday night @ Capital Theatre

spectacular with Nels Cline being amazing as he always is

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Sean Jones is bringing a quartet into Jimmy's Jazz in Portsmouth tonight. I'm not a huge fab of this club but my friend had an extra ticket and Orrin Evans in on piano so why not? I just hope there are no distractions this time.