At the summit meeting of Cleveland saxophonists convened this past summer at the Tri-C JazzFest, Ernie Krivda, Ken LeeGrand and Howie Smith were to take center stage in a round robin. But host Dominick Farinacci announced that LeeGrand would play his featured material first. “He has to get to a gig in Fairlawn at 3,” Farinacci explained. It was shortly after 2 p.m.
I was there and reviewed the concert for All About Jazz (you can read it here), so when I spoke with LeeGrand earlier this month, I had to ask him if he made it. “Yes I did. I got there–it was probably, like, 3:07, and the guys that I had assembled to do that [gig] knew what was going on, so they had already started. I didn’t even take the reeds off the horns. I left my reeds on. So when I got there, all I had to do was put the necks on the saxophones and put my stand together and roll.”
When it comes to music, “roll” is what Ken LeeGrand does—as an educator, instrumentalist, bandleader, griot and inspiration. Now 73, LeeGrand has been on the scene for so long, he essentially is the scene. So it makes perfect sense that during this weekend of homecomings and family reunions, his most enduring band, Horns And Things, will be featured at Ohio City’s Irishtown Bend Taproom.