The Jazz Voyager
Touch of Europe Restaurant & Jazz Club: 337 South Phillips Avenue, Sioux Falls, South Dakota / Telephone: 605-336-3066 / Contact: Jim Speirs (music bookings) / Below the street level, the place offers a warm, inviting ambience that’s only made more attractive by the presence of live jazz and artwork by regional artists. Here one can sample something deliciously out of the ordinary at this downtown eatery. Eastern European cuisine is prominent, although traditional Continental favorites make appearances, along with regional delicacies. No matter what graces their plate, regulars rave about the food.
Next Stop: South Africa! From Sioux Falls I will depart at 6:05am for 53 hours of flying, stopping in Atlanta for 11 hours where I’ll stop to see friends, then twelve hours in Paris to walk around the city and catch up with a musician friend living there, then off to Cape Town and then on to Johannesburg finally arriving two days later at 7:25pm. Interestingly enough as I rack up the frequent flyer miles, I am actually only in the air for 24 hours. For two days of travel, the layovers do a body good.
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The Jazz Voyager
Full Jazz Hotel: Rua Silveira Peixoto, 1297 – Batel – Curitiba, Brasil / Telephone: (41) 3312.7000 / Slaviero Full Jazz was built and designed for jazz and blues lovers, where you can relax and listen in the bar. Even the hotel location contributes to this musical environment. Then its back into the street and just two blocks away I will get a taste of the city’s nightlife heart, the Batel Avenue, a place with the best options of restaurants and nightclubs in Curitiba.
Next Stop: South Dakota! From Curitiba it’s off to the Queen City of the West in the heart of the Lakota and Dakota Native American Nation on the Great Plains and the largest city in the state of South Dakota, Sioux Falls. Another long plane ride begins at 3:19pm and the 25 hour flight has layovers in Brasilia, Atlanta and Minneapolis before arriving at my final destination at 12:30pm the following day. But I will take advantage of the six hour layover on the first leg of the trip in Brasilia, so for about five hours I can check out the capital city before getting a bit of Europe in America.
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The Jazz Voyager
Porta Jazz: Sirok Sokak, Bitola, Macedonia / Telephone: ++38947236615 / Contact: Vlatko Hristovski-Dado / Situated on the main street called Sirok Sokak, simply translated as Wide Street, I will finally arrive at my destination, Porta Jazz. It is a really good jazz bar that has a nice atmosphere and superb music. Wanting to hear every note the musicians are offering I will arrive when the doors open at 9:00pm and take in a couple of sets before the 1:00am close. I will see if Porta Jazz really does provide their claim of a relaxed and friendly atmosphere for enjoying the best international and local jazz. Macedonia is old enough to be placed in the annals of antiquity around the year 356 BC that Philip II, father of Alexander The Great established.
Next Stop: Brazil! Jet-setting around the globe is taking me back below the equator to the country I love – Brazil. Having driven back to Skopje I jump on the plane at 3:50pm and three stops and nearly 22 hours later i arrive in Curitiba at 10:39am. Time to get to the hotel, relax for a while before heading out into the city and enjoying the people , the food and the music that’s always in the streets. I’ll have a leisurely dinner before heading out for some good music.
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The Jazz Voyager
Dee Felice Cafe: 529 Main Street, Covington, Kentucky / Telephone: 895 261 2365 This unobtrusive locale with New Orleans decor offers up a menu of jazz and swing Thursday thru Sunday with the Sunday jazz beginning at 5pm. The music is accompanied by great Cajun and Creole recipes straight out of New Orleans to delight your taste buds while listening. It’s all nestled right in the heart of Covington’s Main Strasse Village.
Next Stop: Macedonia! Leaving Covington, Kentucky next Saturday, I will take a short 7 minute drive across the Ohio River to the Cincinnati airport. My plane departs for Macedonia at 2:59pm from Cincinnati for a 15 hour, two stop flight in Washington, DC and Vienna before landing me in Skopje the next day at 11:50am. Then it’s off to explore the city to see the Stone Bridge, Old Town, the Millennium Cross and the Kale Fortress before renting a car and driving the 173 kilometers, approximately 2 hours to Bitola, a place known for its textiles. See you there!
The Jazz Voyager
Firehouse 12: 45 Crown Street, New Haven, Connecticut / Telephone: 203-785-0468 Fax: 203-785-0478 / Contact: Nick Lloyd. The performance space at Firehouse 12 is unique in its design. The performance space is the recording studio – and all performances happen in an acoustically balanced, soundproofed space with installed sound reinforcement and stage lighting systems. The space seats 75 audience members. The build-out of this space creates a perfect venue for music that benefits from close listening.
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