The Jazz Voyager
With so much good music in the city the Jazz Voyager is remaining but this time to midtown on the West Side to 44th between 8th and 9th Avenues. There resides the second iteration of the historic venue Birdland. The original venue was located on 52nd Street off 7th Avenue that was named after Charlie Parker and hosted the greatest names in jazz.
From trio to big band, Ron Carter is among the most original, prolific and influential bassists in jazz with more than 2,000 albums to his credit. Beginning his career in the 1960s with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy, Cannonball Adderley, the Miles Davis’ Quintet, Bill Evans, B.B. King, and Dexter Gordon.
Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 40 years and many celebrated recordings, whose catalog has been cited by Downbeat as “the best recorded output of the decade.”
Tickets: $45.76 ~ $61.21
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The Jazz Voyager
There’s nothing like New York City anytime of year but autumn is one of the best. The Jazz Voyager is staying put this week in the Village at the Washington Square Hotel. Just a short walk from the hotel is the legendary Village Vanguard, home to their long-running orchestra which was started by Thad Wilson and Mel Lewis, the iconic basement location that has hosted decades of the greatest and up and coming jazz musicians and vocalists.
Ethan Iverson is holding down the piano bench for this week’s entertainment along with saxophonist Sam Newsome, trumpeter Johnathan Finlayson, Jacob Garchik on trombone, bassist Peter Washington and drummer. His residency lasts through Sunday, October 5th with two sets each night. As usual I’ll be at the second seating.
Cover: $40.00
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Paolo Ricca was born on October 2, 1963 in Turin, Italy and began studying classical piano at an early age. After school, he continued his studies and expanded into the realm of jazz performance and composition at CPM Music Institute in Milan, Italy where he graduated, under the tutelage of Franco D’Andrea.
The early 1980’s saw the beginning of his professional career performing for live audiences. A few years later Paolo performed in over 3000 concerts and festivals all over Europe, while simultaneously building a solid reputation as a studio musician. He has collaborated with John Etheridge, Soft Machine, Stèphane Grappelli, John Williams, Lee Brown, La Verne Jackson, Mokhtar Samba ( Joe Zawinul’s Sindycate, Jaco Pastorius, Carlos Santana, M. Orza, Dee D. Jackson, Haddaway and many others.
He ventured into music technology, computers, sequencers, looping, and sampling. Ricca began studio work with engineering, recording, as well as arranging and composing. He has worked for major recording companies, producing music on both a national and an international level.
Pianist Paolo Ricca, whose 2023 release, My Italian Piano Songbook, won First Prize for Best CD at the prestigious Swiss International Music Competition, continues to perform, tour and record as a leading voice in contemporary international piano music.
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RONNIE SCOTT’S ALL STARS
It has been named jazz’s greatest year. There was definitely something in the air in 1959, and it wasn’t just NASA: Castro took over Cuba, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, Pan Am started regular flights around the world, and NASA sent 7 astronauts into space.
Ronnie Scott’s, of course, was founded in 1959. The idea of opening a jazz club along the lines of the intimate and bustling venues of New York’s 52nd Street was hatched by two ardent jazz fans who happened to be very much part of a burgeoning modern jazz movement of the late fifties: tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott who had since the late forties, wowed the bebop brigade in a series of bands commencing with the nine-piece which featured his business partner to be and fellow saxophonist Pete King.
Three greats of jazz died – Lester Young, Billie Holiday and Sidney Bechet but born out of so much world turmoil were a spate of jazz masterpieces.
In March, Miles Davis created the definitive jazz album in A Kind of Blue. In May, Charles Mingus released an album called Mingus Ah Um – possibly his definitive album. Also in May, Ornette Coleman’s album The Shape of Jazz To Come became ‘the genesis of avant-garde jazz’, and John Coltrane recorded Giant Steps from May to December.
What Miles did for harmonic shifts, The Dave Brubeck Quartet did for rhythmic innovations with Time Out, challenging the acceptable 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures and even creating the hit Take Five with their 5/4 time signature.
Having spent eight months in the Miles Davis Quintet, Bill Evans released Portrait in Jazz in December with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro, often regarded as one of the greatest jazz trios.
In the show, you can expect to hear a sample of music from all of these genre-defining jazz classics performed by the unmatched Ronnie Scott’s All Stars.
Line-up
Freddie Gavita ~ trumpet
Alex Garnett ~ saxophone
James Pearson ~ piano
Sam Burgess ~ bass
Sebastian de Krom ~ drums
Tickets: £35 ~ £55 | $40.96 ~ $64.36
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The Jazz Voyager
From Oakland and the City By The Bay it’s a cross country flight to the Big Apple. Once landing at LaGuardia I will be heading across the Triboro to downtown Manhattan wherein lies Greenwich village. This Jazz Voyager will be taking in an Afro-Cuban experience for an evening at the Zinc Bar.
On stage the Axel Tosca Trio holds down The Cuban Jam. The three time Grammy-nominated Cuban pianist blends jazz, classical, hip-hop, and Afro-Cuban rhythms to create a genre-defying soundscape that captivates audiences.
Xiomara Laugart has performed Cuban Nueva trova, jazz standards, and Broadway numbers on local and international stages. She joins her son Axel and combines the beloved Cuban sounds of home from the 1950s to today with Tosca’s eclectic take on modern jazz, swing, and bebop.
Cover: $35.00
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