Welcome to this week’s listings. Jazz Stream: August 25th – August 30th has quite a few offerings, but you’ll find a certain theme running through several of this week’s performances: the centennial of Charlie Parker’s birth. Even some of the programs listed that don’t have announced plans to celebrate Bird’s 100th, might find his music and/or his influence finding a place in the performances.
We have updated this post with a very special event from New York City’s Summerstage on Saturday that also celebrates Parker.
Here is this week’s Jazz Stream:
Palladium Plays the Music of Wayne Shorter – Smalls – August 25th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PDT
While saxophonist Nicole Glover might not be a household name, within the jazz community she’s made quite a name for herself. She’s performed with Jason Brown, Mel Brown, Mike Clark, George Colligan, Kenny Garrett, Rodney Green, Chuck Israels, Geoffrey Keezer, Victor Lewis, Bernie Maupin, Gene Perla and Esperanza Spaulding.
Her sax playing has taken her around the world and includes some of the world’s most prestigious jazz clubs and venues.
But what makes this performance from Smalls compelling is that she is going to play the music of legendary sax musician Wayne Shorter. His work is both complicated and simple; intellectual and emotional; inspired and inspiring.
Joining Glover for this gig are Chien Chien Lu on vibraphone; Sean Mason on piano, Russell Hall on bass and Rodney Green on drums.
Pasquale Grasso Solo and Trio Filmed Live at Birdland – August 25th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Certain praise helps make people aware of you. Then there’s that one quote that forever puts you on the map. For guitarist Pasquale Grasso it was when Pat Metheny proclaimed him “The best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life.”
Italian born Pasquale Grasso is a fixture in the New York jazz scene. This year he’s been releasing digital only EPs that find him playing solo versions of music written by and/or closely identified with the likes of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Grasso’s personal idol, Bud Powell.
This concert was filmed at Birdland as part of the Radio Free Birdland! series and also part of their Charlie Parker Centennial Celebration. Grasso will be performing solo and in a trio with bassist Ari Roland and drummer Kenny Washington.
On Solo Bird, his tribute to Parker, her performs How High the Moon/Ornithology, Yardbird Suite, Parker’s Mood and more.
Tickets for this concert are $13.50. Advance purchase is recommended.
Vanisha Gould Quartet – Smalls – August 26th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PDT
Here’s another artist who isn’t as well known yet as she’s going to be. Vocalist Vanisha Gould clearly knows the legacy of jazz singers that preceded her, but she’s also willing to take that knowledge and make something wholly her own in the process.
She performs on Wednesday at Smalls with Chris McCarthy on piano; Dan Pappalardo on bass and Anwar Marshall on drums.
Billy Stritch Filmed Live at Birdland – August 27th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Singer/arranger/pianist Billy Stritch‘s second home is New York’s Birdland. So it was inevitable that he would join the list of musicians filming a concert on the New York venue’s stage for the Radio Free Birdland! series.
Rather than accompany others (as he does for Jim Caruso’s Cast Party and for artists such as Christine Ebersole, Linda Lavin and Liza Minnelli), he will be going solo for this show called Hooray For Love.
The set will feature such songs as Meet Me Midnight, You’ll See, Buds Won’t Bud and With So Little to Be Sure Of (which certainly seems like the song that best defines our world today. It comes from Stephen Sondheim’s 1964 musical, Anyone Can Whistle).
Billy Stritch’s style is a classic blend of jazz and cabaret and his arrangements are always tasty.
Tickets for this show are $23.50. Advance purchase is recommended.
You should also check out Billy’s Place on YouTube. He’s done 16 episodes so far from his home in New York. The most recent was a celebration of the work of Harold Arlen.
Wayne Shorter Celebration Part 4 – SFJazz – August 28th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SFJazz’s Fridays at Five this week continues the celebration of sax legend Wayne Shorter. This concert, from January 2019, finds sax musician Joshua Redman and trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire joining Shorter’s long-time quartet musicians pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade.
This was one of a series of concerts that replaced scheduled Shorter concerts at SFJazz when the musician took ill.
It bears repeating that SFJazz’s streaming programming is available for either a one-month subscription of $5 or an annual subscription for $60. That will allow you to catch each Fridays at Five concert and additional programming they are adding to their line-up including live concerts. And if you join to see Wayne Shorter Celebration Part 4, you’ll also be able to watch Wayne Shorter Celebration Part 5 when Shorter is actually a part of the concert.
Lastly, let’s all wish Mr. Shorter a very happy birthday. August 25th (the day this post first runs) is his 87th birthday. We wish him well and many more happy birthdays. Thank you for the music!
David Murray – Village Vanguard – August 28th – August 29th – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT
Tenor sax musician David Murray has a perfect record at the Grammy Awards. As a member of McCoy Tyner’s band that recorded Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane, he won the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Group in 1986.
Will he also be celebrating Bird in these two performances from the Village Vanguard in New York? It’s possible. Remember that he also earned considerable acclaim for his album Dark Star that was a tribute to the Grateful Dead. So anything is truly possible.
