jazz concerts in northeast Ohio - John Chacona writes

The Abundance Mindset Rings Out At UA JazzWeek 25

Published 7 April, 2025 By John Chacona

*clockwise from left: Theron Brown, Sean Jones, Joshua Redman, Christopher Coles*

There’s a word you’re going to be hearing a lot more of in the next two weeks. It’s abundance, the title of a buzzy new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson that proposes something they call “the abundance mindset“ as a new basis for progressive politics. There’s no evidence that Klein and Thompson visited the campus of The University of Akron School of Music Jazz Studies Department before they wrote the book, but if they had they would have found that mindset in abundance . This week, April 7-11, that mindset will be on public display as UA kicks off JazzWeek 25: Abundance (Jazz Festival), featuring performances by Joshua Redman and Sean Jones in an illustration–and celebration–of music, community and lineage.

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Jenny Scheinman’s All Species Parade Marches (and Scurries, and Sometimes Stomps) Into The Treelawn

Published 3 April, 2025 By John Chacona

Jenny-Scheinman-by-Kory-Thibeault — *photocredit: Kory Thibeault*

Drop the needle on Jenny Scheinman ’s latest album, All Species Parade, and a verdant landscape of greens, browns and ocean blues unfolds. This is music that feels alive, vibrating with the hum of a vast, interconnected ecosystem. It’s so evocative of California’s Lost Coast that when she plays this music at The Treelawn Sunday, you might just smell the petrichor and taste the salt air of the Pacific.

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O-verjoyed! Orrin Evans Blows Out 50 Candles at BOP STOP

Published 25 March, 2025 By John Chacona

When you’re Orrin Evans, Grammy-nominated pianist, composer, bandleader, label executive, teacher, husband and dad, there’s only one thing that can slow you down, as I found out when I asked him how much time he had for our phone interview: tires. “I’m literally sitting here waiting for my tires,” he told me as air wrenches shuddered in the background. “So I got at least 30 to 40 minutes.” It wasn’t enough, such is the man’s skill as a raconteur.

Evans will turn 50 on Friday, and new tires notwithstanding, he’s not coasting into middle age. He’s doing what he loves most: making music, on a tour he calls “50 Shades of O” that motors into BOP STOP Wednesday night.

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Collective Action: A New Player Brings Benny Benack III Back to NEO

Published 18 March, 2025 By John Chacona

How many times have you heard this—or said it yourself—when leaving a great concert by a touring musician: Why can’t we get more shows like this here?

Kyle Knoke, a graphic designer and concert promoter found himself asking that question and decided to answer it by creating the Midwest Jazz Collective, a consortium of 13 clubs and presenting organizations that will bring Emmy-nominated trumpeter and vocalist Benny Benack III to BOP STOP March 25 and BLU Jazz+ the following night.

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Angelika Niescier’s Transatlantic Trio Breathes Fire

Published 10 March, 2025 By John Chacona

Angelika Niescier is looking forward to her trio’s Thursday night concert at The Treelawn Social Club with an extra degree of anticipation. It’s not just that she gets to play with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Savannah Harris or that the gig is part of the New Ghosts presenting organization’s tenth anniversary. No, the cherry on top—or maybe we should say the sour cream—is the pierogies.

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Tag: jazz concerts in northeast Ohio

The Abundance Mindset Rings Out At UA JazzWeek 25

Jenny Scheinman’s All Species Parade Marches (and Scurries, and Sometimes Stomps) Into The Treelawn

O-verjoyed! Orrin Evans Blows Out 50 Candles at BOP STOP

Collective Action: A New Player Brings Benny Benack III Back to NEO

Angelika Niescier’s Transatlantic Trio Breathes Fire