Sunday, May 12, 2019

Eddie Brookshire Day in Dayton
National Jazz Appreciation
& much more

As this latest jazzadvocate events blog was being prepared, news was received that long time jazz fan, former WDPS FM Big Band radio show host and Jazz Central patron, Conrad Jessee, passed. Also my brother-in-law and jazz partner in crime, it has not been the same since he took ill some years ago but now he has put all of that behind him. He would want all of you to get out there and listen to more live jazz! In fact, the night he passed, the Jazz Central Jazz Jam was off the hook. Some might say it was the first live jazz he had heard in almost a year, way too long...................

Update
Remembering Conrad Jessee:
A gathering will be held on June 15th at 2:00 p.m.  at the Waterstone Condominium Clubhouse on Waterstone Blvd in Washington Township off  Washington Church Road. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, "Oh the stories we will tell!" 
   

Jazz at Mid Pointe Library in West Chester
When March rolls around, jazz fans can count on at least 2 things, Beavercreek Weekend of Jazz the first weekend and Sunday jazz at Mid Pointe library in West Chester. Sadly, I usually miss the first one or two performances before something reminds me! You can check out my take on the all day Saturday jazz by clicking this hot link:                 19th Annual Beavercreek Weekend of Jazz

My wife and I attended the Greg Abate performance on Mid Pointe library on March 10th. As usual, Lee McKinney was on drums – in fact, this performance was the final one of a different gig every night for Abate & McKinney leading up to this finale. Steve Schmidt played keyboards and Tim Watkins on bass. The musicians traded fours on one of my favorite tunes, Whisper Not. A couple songs later Abate played a song written for his mother-in-law, Mrs. T. who had recently passed. It was an up tempo tune and Abate played the flute. The group also played the tune, Yard Bird Suite, a song also found on Abate’s album with Phil Woods. McKinney wowed the crowd with a rousing drum solo! My wife commented that the piano solo on the Billy Strayhorn composition, Chelsea Bridge was played beautifully. The second set produced an excellent bass solo on the Charlie Parker tune, Star Eyes and I particularly enjoyed the piano/flute & bass playing note-for-note in sync on Lullaby of Birdland. They included yet another Ohio musician/composer when they played Joe Henderson’s Recorda-Me.

Sunday, March 17th – St. Patrick’s Day – found the Woodford family at the Mid Pointe Library in West Chester once again for a performance of the Mambo Combo. The group consists of Mike Sharfe on bass, John Zappa on trumpet/flugelhorn, Tim McCord on sax and flute, Baba Charles on Latin percussion, Ira Schwietzer on Latin percussion and Brian Bachelor Glader on keyboards. They opened with a lively song written for vibes player Cal Cjader entitled Cal’s Pals. Next up was the rearranged Sonny Rollins jazz standard, Airgin – compliments of trumpet player Carl Saunders. He called the tune Nigeria (Airgin backwards, which was Nigeria backwards in the first place). The band called upon Carl Saunders once again for Latin Sojourn – the intro by McCord and Zappa was ethereal. They ended the first set with a cha cha arrangement and the I Love Lucy Theme song which contained various quotes from other jazz tunes. The second set was just as much fun but I will single out the Tito Puente version of Teach Me Tonight as a vehicle that really let the two Latin percussionists razzle dazzle the crowd. You can hear this band on a regular basis the first Saturday of the month in Cincinnati at the Hilton on 5th Street and Thursdays at the Greenwich in Walnut Hills.

