Bop Stop - John Chacona writes

Alla Boara Presents a Bella Figura at Friday’s Album Release Celebration

Published 19 October, 2022 By John Chacona

Drummer Anthony Taddeo finished his graduate degree from Youngstown State University in 2020, but he won’t hand in his final project until Friday night.

True, Le Tre Sorelle, the new CD by his band Alla Boara, wasn’t exactly a class assignment, and as capstone research projects go, this one is more joyous than the average academic paper. Yet the CD, which will be celebrated Friday at an album release party at Bop Stop, is the culmination of a long period of study, research, writing and interrogation into Taddeo’s Italian roots.

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Stephan Crump and His Bass Offer a Complete Musical Experience at a New Ghosts Concert

Published 6 October, 2022 By John Chacona

It’s practically a cliche in jazz circles: no one wants to listen to a bass solo. Stephan Crump has heard it all before. Yet when he kicks off his set at Bop Stop next Thursday, Oct. 13 at a concert presented by New Ghosts, it will be alone on the Hingetown club’s stage with only his double bass joining him. Don’t expect to hear a lot of sotto voce chattering. The more common response to Crump’s playing is stunned silence.

Hearing the Colors and Seeing the Sounds, Amina Figarova Comes To Bop Stop

Published 5 October, 2022 By John Chacona

For years, Amina Figarova was such a constant presence on the Cleveland scene that you might have assumed that she lived here. So it came as a surprise when the pianist told me that her engagement Oct. 12 at Bop Stop will be her first at the Hingetown club.

ROVA Saxophone Quartet: Keeping It Fresh For 45 Years

Published 27 September, 2022 By John Chacona

On Tuesday, Oct. 4, a quartet that has been one of the world’s most restlessly creative and genre-defying ensembles since its founding in San Francisco in the 1970s will return to Cleveland for the first time in nearly 35 years.

No, it’s not the Kronos Quartet, which played here in 2006 and 2013. Tuesday’s New Ghosts concert at Bop Stop will present the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, a musical aggregation that has been as influential, catalytic and inventive as its more celebrated Bay-area string-playing contemporaries.

Brooklyn Cooperative Trio Ember Set To Catch Fire At Blu Jazz+

Published 20 September, 2022 By John Chacona

You can’t blame bassist Noah Garabedian for hoping that the engagement Friday at Blu Jazz+ with his cooperative trio Ember will be a little less memorable than his last northeast Ohio visit. “Nobody was there,” Garabedian remembered.

It was Nov. 9, 2016, the day after the election.