With the outdoor concert and festival season coming to a close, jazz and creative music returns to the small rooms where the music was born. This week’s most compelling shows all feature Northeast Ohio musicians, proving that football and clambakes aren’t the only autumn traditions to honor around here.
Chris Corsano with Dana Jessen, Thu., October 5, 8 p.m., Waterloo Arts Cafe, 15601 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland
Tonight’s concert featuring Chris Corsano and Dana Jessen will be the first encounter of the two improv luminaries. That’s hard to believe given that the drummer and bassoonist run in broadly similar musical circles. The operative word here is “broadly,” because those circles include artists such as Zoh Amba, Björk, the International Contemporary Ensemble and George Lewis. That list of collaborators should probably tip you off that this is a New Ghosts show. This is one of five concerts this month presented by the nervy music lovers behind the Ghosts and, hard on the heels of Monday’s Die Hochstapler concert at BOP STOP, the second this week. Hey, it’s October. That’s when the ghosts come out, right?
Bobby Selvaggio Paintings Project, Fri., October 6, 8 p.m., BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Ave., Cleveland
Saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio likes to keep busy. So when he announced last month that he would no longer direct bookings at Akron’s BLU Jazz+ and C3, you just knew that he wouldn’t sit still. In addition to mixing a new recording for April, 2024 release and writing his first piece for wind ensemble, the director of jazz studies at Kent State will bring his latest project to BOP STOP this weekend. Inspired by visual art, the Paintings Project enlists a quartet of Old and not-so-old Masters Jonah Ferguson on guitar and bassist Kip Reed to provide a canvas rich with color and line, and in the case of drummer Anthony Taddeo, deft brushwork, too.
“Music Of Wayne Shorter” JT’s Electrik Blackout, Saturday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m., Edwins Too, 13220 Shaker Square, Shaker Heights
When Wayne Shorter’s unconquerable spirit left his body in March, tributes mourned the loss of a man who had been called “the greatest living jazz composer.” Created and Led by saxophonist Justin Tibbs, JT’s Electrik Blackout would seem to be ideally equipped to dip into the underappreciated book of compositions Shorter created for similarly electrified forces in the series of albums he recorded after leaving Weather Report. Instead, Tibbs and his crew will assay the better-known material Shorter wrote for the bands of Miles Davis, Art Blakey and his own Blue Note recordings. It’s that rare greatest hits setlist where every tune is a classic .
John Petrucelli Quartet, Saturday, Oct. 7, 8 p.m., BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Ave., Cleveland
Saxophonist John Petrucelli came to northeast Ohio as a scholar, but quickly established himself as a tenor saxophonist of range and power. The demands of an academic position (last year he was named the first James R. and Susan Neumann Postdoctoral Fellow of Jazz History at Oberlin Conservatory) limit the time available for gigging, so opportunities to hear him should not be missed, especially when he’s in the company of first-call collaborators such as Dan Bruce, guitar, bassist Kip Reed and Jamey Haddad on drums.
I couldn’t live without Jim Szabo’s essential, weekly Northeast Ohio jazz calendar , NEO’s most complete list of jazz and jazz-adjacent events. If you haven’t visited it lately, what are you waiting for?
NOTE: This article was written by a real human being. No artificial intelligence or generative language models were used in its creation.
Red beans and ricely yours,
jc
