Gary Bartz

[mrjazzman]

I saw a masterful performance from Grand Master Gary Bartz last night at Yoshi's. When they started to play Ko Ko I almost fell out of my chair. Bird? live at Yoshi's?? Amazing. If there was a weak link in the chain, it was the drummer. Kassa Overall, rather light weight, sort of skims the surface of things. But overall a brilliant performance, best I've seen in years. I'd pay big money to see Gary Bartz and Charles McPherson together

Edited Saturday at 05:56 AM by mrjazzman

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I haven't been able to catch Bartz live in several years, probably due to COVID, but the last times I did see him perform, he was still playing great. I hope he makes his way back to the Boston area again.

[Guy Berger]

MrJazzman, you should check out his classic work with Miles Davis during 1970-71.

[Peter Friedman]

These are my favorite Gary Bartz albums.

[jazzkrow]

I also saw Gary Bartz, just yesterday at the Mount Hood jazz festival, near Portland. 

His set was brilliant, he played Non-Stop for a full hour and his touring band was superb as well. Especially bassist, Reuben Rogers, guitarist Paul Bollenback, and pianist, Marc Cary.

At 83 years old, Gary still has it...

Very impressed.

I was sorry to miss out on Nicholas Payton's set afterwards .

[Kevin Bresnahan]

[JSngry]

5 hours ago, jazzkrow said:

I also saw Gary Bartz, just yesterday at the Mount Hood jazz festival, near Portland. 

His set was brilliant, he played Non-Stop for a full hour and his touring band was superb as well. Especially bassist, Reuben Rogers, guitarist Paul Bollenback, and pianist, Marc Cary.

At 83 years old, Gary still has it...

Very impressed.

I was sorry to miss out on Nicholas Payton's set afterwards .

Who was the drummer?

[jazzkrow]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Who was the drummer?

Kassa Overall...

The only musician I was unaware before.m

[JSngry]

New name to me as well.

[mjazzg]

He's very big in the younger scene that crosses over to other genres of R'n'B, Neo Soul, hip hop etc

And in a way it doesn't surprise me that Bartz hired him as he's always been open to similar crossover. (cue the "but he's not Jazz" protests from the Jazz Police)

Edited Monday at 06:18 AM by mjazzg

[JSngry]

I like that 

[mjazzg]

I thought you might

[JSngry]

So that's Pharaoh Sanders' son on soprano, eh?

[mjazzg]

I didn't make the connection first time but watching again now, it's got to be. Looks a lot like his Dad

Just watched it through again, really enjoyable especially that final tune

[JSngry]

https://voyagela.com/interview/meet-tomoki-sanders-tomoki-sanders-new-york-city/#:~:text=I was born in New,a music-lover from Japan.

[mjazzg]

Thanks

[felser]

My favorite Bartz album is this, just released in 2023

For 45 years,. my go-to Bartz was the amazing 'I've Known Rivers And Other Bodies', the great Milestone 2 LP set of his 1973 Montreux performance.

[mrjazzman]

On 4/26/2025 at 1:50 PM, Guy Berger said:

MrJazzman, you should check out his classic work with Miles Davis during 1970-71.

Not into electric Miles

On 4/27/2025 at 11:16 PM, mjazzg said:

He's very big in the younger scene that crosses over to other genres of R'n'B, Neo Soul, hip hop etc

And in a way it doesn't surprise me that Bartz hired him as he's always been open to similar crossover. (cue the "but he's not Jazz" protests from the Jazz Police)

I was being nice in my critique of him. More bluntly, imho this guy is not a Jazz Drummer

On 4/25/2025 at 10:51 PM, mrjazzman said:

I saw a masterful performance from Grand Master Gary Bartz last night at Yoshi's. When they started to play Ko Ko I almost fell out of my chair. Bird? live at Yoshi's?? Amazing. If there was a weak link in the chain, it was the drummer. Kassa Overall, rather light weight, sort of skims the surface of things. But overall a brilliant performance, best I've seen in years. I'd pay big money to see Gary Bartz and Charles McPherson together

Bluntly speaking, bad choice of drummers for Gary Bartz

On 4/27/2025 at 11:16 PM, mjazzg said:

He's very big in the younger scene that crosses over to other genres of R'n'B, Neo Soul, hip hop etc

And in a way it doesn't surprise me that Bartz hired him as he's always been open to similar crossover. (cue the "but he's not Jazz" protests from the Jazz Police)

I'm thinking no one else was available. Kassa is a rap artist drummer. Concentrate on one or the other

[david weiss]

On 4/28/2025 at 12:18 PM, JSngry said:

So that's Pharaoh Sanders' son on soprano, eh?

Yes, he plays in Kassa's band.

53 minutes ago, mrjazzman said:

Not into electric Miles

I was being nice in my critique of him. More bluntly, imho this guy is not a Jazz Drummer

Bluntly speaking, bad choice of drummers for Gary Bartz

I'm thinking no one else was available. Kassa is a rap artist drummer. Concentrate on one or the other

Kassa got his start with Wallace Roney's band and was in Geri Allen's band Timeline (with a tap dancer) for years. I guested with that band a couple of times and really enjoyed it. Anyways, the point is that Kassa has proper Jazz training....