The Jazz Voyager
Off to the Nation’s capitol via Reagan National Airport, this week the Jazz Voyager is going to hang out at Twins Jazz Club at 1344 U Street, Top Floor NW, Washington, DC. This Ethiopian-American restaurant has been home for some of the hottest jazz in the city for over 30 years. Its name come from the twin sisters, Maze and Ellen Tesfaye, who run this jazz hangout located on the street once known as The Black Broadway.
Attracting local, regional and national talent, the sisters elegantly make each and every patron feel like they’re home with flowers and candles on each table, baskets and framed photos on the walls. Open on Sunday thru Thursday from 6pm-12am; on Friday and Saturday from 6pm-1am. Live jazz in this intimate 50 seating venue runs Monday – Thursday beginning at 8:00pm and Friday and Saturday at 9:00pm and 11:00pm.
The cover is generally $10-$30 depending on the act with a two-drink minimum per person, per show. Occasionally they turn over the room between shows when required. Anticipating the experience of hearing Dial 251 and enjoying the cuisine which this Jazz Voyager has come to love. #wannabewhereyouare #jazz #voyager #travel #club #adventure
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Review: Kathleen Bertrand | It’s Time To Love
It’s Time To Love is a statement of purpose that is anything but simple. Knowing Kathleen as I do there is more than one layer to everything she does. I found this not only to be a personal message but a global appeal. On this project she pulls from several different sources and vantage points, distinguished by the cadre of the elite hometown musicians she has invited to have fun with her.
Her approach is unmistakable – pure and filled with joy. There is a clarity in her voice that is immediately recognizable from the first note you hear. Toss into the mix some very creative arrangements and you understand why Ms. Bertrand wholeheartedly believes it is time to love.
Bringing an impressive compilation of nine standards, originals, classic soul and gospel, she kicks off this offering with the title track that she composed with her musical director Phil Davis. Maintaining the groove she seamlessly moves into Diamonds, written for Rihanna’s 8th album, proving that no song is far from jazz with the proper arrangement. Reaching back to the 1946 musical St. Louis Woman she brings into the new millennium the classic Arlen/Mercer tune Come Rain Or Come Shine in an easy rendition that expresses yesterday’s view of today’s ride or die.
Always one to illuminate the talents of young writers she augments Tony Hightower’s Baby I’m Yours with additional lyrics, giving a lyrical homage to that very special person. Heading back to Broadway she juxtaposes the question of love with a 1947 Lerner and Loewe composition Almost Like Being In Love from Brigadoon, that has one understanding the feeling of being alive. Teaming up once again with Davis, their reputation as composers and arrangers firmly established, they pen and deliver another original Walking Through The Door, be it expectation or surprise, the need is the same. Walking us back in time to the Sixties and the music of another renowned team of Bacharach/David with Anyone Who Had A Heart.
Never far from the church, Kathleen chooses to rearrange with the assistance of Tyrone Jackson, the traditional It’s Me (Standing In The Need Of Prayer). As I listen to her rendering me back to my childhood, I am hearing so much of Mahalia Jackson in this passionate acknowledgement to the higher power. Closing out this recording she moves the message back to the joy of love with the Richard Clay, Carl Clay and Wayne Garfield composition Love From The Sun, made famous by Norman Connors. However, she turns once again to emerging artists, The Dangerfield Newbies, to arrange and produce this classic tune, clearly making this her own, as she inimitably does with every song she touches.
Earlier in this review I mentioned the elite cadre of Atlanta musicians and I would be remiss not to list them and allow you the opportunity to catch them in live performance when their names come across your radar. Order of appearance of the recording: Phil Davis, Rod Harris, Jr., Melvin Jones, Mike Burton, Katy Miner, Tyrone Allen, George Caldwell, Sean Jefferson, RiShon Odel, Russell Gunn, Robert Boone, Frankie Quinones, Joel Powell, Tyrone Jackson, Mace Hibbard, Sam Skelton, Kevin Smith, Chris Burroughs, Nelson Render and Marvin Pryor.