Though first on the scene as a performer of free jazz, Murray’s style has evolved over the years. In a 1984 story for the New York Times, Robert Palmer described Murray’s style this way:
“Although he is only 27 years old, his sound is ripely mature. Unlike most younger tenor saxophonists, who seem to have affected the forced, trebly tone associated with the late John Coltrane, Mr. Murray plays with the big-sound swagger of the mainline tenor tradition, which began with Coleman Hawkins and extended through Ben Webster to Sonny Rollins to the rhythm-and-blues honkers to Archie Schepp and Albert Ayler.”
Joining Murray for these two concerts will be pianist Lafayette Gilchrist.
Tickets are $10. Advance purchase is recommended.
SummerStage Anywhere Charlie Parker’s 100th Birthday Celebration – SummmerStage Instagram Page – August 29th – 10:30 AM EDT/7:30 AM PDT
This summer would have seen New York’s SummerStage holding their 28th annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in person in Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park. However, circumstances being what they are, they are going online this year. What they have planned seems truly special.
A full day of programming is on tap and it features artists Jason Moran, Christian McBride, Immanuel Wilkins, Ravi Coltrane, Dee Dee Bridgewater and many more. Here’s the schedule (all times listed below are EDT):
10:30 AM – A recap of the 2018 Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. Included in this opening program are singer Catherine Russell, drummer/pianist Jack DeJohnette, pianist Monty Alexander, pianist/singer Amina Claudine Myers, bassist Buster Williams and more.
10:45 AM – Drummer Jerome Jennings will moderate a conversation with Sam Turvey, the founder of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival and producer of the events and Erika Elliott, Executive Artistic Director of SummerStage.
12:00 PM – A showing of the 2018 performance of UNHEARD. It was written by and featured saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill. (Note: Next week we will have an interview with Wilkins about his impressive new album, Omega.)
12:15 PM – Six-time Grammy Award winning bassist/composer Christian McBride and singer Sheila Jordan will discuss Parker.
1:30 PM – A recap of the 2019 Charlier Parker Jazz Festival. Included in this recapped are drummer Winard Harper and his group Jeli Posse, multi-genre band Mwenso & The Shakes, singer Quiana Lynell, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, harpist Brandee Younger, saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and more.
1:45 PM – A tap dance masterclass with Ayodele Casel (who collaborated with Arturo O’Farrill on a show at the Joyce Theatre in New York last September that left critics searching for additional superlatives to use).
4:00 PM – After a walk through Tompkins Square Park and a visit to Parker’s house, Turvey and Elliot will be joined in conversation by pianist/composer Jason Moran, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw and others. The event will conclude with a showing of the 2012 performance by multi-instrumentalist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson of Bird With Strings at that year’s festival.
Celebrating Bird – A Conversation with Music – 92Y – August 29th 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT $10
New York’s 92 Street Y is offering up a series of on-line programs celebrating the centennial of Charlie Parker. They are having a screening of Clint Eastwood’s film Bird on Friday night; a Charlie Parker listening party on Saturday at 12 PM EDT and later that night they will show Hope Boykin’s dance film ...a movement. Journey.
But for me the highlight will be Saturday afternoon’s Celebrating Bird – A Conversation with Music. Former Village Voice writer Gary Giddins, who authored the 1986 book Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker, will moderate a conversation that includes four contemporary jazz sax musicians: Joe Lovano, Charles McPherson, Grace Kelly and Antonio Hart.
Also joining the conversation will be legendary bebop pianist Barry Harris. Before he started recording in the 1950s, Harris sat in on some sets with Parker in Detroit in the 1940s. Parker, according to Harris’ website, would also come to the pianist’s house to see how he taught music.
Harris has performed with many of jazz music’s biggest names: Benny Golson, Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Cannonball Adderley, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young – to name a few.
Archival footage will be shown and some of Parker’s most famous recordings will be part of the program. Several of Parker’s compositions will also be performed by the musicians. Amongst the songs scheduled to be performed are Yardbird Suite and Ornithology.
Tickets are $10. Advance purchase is recommended.
Ramsey Lewis – Saturday Salon on StageIt – August 29th – 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT
National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis has been making music in the public eye since 1956. The pianist has recorded over 80 albums. He’s won three Grammy Awards. He was also the host of a highly-rated public television series about jazz called Legends of Jazz.
In other words, if they do another series he’ll be in it, he won’t be hosting it.
This Saturday he’ll perform a show called Songs From The In Crowd on StageIt with some of the proceeds going to the Jazz Foundation of America. The money will help assist jazz musicians unable to make a living due to the current pandemic.
Tickets are $20.
Jon-Erik Kellso Quartet – Smalls – August 29th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PDT
You know if Wynton Marsalis has you as a member of his Tentet playing Louis Armstrong material, you have to be a terrific jazz trumpet musician. Such is the role that Jon-Erik Kellso has played for Marsalis for several years. Kellso has also been a regular member of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks.
Kellso will be front and center of his own quartet when they take to the stage at Smalls in New York on Saturday. Joining him will be Evan Arntzen on clarinet; Rossano Sportiello on piano and Neal Miner on bass.
Again, not a household name, but when the music is this good, does that really matter?
That’s Jazz Stream: August 25th – August 30th. Be sure to check out our Best Bets on Friday for the weekend. We often add more jazz listings there.
Main photo: Charlie Parker (Courtesy of CharlieParker.com)