Latest jazz happenings - June, 2018 edition by Jim Woodford

A Rare jazz musical performance on June 2nd 2018 (and more)

      Grammy nominated Frank Proto will be playing bass with Tim Berens on guitar at a fund raiser at Hope Lutheran Church in just a few days, Saturday June 2nd. I could tell you about the rare performance myself but let me just use an email message I received:

      Good news:  This Saturday, at 7:00 PM, bassist Frank Proto and I will be playing a concert at Hope Lutheran Church in Dayton.  The concert is free and open to the public.

      Frank is a Grammy Award nominee and a world-renowned composer of music for symphony orchestras.  We have been playing together for many years now and have created a rich repertoire that blends jazz and classical music in a unique way.  This concert will be entirely acoustic, with Frank playing acoustic bass and me playing classical guitar.

       We will be performing works by Frank Proto, Gabriel Faure, Neal Hefti, Manuel de Falla, and several jazz composers.  I promise a night of aural delights.

      The address of the church is:

Hope Lutheran Dayton,

500 Hickory St,

Dayton, Ohio 45410,

(937) 228-5191

http://www.hopelutherandayton.org/

      The music starts at 7:00.  The concert will last about 90 minutes. I hope to see you there.

      In the words of Dayton native (and former Jazz Central host, vocalist and trumpet player) John Hampton Wagner, “Be there or be square!” [for the inquiring minds needing to know, John and his wife Rexanne now live in Florida – and for the really curious who like to dig deeper, my wife and I had dinner with them when we were down that way in the Spring]

      I previously mentioned a date at Jazz Central by The Eddie Brookshire Big Band and I am happy to say that I was able to attend the first set of that performance. Eddie has been at Jazz Central in many capacities over the years at Jazz Central, most recently as the bass player for the Archie McPherson combo gig set up by drummer Ismail Mohammad. The Big Band came ready to play. They played a rousing rendition of Dizzy Gillespie’s Manteca and even threw in a second line groove tune – N’awlins style – of Little Liza Jane! The piano player was featured on My Romance and as a trombone lover, I particularly enjoyed the tune Bonehead. The tune that really caught my ear was a latin style tune entitle Valdez in the Country. Trombonist transformed into vocalist, Brenda Flowers gave more latin flavor to It Don’t Mean a Thing and Ryan Wells continued to entertain the crowd on tenor sax and trumpet player Rodderick Wilson even got in on the act. There was some scatting going on in there as well. The set ended on what I would call an upbeat high note with Perdido – Gary Onady provided a memorable trumpet solo and Fenton Sparks put on the exclamation point with his drum solo. Hope you didn’t miss it, it was a good one. Thanks to long time Jazz Jammer (and congas player that night) Cliff Darrett for setting up that big band performance!!!

       While I mention the Jazz Central Jazz Jams fairly frequently, I do not write about them all that much – clearly you can come down to Jazz Central any Sunday night at 8:00 and hear the music for yourself but recently I heard one that deserves mention. First of all, there is an annual Hamvention held in the Dayton area and this year it was in Xenia – a trumpet player from Baltimore makes a point to come down to Jazz Central on the weekend of the Hamvention. In turn, I make a point to be there so I do not miss his playing. His picture is included – Gary from Baltimore -  he comes from a blues background but keeps getting up to speed on jazz – always enjoy his playing. And this year we had a packed stage as well, 2 tenor saxes, 2 trumpets and 2 trombones – a picture of that lineup is included here as well. All-in-all it was an even more energetic night than usual! And I gotta tell ya, Rodderick Wilson is never afraid of going in search of that mystical high note on the trumpet! Come on down and see if he finds it!?

      Last but not least for live jazz, at least for what I have managed to attend recently, the Chris Berg Trio played at the Milton Club, with Mike Teckenbrock on flugelhorn, Brian Cashwell on piano and featuring Patricia Berg on vocals. I could talk about every single song they played but two in particular that were crowd favorites were A Day in the Life of a Fool (requested by Jazz Advocate’s own Ron Gable) and Stolen Moments. Patricia Berg gave A Day in the Life of a Fool a very special crowd pleasing flavor and Mike Teckenbrock’s flugelhorn solos in Stolen Moments was well worth the price of admission. I have said it before, Mike may be the best flugelhorn player in Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton area and that encompasses a lot of flugelhorn players. One veteran jazz musician sitting in the audience referred to Mike’s playing as being quite tasty. I couldn’t agree more. It is my understanding that the combo will be back – keep your eyes and ears posted for upcoming dates.

      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 (7:00-10:30). Jazz at Spinoza’s out by the mall at Fairfield Commons – check out the web site for times – my understanding is that Chris Berg, John Taylor and Brian Cashwell may be playing their last gig there on June 25th – mark your calendar. Top of the Crown [a.k.a. View 162] has music at times peppered with jazz on the weekends. Washington Platform in cincy, jazz combos on Friday and Saturday nights. The Blue Wisp Big Band at Urban Artifact in Cincy every Wednesday night. Jason Swann and musical compadres at The Paragon – every Friday night in June, July & August.

      Two additional upcoming events:

Dayton Jazz Festival at Riverscape on Sunday June 10th at 1:00 p.m. and the annual Miami Valley Jazz Band Camp is June 11th thru the 15th and the Wednesday night jazz instructor performance as well as the week ending jazz camp performance are both worth catching. See you there!