Hello and welcome to our third Jazz Stream column highlighting the best in jazz concerts you can stream this week. Our highlights for Jazz Stream: August 4th – August 9th include jazz vocals, a tribute to one of Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ finest collaborations, solo piano from one of last week’s performers and a very unique pairing.
Click on the name of any event to go to a link of the event and/or about the event.
Here is this week’s Jazz Stream: August 4th – August 9th:
Tierney Sutton and Tamir Hendelman – August 5th – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT
When I spoke with vocalist Tierney Sutton in 2018, she was returning from a tour in Japan where she was performing with pianist Tamir Hendelman. Old habits die hard, or rather, good collaborators are tough to find and when you do, you keep them.
She said of her collaboration with him, “Tamir is a unqiue individual as anybody who has ever heard him play knows. He has a tremendous amount of energy and he’s a brilliant technician and an amazing player and arranger. It’s very free because he knows a bajillion songs. If I throw out a song we can do it on the spot.”
I wouldn’t expect too many random songs or audience requests when they perform a set focused on love songs on Wednesday. The selections will come from Brazil, the Great American Songbook and more.
Tickets to watch the show are $25 and require advance registration.
The Gil Evans Project Featuring Riley Mulherkar – Jazz Standard Facebook Page – August 6th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT
I personally find it hard to believe that the amazing Miles Davis/Gil Evans album Sketches of Spain was released 60 years ago. To celebrate the anniversary The Gil Evans Project will perform Joaquin Ridrigo’s Adagio from Concerto de Aranjuez as it was arranged by Evans.
This performance serves as a fundraiser for the nearly two dozen members of the ensemble. The goal is to raise $15,000 so each member can receive $600 to help during these lean times for performing and recording musicians. In addition to the performance there will be a conversation about the Gil Evans Project, how musicians are managing during the pandemic and, of course, Evans and Davis.
There is no charge to watch the performance and conversation, but donations are encouraged.
Fred Hersch Solo Piano – Smalls – August 6th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PM PDT
Last week we highlighted the Fred Hersch Trio performances from the Village Vanguard. This week, Hersch goes solo. Fifteen-time Grammy Award nominated jazz pianist Fred Hersch will perform one set from Smalls in New York City.
That he’s never won a Grammy yet is just another reason why major changes are necessary there, but that’s another story in and of itself.
Hersch has recorded over 50 albums as either a soloist and or band leader. I could fill this entire column with quotes about how highly-regarded Hersch is, but I’ll leave it to fellow pianist Jason Moran who said, “Fred at the piano is like LeBron James on the basketball court. He’s perfection.”
John Santos 60th Birthday Celebration – SF jazz – August 7th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
This week’s Fridays at Five offering from SF jazz celebrates the 60th Birthday of Latin Jazz percussionist and composer John Santos. The event took place in November of 2015, so by now he’s almost to his 65th birthday.
Santos is a Bay Area fixture in the music scene. He’s been intricately involved with SFJazz since their opening in 2013 and served as a Resident Artistic Director there. He also performed at San Francisco’s first Jazz in the City Festival way back in 1983.
Joining Santos for this concert will be his sextet. He also had a few special guests show up including timbalero Orestes Vilató, violinist Anthony Blea and vocalists Destani Wolf and Rico Pabón.
Our usual reminder about Fridays at Five: these concerts are only played once – at 5:00 PM PDT. You must sign up for SFJazz’s Fridays at Five program with a payment of $5 which gives you access to a month’s worth of concerts. You can also sign up for a year of concerts for $60. Either way, it’s quite a bargain.
Bill Frisell Trio – Village Vanguard – August 7th and 8th – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT
For more than 40 years guitarist Bill Frisell has been one of the leading musicians in jazz. He has over 50 albums as a leader and his many collaborators include John Zorn, Allen Toussaint, Charles Lloyd, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon and many more.
He’s recorded many styles of music from Disney songs to the music of Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach to country to music he’s written for films. He’s been nominated for 5 Grammy Awards and won the Best Contemporary Jazz award for his 2004 album Unspeakable.
For these two shows from New York’s Village Vanguard, he will be joined by Thomas Morgan on Bass and Rudy Royston on Drums. Based on the clip above, they know how to make great music and social distance at the same time.
Tickets for each concert are $10.
Terri Lyne Carrington and Danilo Pérez in Concert – August 8th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
In November of 2019, Grammy Award-winning musician Terri Lyne Carrington released her most recent album, Waiting Game. An ironic title given what’s happened since has precluded the extensive touring an artist usually does to support new material. However, that hasn’t stopped critics and listeners from discovering the album.
In July she topped the DownBeat Critics poll when she was named Best Jazz Group, Best Jazz Album and Best Jazz Artist.
Joining Carrington for this social distance live stream event is pianist Danilo Pérez. The Panamanian musician has performed multiple styles of music which all invoke the many influences he’s had through his over thirty-year career.
He’s a two-time Grammy Award winner, most recently for 2018’s Emanon.
If you’ve been reading any of our jazz coverage, you know that he has long been a part of Wayne Shorter’s band and was involved with the many SFJazz Wayne Shorter Celebration concerts. (The next one will be shown on August 28th).
Amongst the other artists with which he has recorded or performed are Tito Puente, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Haden, Terence Blanchard, Jon Hendricks and Roy Haynes.
The combination of these two fine musicians should make for a terrific performance. This concert is free, but registration is required.
Those are our selections for Jazz Stream: August 4th – August 9th. Enjoy your week! Enjoy the music!
Photo of Terri Lyne Carrington by John Watson/Courtesy of her website