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
