Skip to content

Category: Event previews

Andy Milne & Unison Offer a Perfect Way To End Cleveland’s Perfect Jazz Weekend

Published 23 June, 2022

Andy Milne and Unison

Everywhere you look, there are signs that the local jazz scene might again look like the one that went on leave in March, 2020. Reading the tea leaves, the return of the Tri-C Jazz Fest to Playhouse Square is huge tell. That tentpole event needs no introduction from me, just a hope that you’ll go and enjoy the great music on offer.

But there’s one more jazz event you should make room for this weekend. It’s the return to Cleveland’s Bop Stop of pianist Andy Milne and his Unison trio for a welcome if long-overdue tour to support his latest recording The reMission (you can read my review of that record here).

Continue ReadingAndy Milne & Unison Offer a Perfect Way To End Cleveland’s Perfect Jazz Weekend
Leave a Comment

Caili O’Doherty Returns to Bop Stop with a New Band and a New Record

Published 14 June, 2022
Caili O'Doherty
photo by Anna Yatskevich

In the Irish language, céilí, pronounced KAY-lee, broadly means “dance.” That’s an apt description of the effervescent pianistic style of Caili O’Doherty, who will bring a quartet to the Bop Stop on Sunday to support “Quarantine Dream,” her new recording released last Friday.

Continue ReadingCaili O’Doherty Returns to Bop Stop with a New Band and a New Record
Leave a Comment

June Busts Out In Cleveland with a Cuban Piano Powerhouse and an All-Star Band

Published 1 June, 2022

Hilario Durán/Andy James

Friday: Hilario Durán Trio at Bop Stop

GENTLE READERS, Here’s a note from the Bop Stop: “DUE TO HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS AND AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION, TONIGHT’S SHOW WITH HILARIO DURAN HAS BEEN CANCELED. WE ARE WORKING TO RESCHEDULE THIS DATE FOR THE FALL. ALL TICKET PURCHASERS WILL BE NOTIFIED ABOUT REFUNDS.”

If a nation’s stature were ranked by great pianists per-capita, Cuba would surely lead the world. With a population comparable to Ohio’s, Cuba has produced keyboard lions Fabian Almazan, Harold López-Nussa, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Omar Sosa, Manuel Valera, David Virelles and the pianistic Valdés dynasty whose currently represented by Chucho and Cuchito. On Friday, a Cuban-born pianist who is squarely in the lineage of these lions of the keyboard will visit Cleveland.

Continue ReadingJune Busts Out In Cleveland with a Cuban Piano Powerhouse and an All-Star Band

Comments closed

Can We Talk? Gerald Clayton Comes to Bop Stop for Two Conversations on Improvisation

Published 26 May, 2022

 

For generations, the jazz business has spent a lot of time and money looking for ways to grow the genre’s dedicated but comparatively small audience. Pianist Gerald Clayton has some advice for them: Ain’t nothing to it but to do it.

“That applies to how to approach playing the music, learning how to play the music, and also learning how to listen to it,” the 38-year-old Clayton said in a phone interview Tuesday. “If we just have folks listening to this music over and over and over, I think the process will come pretty naturally and take care of itself, but I think there’s nothing wrong with having a bit of a liaison, a tour guide pointing out some things to listen for.”

On June 1 and 2 that tour departs from Bop Stop sailing under the flag of Piano Cleveland’s Listening Series with Clayton as your guide.

Continue ReadingCan We Talk? Gerald Clayton Comes to Bop Stop for Two Conversations on Improvisation
Comments closed