The Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager has been hanging out in the Midwest for the past week and this week was headed out to the West Coast but when I heard that two of my favorite performers will be together in Detroit for two nights, I changed all plans and rescheduled to catch the two hour flight.
Though having been to the city numerous times to hang with friends, this is a definitive first time experience for this Jazz Voyager as I make my way to Cliff Bell’s, the renowned nightspot for jazz located at 2030 Park Avenue, 48226. The club has been touted as a swanky, restored art deco club that not only serves a creative, eclectic fare of surf, turf, desserts and drinks, topped off with live jazz nightly.
Tony Hightower with the Henry Conerway Trio will be in the house on Thursday and Friday. It will be great catching up with both of them as I haven’t seen Tony in a few months and Henry for about three years. Throws are 7:30pm and 9:00pm, the cover is $25.00 and the estimated tab $$$.So come on out and enjoy an evening of good music. For additional information, the number is 313-961-2543 or cliffbells.com.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Samuel “Savoirfaire” Williams was born on September 22, 1973 in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of three he began playing violin at his parents’ church and two years later joined a group of child prodigies under the tutelage of Suzuki Violin instructor, Betty Haag. His first performance was at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall during a public television broadcast which became an annual event spanning more than 35 years.
He attended the Merit School of Music in Chicago, studying music theory while participating in youth orchestras including the City Youth Symphony, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Protégé, All-City and All-State. He took private lessons from Afro-Panamanian musician Joseph Williams when he was 16. During this time he played lead for the City Youth String Ensemble’s viola section, then received a scholarship at Interlochen where he sat in with vibraphonist Milt Jackson.
Meeting and performing with Wynton Marsalis while working at the Chicago Symphony Center, Williams continued his studies and busked on the streets to pay for violin lessons. During one of his street performances, guitarist Kenny Burrell observed his skill and invited him to collaborate with himself, Willie Pickens and Larry Gray on a Bebop performance at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase.
In 2000, he was voted into the Chicago Chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which earned him the moniker “Savoirfaire.” That same year, he began an apprenticeship with luthier Martin Sheridan to learn the art of violin-making, later owning the violin shop and managing it for three years.
After self-releasing three live albums, Bob Koester discovered his work and in 2004 Delmark Records produced the internationally acclaimed release Running Out of Time. Over the years, Savoirfaire has been invited to record with a plethora of artists in various genres and at international Jazz festivals.
In 2015, Williams founded the Chicago Gypsy Project with guitarist Dave Miller and bassist Charlie Kirchen. He continues to perform with his group Savoirfaire Jazz Quartet as well as busking on the streets, and in various venues throughout Chicago.
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RENÉ MARIE
Join us for music and an up-close and personal conversation with Jazz legend, René Marie. She has built her career on the foundation of truth-telling songs rooted in jazz traditions laid down by leading ladies of past generations. She’s the rare jazz vocalist who has put songwriting at the very heart of her enterprise, addressing the human condition through an unvarnished personal lens.
Hosted by Desirée Roots – Artistic Director of Community, Virginia Repertory Theatre
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sunny Murray was born James Marcellus Arthur Murray on September 21, 1936 in Idabel, Oklahoma and was raised by an uncle who later died after being refused treatment at a hospital because of his race. He began playing drums at the age of nine, however, during his teen years he lived in a rough part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and spent two years in a reformatory.
By 1956, he was in New York City working in a car wash and as a building superintendent. During this time, he played with among others, trumpeters Red Allen and Ted Curson, pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith, and saxophonists Rocky Boyd and Jackie McLean. 1959 saw him playing for the first time with pianist Cecil Taylor and subsequently turned his direction towards experimenting with creative new ideas. In 1961, Murray made a recording with Taylor’s group that was released under the auspices of Gil Evans as one side of Into the Hot.
In 1962 Sunny went to Europe for the first time with Taylor and saxophonist Jimmy Lyons. During that time, the group made a stylistic breakthrough while in Sweden and started playing free. While in Denmark later that year, the trio recorded the influential concerts released as Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come.
That same year Taylor and Murray met saxophonist Albert Ayler, with whom the group recorded together for Danish television as the Cecil Taylor Unit. Upon their return to the United States, the group performed at the Take Three club in Greenwich Village and at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center in New York City on New Year’s Eve 1963 as the Cecil Taylor Jazz Unit, with a healthy Grimes on bass.
Continuing to play with Ayler, Sunny went on to join Ayler’s trio with bassist Gary Peacock. He recorded a number of albums with Ayler, and his unchained approach to percussion gave Ayler the freedom to travel his own road that had hitherto been lacking. In 1964 he played with John Coltrane, however, declined the offer to join the band.
He recorded his debut album as a leader in 1965 with Sonny’s Time Now, which was released on Leroi Jones’s Jihad label. This was followed by twenty more leader albums on various labels until 2011 with the recording of Boom Boom Cat. Over the course of his career he would record as a sideman for a host of musicians, but his final recording session as a sideman was Corona, once again teamed with Cecil Taylor, released posthumously in 2018. Drummer Sunny Murray, who had a documentary made in 2008 titled Sunny’s Time Now: A Portrait of Jazz Drummer Sunny Murray, transitioned on December 7, 2017 from multiple organ failure at the age of 81.
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CHAMPIAN FULTON, HIDE TANAKA & FUKUSHI TAINAKA
Sets: 7:30pm | 9:30pm
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