Dimensions In Jazz Presents
The Steve Grover 2nd Annual Birthday Bash Featuring
The Steve Grover Septet w/ Trent Austin, trumpet; Tim O’Dell, alto saxophone; David Wells, tenor saxophone; Andrew Rathbun, tenor saxophone; Rick Peckham, guitar; Chris Van Voorst Van Beest, bass; Steve Grover, drums/composer.
Premiere of “Portraits For Septet” and other brand new original music
New CD “Between Now And After” available now
Friday February 23 and Saturday February 24 8 PM
Starbird Performance Hall, 535 Forest Avenue, Portland ME
Tickets $10 in advance and for seniors and students; $15 night of the show, available by calling 207 828-1310 or ordering through www.stevegrover.com
On hand at the concerts will be a brand new CD entitled Between Now And After, a recording of quintet music featuring Tim Sessions, trombone; David Wells, tenor saxophone; Tony Gaboury, guitar; Chris Van Voorst Van Beest, bass; and Steve Grover on drums. You can order a copy through www.stevegrover.com . The cost is $12 per CD.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Wow- The days have flown by! A busy week of teaching and then gigs this weekend. The unwritten music still awaits.
I did manage to listen to a couple of things this week on my way to and from- 'Smokestack' by Andrew Hill, which may be his most adventurous Blue Note from the '60s in several ways. The two bass quartet, with Roy Haynes on drums and Hill on piano, is very textural and rhythmically translucent. Richard Davis is the improvising foil and Eddie Khan lays it down. I will be listening more today on the road.
Below is a remembrance of Jay McShann, to be published on line at The Maine Jazz Alliance. Jay died last year. I had the honor of playing a concert with him in the '90s. McShann was a key figure in Kansas City jazz of the late swing period, and he was Charlie Parker's first significant employer:
Jay McShann RIP
The great Kansas City bandleader and pianist Jay McShann died this past year, and the obituaries I have read give his birth date as 1916. I always thought he was much older. I played a concert with Jay McShann back in 1995. When Greg Tardy (who played saxophone at the concert) asked him how old he was point blank, Mr. McShann replied, "Oh, I'm in my eighties now." Not terribly specific, but an experienced opinion nonetheless.
Bau Graves, then the artistic director for the Portland Performing Arts Center and their music series, called me to play with Jay and asked me to put a band together. I got Tardy and the bassist John Lockwood in addition to myself on drums. When I arrived for the rehearsal, I thought that he would simply want to run over the tunes fairly quickly and retire to his hotel to rest before the show. Wrong. Our rehearsal consisted of what was essentially a two-hour concert, complete with solos. After each full performance of a tune, Jay would dutifully and carefully write it down on a piece of paper, adding each song to the list for the concert that night.
Right before the concert, Greg asked Jay if he noticed that Charlie Parker practiced a lot. "Charlie Parker did EVERYTHING a lot," answered Mr. Parker's former employer. Then we were on stage, and Jay launched into a piano intro of what sounded like 'Dinah'; Greg turned his head back to me as if to say 'we didn't rehearse this tune', which, of course, we hadn't. Fortunately, Greg is a great musician, and played beautifully on a song he apparently didn't know. Most of the concert - but not all- was comprised of what we had so thoroughly played that afternoon.
I was honored to have this experience. Mr. McShann was a swinger, but I have never played the blues with someone who played as if he had invented it- very beautiful, almost lyrical, and very swinging and possessing a unique, Kansas City groove. And I loved his singing, too, which, like his playing, was undiminished with age. It was very moving for me to be in such close proximity to that music.
After the concert, John Lockwood remarked that the changes Jay used for ‘I Can’t Get Started’ must have been original changes or close to it. I don’t think he was simply referring to the fact that they were pre-bop, pre-Dizzy changes, but something more essential.
I think I still have that tune list someplace. I'll have to try to find it.
[Edit- I did find the tune list for the gig, and Dinah is nowhere to be found! There is the aforementioned 'I Can't Get Started', an Elington medley, and several of Jay's famous tunes. The first tune listed is 'Crazy Legs' in Ab, which is a key people play 'Dinah' in, so maybe that's what we played first. Either that or Jay ignored the list and played 'Dinah'. My recollection of the fact that we didn't rehearse that tune stands-]
I did manage to listen to a couple of things this week on my way to and from- 'Smokestack' by Andrew Hill, which may be his most adventurous Blue Note from the '60s in several ways. The two bass quartet, with Roy Haynes on drums and Hill on piano, is very textural and rhythmically translucent. Richard Davis is the improvising foil and Eddie Khan lays it down. I will be listening more today on the road.
Below is a remembrance of Jay McShann, to be published on line at The Maine Jazz Alliance. Jay died last year. I had the honor of playing a concert with him in the '90s. McShann was a key figure in Kansas City jazz of the late swing period, and he was Charlie Parker's first significant employer:
Jay McShann RIP
The great Kansas City bandleader and pianist Jay McShann died this past year, and the obituaries I have read give his birth date as 1916. I always thought he was much older. I played a concert with Jay McShann back in 1995. When Greg Tardy (who played saxophone at the concert) asked him how old he was point blank, Mr. McShann replied, "Oh, I'm in my eighties now." Not terribly specific, but an experienced opinion nonetheless.
Bau Graves, then the artistic director for the Portland Performing Arts Center and their music series, called me to play with Jay and asked me to put a band together. I got Tardy and the bassist John Lockwood in addition to myself on drums. When I arrived for the rehearsal, I thought that he would simply want to run over the tunes fairly quickly and retire to his hotel to rest before the show. Wrong. Our rehearsal consisted of what was essentially a two-hour concert, complete with solos. After each full performance of a tune, Jay would dutifully and carefully write it down on a piece of paper, adding each song to the list for the concert that night.
Right before the concert, Greg asked Jay if he noticed that Charlie Parker practiced a lot. "Charlie Parker did EVERYTHING a lot," answered Mr. Parker's former employer. Then we were on stage, and Jay launched into a piano intro of what sounded like 'Dinah'; Greg turned his head back to me as if to say 'we didn't rehearse this tune', which, of course, we hadn't. Fortunately, Greg is a great musician, and played beautifully on a song he apparently didn't know. Most of the concert - but not all- was comprised of what we had so thoroughly played that afternoon.
I was honored to have this experience. Mr. McShann was a swinger, but I have never played the blues with someone who played as if he had invented it- very beautiful, almost lyrical, and very swinging and possessing a unique, Kansas City groove. And I loved his singing, too, which, like his playing, was undiminished with age. It was very moving for me to be in such close proximity to that music.
After the concert, John Lockwood remarked that the changes Jay used for ‘I Can’t Get Started’ must have been original changes or close to it. I don’t think he was simply referring to the fact that they were pre-bop, pre-Dizzy changes, but something more essential.
I think I still have that tune list someplace. I'll have to try to find it.
[Edit- I did find the tune list for the gig, and Dinah is nowhere to be found! There is the aforementioned 'I Can't Get Started', an Elington medley, and several of Jay's famous tunes. The first tune listed is 'Crazy Legs' in Ab, which is a key people play 'Dinah' in, so maybe that's what we played first. Either that or Jay ignored the list and played 'Dinah'. My recollection of the fact that we didn't rehearse that tune stands-]
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