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“My music is kind of intricate,” Marta Sanchez admitted. Then she quickly added, “It’s not that I’m not attracted towards intellectual music, but I’m attracted to beauty–in music and in art–but both at the same time.”
Listen to Sanchez’s bracing, elegant pianism as you can do Saturday at BOP STOP, and you’ll learn that intellectual rigor wrapped in beauty are magnetically attracted to her, too.
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Review: “I Call” from “D.D. Jackson Poetry Project“ All About Jazz, 15 October, 2024
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When you think of all the challenges that have faced independent music venues for the past ten years, industry consolidation, soaring rents and the rise of streaming entertainment—then add the COVID-19 shutdown–it’s a miracle that there are any places left to hear live music. The jazz scene, which has lived on the economic knife’s edge for decades, was hit hard. Yet a few places survived, and that’s something to celebrate.
Welcome to BOP STOP, the little engine that could and the beating heart of Cleveland’s scene. This week the club marks its tenth anniversary in its third incarnation as part of the Music Settlement in Hingetown. There it cultivates a training ground for young musicians, brings the world’s most notable artists to northeast Ohio’s and connects our most notable artists to the world. Hell yeah that’s worth celebrating.
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Making improvised music in the Black American tradition means fixing your gaze firmly on the future while honoring the innovators of the past. 2024, with the centenaries of drummer Max Roach and pianist Bud Powell, has been a good year to do that. Yet while those two lions of bebop were deservedly celebrated for the way they redefined the language of their instruments, trombone master J.J. Johnson’s contributions have received less recognition—until now.
Trombonist John Fedchock is determined to see that his distinguished predecessor gets his flowers, and he’s put his money where his mouthpiece is on a Midwest tour that will bring him to Akron’s BLU Jazz+ and BOP STOP in support of his new Summit Records release Justifiably J.J.
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Things have been a bit quiet lately here at let’s call this. That’s because we were in the middle of moving across town to a funky, 130-year-old former farmhouse in Lakewood’s Birdtown Historic District. The circumstances that brought us here are a long story that I’ll spare you, but suffice to say we have landed safely and happily (well, the cats aren’t happy yet, buuuuuut . . . ) and the WiFi has been connected. I’m typing this from my man cave, the first time in years that I’ve had a dedicated–and acoustically fine–listening room. That means more music will fill the Birdhouse, and with any kind of luck, more words about music will fill this blog.
Expect that to happen soon. October looks like a busy month, and previews of upcoming gigs by John Fedchock, Marta Sanchez, Ethan Iverson and the big BOP STOP tenth anniversary rager are in the works.
As per usual, look for a new installment of Pull Up! this and every Thursday?too. Meantime, I’ve got to put another record on, Bye.
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