The NYC jazz landscape is expansive in both scope and talent. It can at the same time be daunting and expensive to the person trying to naively experience it. Recently, I had a five day jazz holiday in the Big Apple and decided to see if I could hit four shows that would somehow capture a significant overview of the types of venues, music and talent that is NYC Jazz. I also made the stipulation that all four shows in admissions, covers and minimums could not total over $75.00. Taken together, a basically impossible undertaking, but I knew I would have fun trying to accomplish it.

My initial task was to come up with four categories that would reflect the breadth of the music and venues that would be at my disposal. The following are quite arbitrary but as you will see did me in good stead. Part of any NYC jazz experience should be a visit to an intimate jazz supper club where the best jazzers are in the pocket and play it the way it was meant to be played. Another thrill is partaking in an up and comer who may not be very well known outside of NYC but is doing something new and different. This allows you to say you were there from the beginning. My third category was to find a musician who is at or near the top of the current heap on his instrument and finally, I wanted a representative of NYC's "downtown scene. To get started, I of course perused my copy of AllAboutJazz-NY to see how I could fill out my categories and stay within my budget.

Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble
Makor Cafe
July 26, 2006
$12.00

My first night, Meg Okura's Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble were playing at Makor and they seemed perfectly suited to fit my "up and comer criteria. The $12.00 admission also didn't put too much of a dent in my budget. Located on the Upper West Side, Makor is a great place to see new music and they schedule some of the best world jazz in a great setting with a fine dinner menu. Upon arrival, the heavy presence of musicians in the audience, made me realize that this was going to be a fine evening. Violinist Meg Okura is a magician on her fiddle and she magically intertwines, both musically and compositionally, Eastern and Western music in an elegant yet powerful format. Their debut, Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, is a wonderful blend of new and old that is an elegant musical statement. Joining Meg this evening was Jun Kubo on flute, cellist Jennifer Vincent, pianist Megumi Yonezawa and percussionist Shane Shanahan.

The beginning piece, "Viola de Samba , immediately showcased Vincent's ability to use her cello in the traditional role of double bass, adding a gorgeous delicate line to the music throughout the evening. Pan Asian has a sound like no other and the presence of Shanahan's Afro-Latin percussion gave this music more of a Latin feel than is present on the CD. A testimony to the compositional strength of these pieces, the music was able to easily adapt to his complex rhythms. The samba feel was strikingly portrayed by a light graceful flute solo and Okura's crying violin. A slow and peaceful piano/violin duet began "Peace in My Heart that then segued into a lovely trio of piano, percussion and cello. A special treat was the arrival of soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome who guested on several of the next pieces. Newsome, one of the best musicians in NYC, added a modern jazz feel to the frenetic "Dance at the Palace . Kubo's flute gracefully augmented the catchy line stated by Okura, who then ripped off one of her trademark fiery solos, only to be matched by Newsome's horn against a cello backdrop, before the piece came to a thrilling conclusion. "Afrasia melded both cultures in perfect synchrony, due in major part to Kubo's traditional wood flute merging with violin and sax, for a marvelous sound palette. Okura demonstrated her budding mastery of the erhu, the two stringed Chinese violin, and her beautiful solo amazed with its jazz overtones given the instrument's small octave and a half range. Closing with the dazzling textures of "Dream Dancer , Yonezawa used her piano to change tempos and move from chamber to jazz and back to chamber until cello, violin and flute merged the two musics together in an uplifting finale.

Wycliffe Gordon Quartet
Rubin Museum of Art
July 28, 2006
$15.00

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