The Blue Wisp Big Band
The Blue Wisp Big Band has a new home, Café Vivace, in the Walnut Hills area of Cincinnati. Owned by jazz saxophonist Brent Gallaher and his wife Vanessa, the big band plays there every Wednesday night. After much time of not getting down to the Café Vivace in Cincy, I finally got in my car and drove down on April 10th, 2019.  For the record, I got there in about 40 minutes so the club is within reasonable drive time for those of you considering a trip. The Blue Wisp Big Band was just as good as I remembered – it has been many, many months since I heard them play. A shout out to Jon Von Ohlen fans, the drummer extraordinaire passed away this past Fall. The news even resulted in The Barron getting memorialized in a “jazzonthetube” video:


Jim Leslie has stepped into some mighty big shoes but I can tell you that he does rise to the occasion. Jim is also the mover and shaker for the University of Dayton Jazztet which gets together once a month for a jazz lab on the UD campus.
This night happened to be a night when “Salsa on the Square” was filming a commercial for big band Latin music. The band played Mira Mira by Cincy native Matt Harris. Patrons could not sit still in their seats. The trombone section was calling tunes on the fly so why not pick a trombone composition? Yep, The Great Escape, written by John Fedchock when he was with The Woody Herman band was an excellent choice. Fedchock is an OSU grad as well. Trumpet player Hank Mountner has assumed Emcee duties for the band he introduced a song written by Charles Mingus for Duke Ellington, Sound of Love. However; this tune had been arranged by Pat Kelly originally for his Psychoacoustic Orchestra after which he expanded it for The Blue Wisp Big Band. The brush work by Jim Leslie in the rhythm section interaction in the middle of the song, Mike Sharfe on bass and Stevve Schmidt on piano, was memorable. Every Wednesday night! It is worth the trip.

Central Jazz Big Band
On 4-16-19, I made another visit to hear the Central Jazz Big Band on the third Tuesday of the month and it didn’t take long before Ken Taylor, on trumpet, and King Koeller, on tenor sax, began trading 8s. You tend to hear musicians trade 4s mostly in live music but upon rare occasion they double it – this occurred on a Kenny Barron tune entitle Voyage, arranged by John La Barbera. It was a crowd pleaser. Band leader Taylor explained that Dizzy Gillespie had helped Arturo Sandoval escape Cuba for the US and the band played the Sandoval tune, Closely Dancing. This was particularly enjoyable as there were 2 clarinets, 2 flutes and a bass clarinet. What a lineup! Great music! You can view this in the accompanying photo. Tapping into something a little more modern day, Ken Taylor spoke of Chuck Findley out on the West Coast and followed that up by wowing those in attendance with his flugelhorn on The Day We Met. But Ken Taylor also spoke of local musicians such as Snooky Young and a Cincy native, Frank Foster – both of which played for Count Basie. The band then played, Who, Me? from the Basie recording entitled Chairman of the Board. The last song I will mention – and there were lots more – is a jazz classic – arranged by Bill Holman for Stan Kenton – the band played a crowd favorite, Cottontail. You can hear the Central Jazz Big Band the third Tuesday of every month at 1200 Forrer Blvd.



About this time I was once again made aware of the old saw “it’s not what you know but who you know when fellow WDPS jazz show host, Cliff Darrett, made me aware of April being jazz appreciation month across the Nation [otherwise divided as we are these days] and that the city of Dayton had designated April 17th as Eddie Brookshire Day! Cliff did a special on his show – Thursdays from 11:00-1:00, Kelli Campbell made note on her show, Fridays at 2:00 and eventually I did a show myself featuring Eddie’s music, my show on Wednesdays at Noon. The station [89.5 FM] did a special promo on 4-17-19 and the Dayton Daily News ran an article on 4-14-19. Hats off to Eddie Brookshire and his influence upon jazz in the Dayton area and beyond. Congratulations Eddie!



April 14th found me down at Jazz Central for the weekly jazz jam. The jam has evolved to the point where the first hour tends to be the instrumental jam session and then often times the second set includes any vocalists in the audience. The third set anything goes. The jam included the usual cast of characters, Kenny Baccus on organ, King Koeller on sax, Ron Applebury on electric bass, Rodderick Wilson on trumpet, Craig Saunders on drums & Jeff Slinker on guitar. This night also included the incredible trombone playing of U.S. Band of Flight trombonist Bryan Gannon and   Stephan Wood on trumpet. Some tunes that caught my ear were Pent Up House and Ladybird. It was a good night for the jam.



