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Tag: All About Jazz

Culmination: A Massive New Book Honors The Centenary of Sam Rivers

Monday, September 25, 2023, marks the centennial of Sam Rivers’ birth. Rivers was a composer, improvisor, theoretician, scenemaker mentor and instrumentalist of Promethean stature. It’s hard to think of anyone quite like him. So it’s appropriate that his centennial is commemorated by “The Sam Rivers Sessionography,” a new book by Rick Lopez that rivals Rivers in its panoptical audacity.

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Countdown: Your Planning Guide for Music August 24-31

It’s going to be a great weekend for music in NEO, but where to start? Countdown gets you ready with a roundup of some of the most notable music events that you might want to check out. Think of it as your every-Thursday planning guide to a weekend of music and good times.

George Benson, Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m., Cain Park, Cleveland Heights

Given his chart success as a vocalist, it’s easy to forget just how much jazz guitar George Benson can play when the spirit moves him. Whether that spirit will be with him at Cain Park is an open question. The smart money will be on a medley of hits with maybe one familiar burner to remind us all that the old man (Benson is 80) can bring the fire that lit up Pittsburgh’s Hill District six decades ago.

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Imaginative, Interactive and Intensely Committed: Drummer Ari Hoenig’s Trio Comes To Bop Stop

Ari Hoenig Trio
Ben Tiberio, Ari Hoenig, Gadi Lehavi

At Ari Hoenig’s website, you’ll find several items of apparel for sale. One of them is a t-shirt, black, of course, with a photo of Hoenig at the drum kit and the legend, “I’m not angry. That’s just my face!”

Intensity has been a hallmark of Hoenig’s career. For the New York Times in 2009, Ben Ratliff wrote, “Ari Hoenig has a slightly compulsive relationship with his drum set.” If you’ve seen him play, you’ll know what Ratliff meant, and if you haven’t, Hoenig’s weekend appearance at Bop Stop offers a fine introduction to his imaginative, highly interactive and yes, intensely committed style.

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Moto Perpetuo Drummer Anthony Taddeo’s Next Project: Recording Alla Boara Live

Alla Boara

 

If drummer Anthony Taddeo were a piece of music, he’d be marked Allegro vivace con brio é giocoso. Here’s a bit more Italian to represent the bilingual Taddeo: preso dalla testa ai piedi, an idiom for being in constant motion from head to toe.

This weekend finds the  in-demand sideman, dependable session musician and busy bandleader in the familiar setting of Hingetown’s Bop Stop with his Alla Boara project for a two-night engagement that will be recorded for audio and video release.

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