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Tag: Dan Bruce

Friday Night Lights: Two Saxophonists Debut New Directions

Published 27 October, 2026 By John Chacona

“I play energy, not notes,” Nathan-Paul declares on his press site, and if you’ve ever heard him play, you know it’s true. With interests as a broadcaster, musician, label owner and composer. Stephen Philip Harvey seems to be energy embodied. So catching up with these two protean creators reveals only a single frame in the epic film of their careers.

But this week is a rich moment to do so as both bring new projects to northeast Ohio on Friday, Harvey at BOP STOP and Nathan-Paul at BLU Jazz+.

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At Rubber City Jazz & Blues Fest, A Big Night Of Big Bands

Published 8 September, 2026 By John Chacona
The Sam Blakeslee Large Group at BLU Jazz+
The Sam Blakeslee Large Group at BLU Jazz+

The 2026 Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, which begins Thursday, is big: three days, five venues and 18 events. It has a big-name headliner, too in contemporary jazz master Gerald Albright who will top a double bill with Althea René at Lock 3 on Saturday, Sept. 12. But the biggest noise of the festival presented by Open Tone Music might be the one that a pair of big—or biggish—bands will make in the normally hushed confines of Akron’s Main Library.

The bands are under the leadership of trombonist and composer Sam Blakeslee, who will present music from his Large Group’s recording, New Blood, which will be released Sept. 25 on BJU Records, and Chris Coles, who has convened an 11-piece orchestra to play “The Way of The Sly Man,” a multi-part work composed by the late bassist and educator Dave Morgan.

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For Jazz Fans And Players Alike, This Week Belongs To ‘The Cats’

Published 4 August, 2026 By John Chacona

Tradition might call this week the Dog Days of Summer, but for jazz fans around northeast Ohio, it’s time for The Cats. That’s the name that serious practitioners of the art of improvised music in the Black American tradition give to the ones who can really play.

By any measure, the musicians listed below fit that description and all are on bandstands around the area this week. Here’s what you can expect:

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Nathan-Paul’s Age of Aquarius Dawns At Edwin’s

Published 27 January, 2026 By John Chacona
Nathan-Paul Davis at RCB&J
Nathan-Paul Davis at Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival

Nathan-Paul Davis makes this statement at the top of his Linktree page:

"I play energy, not notes!" Nathan-Paul calls his music SOUND MEDICINE.

Anyone who has heard Davis play will recognize that he is simply stating facts. No cap. No flex. The energy in a typical Nathan-Paul performance could power a dozen AI server farms for a month.

Thursday night finds the saxophonist in an unusual setting: playing a birthday gig, in this case, his own. The setting, Edwin’s Leadership & Restaurant Institute, is at once familiar, but different.

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