The Jazz Voyager

I love hanging out on the West Coast in San Francisco, California. Having flown in last week to listen to jazz, this Jazz Voyager stayed and revisited some favorite haunts and discovered some spots that weren’t there decades ago.

So happily I will be in the audience of an old haunt, the Black Cat Supper Club. It’s a swanky two level jazz lounge and cocktail bar that offers live music along with a variety of small plates.

This week they are presenting Nicholas Payton & New World Order. I don’t know what music he will be bringing but as a long time fan I am looking forward to hearing whatever it is.

As a leading voice in jazz, the 2x Grammy winning and 5x Grammy nominee, the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger, essayist and social activist, he defies musical and artistic categories.

Black Cat is located at 400 Eddy Street 94109. Get more info by visiting the Jazz Calendar at https://notoriousjazz.com/event/nicholas-payton-new-world-order.

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MYRNA CLAYTON

Myrna Clayton is a teaching performer, cultural artist, and an international performing arts entertainer based in the USA. Myrna has performed professionally for over 14 years, though she has been singing since the age of 5.

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MADELEINE PEYROUX

Every great musical project starts with a feeling that it’s time.

So it was, in 2004, for Madeleine Peyroux: “when I got around to making Careless Love it had been a good eight years since my first album.” Eight years—forever in the music world. Not long After Dreamland dropped in ’96, she had disappeared from the touring scene as well. Where had she been? What had she been doing, and why?

I was traveling a lot across America, rediscovering the country and re-identifying as an American. I was born here in the States but moved with my mother to live in Paris when I was young. I met family I never met before. I caught up on what was happening with the music here. It was all a culture shock for me. When I came back to New York to make that first album I was like a deer in the headlights. It was my first time in a studio, my first time back in America. Then 9/11 happened. Then George W. got re-elected. It was like the world was going crazy. After Dreamland I had signed with Sony and I was trying to make my second record. I was broke and I didn’t know what I was going to do next.

Self-reflection and spiritual sensitivity are assets to any musician in the process of starting a career, of establishing one’s musical identity and direction. They don’t, however, necessarily lock into the typical velocity of career-building. There were other things Peyroux had to handle. She underwent surgery on her vocal cords. She healed and worked with a vocal coach. As the ‘90s gave way to the first years of a new century, she continued to question the how and, significantly, the why of what she was doing. (Her choice of the Dylan Thomas quote below, from his 1946 poem “In my Craft and Sullen Art,” helps explain her creative motivation.)

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SAMARA JOY

Featuring The McLendon Family

Samara Joy McLendon is a Grammy Award-winning American jazz singer from the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. She released her self-titled debut album in 2021 and was subsequently named Best New Artist by JazzTimes. Her second album, Linger Awhile, was released in September 2022, winning the award for Best Jazz Vocal Album and herself for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

Celebrating the release of her new festive EP, “A Joyful Holiday”, this double Grammy-winning jazz singer takes the stage with members of her talented musical family for ONE NIGHT ONLY in Baltimore, Maryland on December 20th! Sharing the influences of gospel, Motown, and jazz across the generations, Joy delivers a sparkling evening brimming with the most time-honored songs of the season alongside her father, uncle, and cousins.

Ticket Fees: $2.40~$3.00

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The Jazz Voyager

The friendly skies beckon once again for a continental flight to that well known city by the bay. San Francisco, California is the destination for the Jazz Voyager, specifically Oakland to one of my favorite hangs, Yoshi’s. With the larger space and expanded Japanese menu it quickly became one of the premiere jazz venues on the West Coast.

Having not seen him for more than a decade, I am looking forward to seeing Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter, one of the male vocalists who came along to fill in the void with an individual sound. He is joined by 7 & 8 string guitarist Charlie Hunter as they bring Superblue to the stage.

Yoshi’s is located at 510 Embarcadero West, 94607. Get more info by visiting the Jazz Calendar at notoriousjazz.com/event/superblue-kurt-elling-and-charlie-hunter

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