Though hip-hop artists have made it a genre unto itself, the mixtape, a homemade cassette of songs, was the Spotify playlist of the 1980s and ‘90s. Mixtapes were playable, tradable declarations of musical allegiances and taste, a medium of exchange and sometimes winsome mash notes to crushes, delivering their message at 1 7/8 ips.
True, it’s hard to imagine jazz nerds assembling cassettes of favorite Maynard Ferguson cuts to give to romantic objects (harder still to imagine they had such objects). Still guitarist Dan Bruce liked the concept so much that he’s making a mixtape live and on stage by arranging songs performed by Liz Bullock, Ray Flanagan, Jinari Kemet and Gretchen Pleuss with an a-list jazz ensemble.
Despite being one of the region’s busiest jazz musicians and teachers—or perhaps because of it—arranging is something of a novelty for Bruce. “I’m still kind of a novice arranger, or I’m still learning,” Bruce said in a video call, “but I really enjoy it.”
True, he’s written arrangements for his own :beta Collective group, which is basically the Mixtape band, as well as for student groups. Still, working with singer/songwriters was relatively new.
“I wanted to collaborate with some people that were not in the jazz scene because there’s some great musicians around town,” Bruce said, “people who, I just love their music and I listened to it already.”
Once he devised the concept and CMS director Gabe Pollack gave the project a home, Bruce said, “it just took some conversations around people being open to me possibly re-imagining, re-harmonizing, re-orchestrating, doing some stuff with their music. And these four artists were like, Yeah, that sounds great.”
“I basically sent Dan a bunch of songs and then he picked the songs to arrange,” Ray Flanagan said on a video call. Though the singer/songwriter often performs as a solo with just his guitar, he said, “Most of my songs are melody-based. They’re built in a way that they can be played by a person at a piano, or they could be played with a bigger ensemble.”
Still, the ensemble Bruce put together came as a surprise to Flanagan. “We went to rehearsal and I couldn’t believe it. I’m just thankful to get to work with this group of musicians. Anthony Taddeo, Chris Coles and Theron Brown have been some of my favorites for a long time. It’s an interesting meeting of worlds.”
The concert will also be an occasion to heal the world. Bruce insisted on a benefit component to the concert, in this case, for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. “I’ve done some stuff with them. and they’re amazing,” Bruce said. “Especially as the urgency increases lately and the fact that our current administration, if I can turn it into this, is weaponizing food. This is just the facts on the ground. It’s absolutely the time that we need to be reaching out to our neighbors and helping them.”
Arranging, organizing, rehearsing, coordinating and making a place for Tri-C Jazz Fellows students to play in the lobby before the concert gave Bruce a lot to think about. So it’s little surprise that he isn’t featuring himself as a player.
“There’s a bunch of songs where guitar does not have a very big part. I’m just maybe doing some little background stuff,” he said. “I was just trying to write the orchestration that I thought would bring out what I wanted to hear in the tune, or maybe give an interesting new take on something. And it was kind of fun to do it with these artists and kind of see them giggle at some of the stuff I did.”
CLE Mixtape Live, Friday, Nov., 21 7 p.m., Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Boulevard., Cleveland. Tickets: $10-40 available here.
Trading Fours
There’s never a bad time to get out and commune in the same room with creative musicians. Below are four musical events of interest in the coming week that you might want to check out.
Acid Cats Farewell Concerts
Thurs. and Fri., Nov. 20 &. 21, 8 p.m.
BLU Jazz+, 47 E. Market St., Akron. (Thursday tickets), (Friday tickets)
The names are loud: Cameron Bickley, Andru Dennis, Tommy Lehman, Randy Nicholas, Smokefvce, Justin Tibbs and Michael Vincent. Collectively, they’re known as Acid Cats, but the collection is being dispersed. So if you want to catch them one more time, you have two more chances. Make it Friday and you can catch the afterparty upstairs.
Alex Skolnick Trio
Fri., Nov. 21, 7:30 p.m.
Irishtown Bend Taproom, 1849 W 24th St., Cleveland. (tickets)
Remember the first time you heard The Bad Plus’ cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit?” Seems like a long time ago that jazz guys covering rock tunes triggered calls to the jazz police. Still, authenticity matters, and with years in bands such as Testament and touring with hair bands and metal acts, Alex Skolnick’s jazz treatments of rock songs smell like the real thing.
John Klayman’s Reedrush
Fri., Nov. 21, 8 p.m.
BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Ave., Cleveland. (tickets)
Veteran saxophonist John Klayman’s instrumental bona fides are by now beyond question. But let’s give it up for his bandleading. Klayman has convened a generation-spanning band including guitarist Bob Ferrazza, bassist Jordan McBride, drummer Sunny Tabler and comrade in reeds Howie Smith, who must be the youngest 82-year-old on any stage anywhere.
Dan Wilson
Sunday, Nov 23, 7 p.m
BLU Jazz+, 47 E. Market St., Akron. (tickets)
Maybe it’s his love of the outdoors or maybe it’s the warmth of his tone, but whatever it is, Dan Wilson is the perfect guy to usher in a week of fellowship, family and friends. He’s invited a few, like Cliff Barnes, Kip Reed and Dave Throckmorton. And to add a different flavor to a veteran band, vocalist Nigel Hall will be on board.
For the most complete listing of jazz and jazz-adjacent events., look to Jim Szabo’s essential, weekly Northeast Ohio jazz calendar.