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Author: John Chacona

Newcomer Emma Hedrick Is Making A Career On Her Own Terms

Emma Hedrick

If jazz is dead, as so many fans like to think, somebody forgot to tell the singers, so many of who have lately emerged on the scene. For years, their playbook was simple: record an album of songbook standards with a trio, preferably with some name players, and wait for the phone to ring.

Not Emma Hedrick who will make her BOP STOP debut Thursday. All 10 songs on Newcomer, her debut recording released last Friday, are original compositions. Aside from producer Peter Eldridge who appears on two selections, the biggest name among the 16 musicians credited might belong to Connor Rohrer, 25, whom cognoscenti might recognize as Samara Joy’s pianist at Cain Park last August.

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A Big Week In NEO For Little Big Bands (And A Big Big Band)

Bobby Selvaggio and Stephen Philip Harvey

Why are these men smiling?

At the poker table a pair of eights is nothing to get excited about, but on the jazz calendar it’s a winning hand. And NEO is holding it this week thanks to a pair of concerts–both tied to upcoming recordings–featuring dynamic octets led by Stephen Philip Harvey and Bobby Selvaggio.

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Two Bands + Two New Releases = Three Shows in NEO

In the circular economy of jazz, new recordings are supported by album release tours or shows and those performances in turn create a market for the recordings. Just how this works is on display this week as concerts by pianist Ben Tweedt and saxophonist Matthew Alec, two artists with ties to northeast Ohio, celebrate the releases of their latest recordings.

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Kevin Robert Martinez’s Reclamation Band Is Back On These Roads

Reclamation Band

Kevin Robert Martinez‘s Reclamation Band released a recording in 2023 called These Roads, but since that time, the road is a place you’d have been hard pressed to find them. This summer, though, the sextet returns to the stage, including two concerts this weekend, and Martinez couldn’t be happier.

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Nothing But Flowers, Part 2

Jazz goes on and on. It never ends.

Vinnie Sperazza invokes that mantra often in Chronicles, his big-hearted and essential Substack. And it’s true! Just look at the variety of shows by local and touring musicians in the four days beginning Thursday. And while I’m here, I need to give some love to Jim Szabo whose weekly jazz calendar for WRUW is the menu from which I order. To get your own copy, visit the link at the end of this piece.

The menu analogy is no accident. Like food, music is best enjoyed in company. It’s a social activity, after all. And if you haven’t left the nest in a while, spread those wings and fly off to one of the many jazz events in our area this weekend. Below are four you might want to consider.

On and on.

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