To say Kathleen Bertrand is an original does her a disservice for we are all one of a kind. What sets her apart is her innate ability to select and align songs in a manner that makes you anticipate hearing what comes next and a little saddened when the last song plays out. This album celebrates and laments the many facets of love. It is an enjoyable escape and journey through one’s heart, as we have all been where each songs takes us, that is, at one time or another. The one thing I know to be true, with Kathleen Bertrand, there will always be more and the best is yet to come.
carl anthony | notorious jazz | september 23, 2018
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Requisites
Larry Young’s Fuel is a jazz fusion album by organist/keyboardist Larry Young, recorded and released on the Arista Records label in 1975. The cover photography was provided by Benno Friedman with art direction and design by Bob Heimall.
The composers on the album included Young, Philips, Santiago Torano, Laura Logan and Fernando Saunders. The album is comprised of seven compositions Fuel for the Fire, I Ching (Book of Changes), Turn off the Lights, Floating, H + J = B (Hustle + Jam = Bread), People Do Be Funny and New York Electric Street Music.
The players on this session were: Larry Young – keyboards, Santiago Torano – guitar, Fernando Saunders – bass and background vocals, Rob Gottfried – drums and percussion, and Laura “Tequila” Logan – vocals
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The Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager is flying off to Houston, Texas to Cezanne upstairs from the Black Labrador Restaurant located at 4100 Montrose Boulevard, 77006. Currently the steadiest place to hear straight-ahead jazz in this town. This small room hosts local artists most nights with occasional touring artists stopping in to perform.
Saxophonist Woody Witt books the club and it is only open Friday and Saturday from 9:00pm -12:00am with two sets each night. General cover is $10.00 except when noted for special shows and events. Parking is available onsite as well as on the street. The club admits on a first come first serve basis and does not take reservations, and the restaurant downstairs offers a limited menu for jazz patrons.
Looking forward to checking out the Bruce Saunders Quartet this Friday evening. More information can be attained by calling 832-592-7464. #wannabewhereyouare #jazz #voyager #music
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Requisites
Black Christ of the andes is a 1963 recording from Mary Lou Williams on the MPS label. Photographer Charles “Chuck” Stewart provided the original cover image for designer Gigi Berendt, however, there was a second image provided for the 2004 reissue. In the mid-to-late 1950s, the jazz composer and pianist retired from public performance for nearly four years. During her hiatus she converted to Catholicism, and the first record she made after her return was a marked departure from her previous work: it was a mass.
In 1962, the Catholic Church canonized a new saint: A Peruvian brother of the Dominican Order named Martin de Porres, the son of a freed slave named Ana Velazquez and a Spanish gentleman who refused to recognize him because he was born with his mother’s dark features. St. Martin de Porres was a gifted healer who was dedicated to the poor — today, he is the patron saint of those who seek racial harmony.
The fourteen tracks on the album are St. Martin de Porres, It Ain’t Necessarily So, The Devil, Miss D. D., Anima Christi, A Grand Night For Swinging, My Blue Heaven, Dirge Blues, A Fungus Amungus, Koolbonga, Forty-Five Degree Angle, Nicole, Chunka Lunka and Praise The Lord.
The opening hymn, “St. Martin de Porres,” begins with a choir singing a cappella. The chords — dense and full of satisfying tensions — showcase Williams’ previously underutilized aptitude for vocal arrangement. As they sing the saint’s name, the choir slows down, masterfully swelling on the vowels as if to prove their devotion. When Williams finally enters on the keys, she does so with an Afro-Latin groove, perhaps a nod to the heritage of the hymn’s subject.
Williams, a leading exponent of stride piano, a difficult style of playing similar to ragtime, was developed in New York City’s Harlem during World War I. As one of the most influential women in jazz, she was a mentor to the likes of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk.
Mary Lou Williams’ Black Christ of the andes is jazz for the soul and an overlooked choral masterpiece that should be a part of every collection.
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