EITHER/ORCHESTRA

In the decades since the Either/Orchestra debuted on December 17, 1985 at the Cambridge MA Public Library, the group has made over 1000 performances in 38 of the United States and 12 foreign countries, as well as releasing a dozen albums and being nominated for a Grammy, winning five Boston Music awards and numerous Downbeat Critics Poll placements, among many other honors. From prestigious festivals like Glastonbury Pop and Chicago Jazz to tiny clubs, schools and churches in out of the way places, the group has been “dependably marvelous,” according to the Village Voice.

No obstacles deterred leader Russ Gershon and his intrepid musical explorers from visiting new musical worlds – until the Covid pandemic. The band’s most recent performance was in December of 2019 at Tufts U., with one of their distinguished Ethiopian collaborators, vocalist Teshome Mitiku. But now, they’re coming back!

To celebrate the exact 40th anniversary of their first show, the Either/Orchestra returns to the stage not a mile from where they started. The E/O began playing the Regattabar when the club was band new in the ’90’s. There is no better and more appropriate venue for them to inaugurate their fifth decade.

The E/O will be making selections from their vast catalog of originals and original arrangements of classic and obscure jazz, as well as dipping into their unparalleled repertoire of Ethiopian music in honor of their upcoming release, éthiopiques 32: Nalbandian the Ethiopian.

Their second release on the legendary éthiopiques series features music by Nerses Nalbandian, a teenage refugee of the Armenian genocide who rose to become music director of Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie’s National Theater in Addis Ababa. Nalbandian’s interest in American music helped set the stage for the birth of the modern Ethiopian pop music which has bewitched music aficionados the world over the past couple of decades. His music has seldom been played since the totalitarian revolution which deposed Haile Selassie in 1974, and the E/O was asked by the Nalbandian family and éthiopiques producer Frances Falceto to reconstruct and play it at the National Theater of Ethiopia. The album is a record of that labor of love.

E/O personnel:

Tom Halter | trumpet
Dan Rosenthal | trumpet
Joel Yennior | trombone
Sam Spear | alto sax
Russ Gershon | tenor sax
Charlie Kohlhase | baritone sax
Alexei Tsiganov | piano
Rick McLaughlin | bass
Brooke Sofferman | drums
Vicente Lebron | congas

Cover: Sold Out

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dannie Richmond was born Charles Daniel Richmond on December 15, 1931 in New York City and grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. He started playing tenor saxophone at the age of thirteen, and went on to play R&B with the Paul Williams band in 1955.

His career took off when he transferred his talents to the drums, which he had taught himself to play in his early twenties, through the formation of what was to be a 21-year friendship and an  indispensable ingredient of the Mingus sound. Upon Mingus’ death Richmond became the first musical director of the group Mingus Dynasty in 1980.

Drummer Dannie Richmond, best known for his work with Charles Mingus, died of a heart attack in Harlem, New York on March 16, 1988, at the age of 56.

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LENNY ROBINSON TRIO

Lenny Robinson has become one of the foremost voices of jazz at the drums. He grew up in Baltimore, Md. in a very rich musical environment. He played piano and organ in his father’s church in his early teens. He also played trumpet in both junior high and high school. The love of percussion was felt in the ninth grade and the rest, as they say, is history.

He studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music as well as Morgan State University and has gone on to perform or record with a who’s who of artists. A partial list would include: Dewey Redman, Clifford Jordan, Warren Wolf, Carter Jefferson, Vanessa Rubin, Lou Donaldson, Roy Hargrove, Charles McPherson, Kenny Barron, Eartha Kitt, Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson, Joey DeFrancesco, Ahmad Jamal, Keter Betts, John Hicks, Sean Jones, Larry Willis, Don Braden,Terence Blanchard as well as the Bill Cosby show “You Bet Your Life”. He was also a member of the late Stanley Turrentine’s working band and has toured and recorded with Marlena Shaw.

Lenny is the leader of The Lenny Robinson Group as well as the co-leader of Lenny Robinson and ThreeForAll. He has an organ group called the “Organic Trio”, and he leads the piano-less trio “MadCurious which features Brian Settles on saxophone and Tarus Mateen on bass.

Dining & Jazz Cover: $10.00 per person

Bar & Jazz: No Cover

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alex Acuña was born Alejandro Neciosup Acuña on December 12, 1944 in Pativilca, Peru. He played in local bands such as La Orquesta de los Hermanos Neciosup from the age of ten, then followed his brothers and moved to Lima, Peru as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1965 moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In 1974 he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and worked with Elvis Presley, The Temptations, and Diana Ross. The following year he joined the jazz-fusion group Weather Report, and while in New York City, Acuña recorded several songs for RCA records. Leaving Weather Report in 1978 he became a session musician in California, recording and playing live with r&b and jazz musicians Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Jackson, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberta Flack,Al Jarreau and the list goes on and on.

The Eighties saw Alex recording and touring with the Christian jazz band Koinonia. In 1987 he was summoned back to Perú by producer Ricardo Ghibellini to be the musical producer of Los Hijos del Sol, a group of Peruvians designed to promote Peruvian music worldwide.

Drummer and percussionist Alex Acuña, who has worked as an educator at University of California Los Angeles, and Berklee College of Music, LAMA, Musicians Institute, USC, and CSUN, continues his career of performing and educating.

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The Jazz Voyager

From the ATL to the City of Angels The Jazz Voyager is on a flight cross-country to for a little bit of jazz. It’s been a while since I’ve been in this venue. So jumping into the rental car and heading north on the 101 for twenty minutes is the next leg of the trip. The destination is a small venue called The Baked Potato. The hundred and twenty seat venue is intimate in its wood-paneled walls and autographed posters.

Hitting the bandstand is the Dave Weckl Quartet. Led by the drummer who the band is named, was once an integral member of Chick Corea’s Elektric Band for six years beginning in 1985. He also appeared with Corea’s Akoustic Band. He said he “augmented his work with Corea by continuing his session work and appearing often with the GRP All-Star Big Band.

Filling out his quartet are vocalist Chrissi Poland, guitarist Oz Noy, and bassist Jimmy Haslip.

The Baked Potato is located at 3787 Cahuenga Boulevard, Studio City, CA 91604 For more information visit https://www.thebakedpotato.com.

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