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Rova Saxophone Quartet at Bop Stop
by John Chacona
Rova Saxophone Quartet Bop Stop at the Music Settlement Cleveland, OHOctober 4, 2022 One of the inescapable trends in music over the last decade has been the convergence of two traditions in improvised music, one that was created in the African diaspora and another that evolved in European art music. Classifications ...
Ernie Krivda and Theron Brown at Free Concerts in Cleveland
by John Chacona
Ernie Krivda and friends Ernie's front porch Lakewood, Ohio July 31, 2022 Cleveland, Ohio is the birthplace of Albert Ayler and the late Abdul Wadud. It's where the Black Unity Trio recorded what was probably the first free jazz record to be independently released. The city's free jazz bona fides are ...
Lars Scherzberg: Top Floor Encounter
by John Chacona
The first phase of jazz was characterized by melodic improvisation. In its second phase improvisers dealt with harmony and, in the current phase, density is the improviser's concern. So says Anthony Braxton—if I understand him correctly (if anyone does). If so, then Top Floor Encounter may be as characteristic of our time as Armstrong's “Weatherbird" was ...
Stephen Philip Harvey: Big Band Superhero In the Making
by John Chacona
There's a passage in “Party Song," the concluding cut on the Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra's debut recording, Smash! (Next Level, 2022) where the band claps hands, whoops and cheers over a syncopated praise-band saxophone riff. It's pure, unbridled joy and just like the exuberance implied by the exclamation point in the album's title, it's an ...
Billy Mohler: Anatomy
by John Chacona
Can we please retire the old cliché about jazz from Los Angeles being limp, wan and bland? One listen to pianist Cameron Graves' slamming metal-jazz or to the jittery complexity of David Binney's recent releases should be enough to torch that outdated canard. Now comes bassist Billy Mohler with Anatomy, 43 minutes of amped-up, torqued-out energy ...
Jacob Garchik: Assembly
by John Chacona
Trombonist Jacob Garchik has an interest in musical subtraction. His 2012 release The Heavens: The Atheist Gospel Trombone Album (Yestereve Records) presented religious music stripped of religion. Clear Line (Yestereve Records) from 2020 featured a 13-piece big band with no rhythm section. Now comes Assembly, an inquiry into what a jazz quintet sounds like when added ...
From Generation to Generation, A New Collection Transcends Borders and Barriers
by John Chacona
The release of the three-disc set The Concert for Bangladesh (Apple) in 1971 established a template for the charity benefit album that is still followed to this day: multiple discs in lavish packaging, a grab-bag of songs and most importantly, a red-carpet lineup of established, often older stars, one of whom was invariably the organizer of ...
Jazz Gallery All-Stars at Tri-C
by John Chacona
Jazz Gallery All-Stars Tri-C Auditorium Cleveland, OHMarch 6, 2022 What a difference a month makes. The Jazz Gallery All-Stars concert scheduled for February 3 at Cleveland's Tri-C Auditorium was swept away when a winter storm driven by howling winds dumped 15 inches of snow on the city. A new ...
Cleveland's Tri-C Jazz Fest Returns to Playhouse Square in 2022
At Cleveland's Tri-C Jazz Fest, everything new is old again. That might sound retrogressive in a culture that valorizes novelty, but the announcement that the 43rd edition of the festival will return to the historic theaters of Playhouse Square is instead a comforting, Biden-era byword after the disruptions of the past two years.
Boris Kozlov: First Things First
by John Chacona
During the early days of pandemic-induced isolation, old folkways and techniques suddenly became new again (remember the shortages of baking yeast and canning supplies?). The old ways are nothing new at Posi-Tone records, which has maintained an unflagging allegiance to swing, juicy melodies and fiery playing. Those qualities, all present on bassist Boris Kozlov's First Things ...
