Event previews

Chris Hovan’s Trio, Grown in the Midwest, is 100 Percent Organic

Published 17 January, 2023

Chris Hovan Organic Trio at Cliff Bell's — *photocredit: Jeff Dunn*

On the day before he spoke with me for this piece, Chris Hovan’s active Facebook account, a worthy follow, by the way, featured a tabletop photo showed a CD jewel box next to a glass of scotch. The caption read, “One of my top 5 Blue Notes, period!”

The CD was Grant Green’s Talkin’ About, a storied 1965 Blue Note Records release with Larry Young (Khalid Yasin) and Elvin Jones. That lineup of guitar, Hammond Organ and drums, just happens to have the same instrumentation as Hovan’s Organic Trio, the band that the Cleveland drummer will bring to Bop Stop for a Friday night concert.

Was this a sign of what the Cleveland audience might expect?

Blowing In From Chicago: Tim Daisy and Ken Vandermark Friday at Convivium 33

Published 10 January, 2023

Tim Daisy Ken Vandermark — Tim Daisy, Ken Vandermark

Being a creative musician in Chicago almost demands a willingness to play anything, everywhere with everybody. Percussionist Tim Daisy and saxophonist Ken Vandermark, who will appear at Convivium 33 Friday, Jan. 13, embody that imperative as well as anyone, having collaborated with hundreds of musicians, movement and visual artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet despite lengthy resumes that suggest an affinity with musical speed dating, the two are just as committed to long-term relationships, especially their own.

Bop Stop Rings In 2023 With Tim Mirth’s Night Terrors Band

Published 6 January, 2023

Tim Mirth has been experimenting with guitars for a long time. “As a 10-year-old, I found my dad’s guitar, this Gretsch Corvette,” he remembered. “I would sneak it out after school, play with it, try to figure it out. One day my dad comes by, and I thought, I’m not going to get to play with this anymore, but he totally knew me. He showed me a couple of things and ever since I haven’t been able to put it down.”

Thirty years later, he still has the Gretsch. one of the 20 or so guitars in his arsenal. Mirth will select a couple of them to the concert by his Night Terrors band that will open Bop Stop’s 2023 schedule, Wednesday, Jan. 11.

Flutist Hofmann Comes Home for the Holly-Days for Three Concerts with the CJO

Published 13 December, 2022

It’s pretty common these days to find jazz instrumentalists who were classically trained before beginning to improvise. Not Holly Hofmann. The Painesville-born flutist who will appear this weekend with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra studied with the legendary Walter Mayhall at Youngstown State University and with former Cleveland Orchestra principal flutist Maurice Sharp at the Cleveland Institute of Music. But her first teacher was her father, Nelson.

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Dan Weiss’ Trio Made One Of The Year’s Best Recordings. Hear Them At Bop Stop Sunday

Published 2 December, 2022

*(from left) Thomas Morgan, Jacob Sacks, Dan Weiss*

Dan Weiss talks a lot like he plays the drums. When I spoke with him about his Sunday concert at Bop Stop, his answers to my interview questions were short. To the point. Nothing wasted. Next question?

Yet forward momentum, essential for any drummer, is just one part of his game. Color, an original voice as a composer and a keen ear for texture are in there. They’re all present on Dedication (Cygnus Records), the stunning new release by Weiss’ longstanding trio with pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Thomas Morgan.

Given his many musical associations with artists as diverse as the saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Lee Konitz, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jen Shyu, it’s kind of amazing that he’s only appeared in Cleveland twice. The trio played Bop Stop in November 2019, and 19 months earlier he was at the Hingetown club with saxophonist Chris Potter band.