As fate would have it, after such a long hiatus on my part [of hearing the Blue Wisp Big Band] – see article above -  a mere 8 days later the band came to Lakota West High School in West Chester as part of the Cincinnati jazz ambassador program. The night kicked off the song I Concentrate on You arranged by the great Cincinnati arranger Carroll DeCamp. This crowd pleaser was followed by “the closest thing we do to pop” which was a Hank Mautner arrangement of the Farrell Williams megahit, Happy! Band member Larry Dickson arranged the next tune, Jimmy Heath’s CTA (recorded by Lee Morgan). This interpretation included a very nice bass solo by Mike Sharfe. Garrin Webb and Brent Gallaher traded tenor sax solos to spice things up as well. In honor of recently departed Bobby Shew, the band played a song that Shew had written in honor of the great trumpet player Blue Mitchell entitled Blue. The song was arranged by Gordon Brinker and played beautifully by Kim Pensyl. Easy to Love, arranged by “friend of the band” Gary Carney was another crowd pleaser. Jazz tunes are often interestingly titled and the Chick Corea Tones for Joan’s Bones was next up. Arranged by Al Keider, it gave Steve Schmidt a chance to hold forth. The band closed out the evening with an Erik Richards arrangement of You Don’t Know What Love Is. The folks in the crowd were glad they came and the band let them know they appreciated their attendance. It was a good night all the way round.
Now allow me to go back and say a few words about Garrin Webb. I first encountered Garrin as a musician for the UD Jazz Ensemble on the Sax Fest Weekend when Branford Marsalis and his group were the guest artists some years ago. I ran into Garrin again when he had his own combo performing at UD. After that I sort of lost musical track of Garrin so it was quite a pleasure to finally hear him again with The Blue Wisp Big Band, even got a chance to catch up a bit when the show was over. You can’t go wrong with The Blue Wisp Big Band.


I talked my wife into accompanying me to Washington Platform on 4-19-19 for dinner and music from guest artist Hal Melia. Hal was playing with an all star lineup, John Taylor on drums, Phil DeGreg on keyboards and Mike Sharfe on bass. Luckily for my wife, Hal was playing flute when we got there – a very enjoyable start to the evening. Hal then presented a beautiful rendition of Body & Soul on tenor sax as Mike Sharfe slipped in some tenderly caressed bass notes. These band mates played very well together, listening to each other and responding superbly. Hal followed this up with another tenor sax interpretation of I’ll Remember You. The first set ended with Milestones which segued into Speak Low. It was a night of excellent music by all but a great opportunity to hear Hal Melia who plays sparingly in public (unless you catch him with his Central State jazz students).

                                                                 



local regular jazz happenings
The Jazz Central Jazz Jam - Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. (until around 11:30) and 
Ismail Muhammad is bringing in occasional jazz combos on other nights 
 
Jim Smith, jazz guitar player/teacher/master and Vinnie Marshal on bass are at
the Tipp City restaurant called the Coldwater Café. Saturday nights from 7:00-9:30 
 
The Blue Wisp Big Band at Café Vivacel every Wednesday night
 
Every Thursday night at the Minton Club there is music and on 3rd Thursdays 
you can hear the Generations Big Band. 

Other venues for which you need to be aware:
 
Dave Greer and the Classic Jazz Stompers at Jimmy’s Ladder 11 on the 
first Tuesday of the month 
 
The Central Jazz Big Band every third Tuesday at 1200 Forrer Blvd in Kettering/Dayton starting at 7:30

Jazz at Spinoza’s out by the mall at Fairfield Commons – last Monday 
of the month hear Taylor – Cashwell - Berg
 
Washington Platform in Cincy, jazz combos on Friday and Saturday nights. 
 
Wednesdays at Noon you can hear Eric Grieffenhagen & Greg Dearth 
at the Wine Emporium.
 

1st Sunday mornings have begun again at the Yellow Cab in downtown Dayton 
where you can here Jason Swann

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