jazz - John Chacona writes

Chestnuts Roasting When They Open Fire: A Togishi Seasonal Spectacular Returns

Published 20 December, 2021 By John Chacona

Togishi In Japan the togishi is the skilled craftsman who polishes and sharpens the nihonto, the deadly sword used by samurai warriors to cut their enemies to pieces.

In Cleveland, Togishi is a trio of saxophonist Dan Wenninger, Mike Sopko on guitar and electronics, and Joe Tomino on drums and electronics whose improvised music cuts to pieces various genres including jazz, rock, contemporary classical and noise and reassembles them in a glorious freewheeling clatter.

Togishi will bring their usual sonic maelstrom to the Bop Stop stage Tuesday, December 21, but the trio will drop down the Hingetown club’s chimney with a surprise in their sack: tunes–and not just tunes, but some of the most recognizable, widely loved and, yes, even sentimental tunes.

Joy To the World: Vocalist Samara Joy Returns to Cleveland This Week

Published 10 December, 2021 By John Chacona

EDITOR’S NOTE: LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN. When my laptop was sent for emergency repairs last week, I lost access to my editorial calendar for this blog. For some reason, I assumed Samara Joy’s engagement at Bop Stop was December 10, and I rushed a post to preview the gig, never thinking that I could check Bop Stop’s site to confirm the date. The correct date, of course, is December 17, which gave me enough time to rewrite the preview to incorporate my conversation with Ms. Joy, and you can read it all below. Seriously folks, don’t miss this show. She’s extraordinary and you’ll be able to say you saw her when.

The walk to the stage at Cain Park for this year’s Tri-C JazzFest was longer than I expected, but I was still able to hear the opening act, albeit long before I could see the stage. The tricky changes of the verse of “Stardust” sailed out into the early autumn afternoon like a warm breeze, pitch-perfect and phrased with uncanny grace. Comparisons are invidious, but here was a singer with the vocal lushness of a young Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald’s preternatural musicality, as delusional as that description might sound.

Chris Coles “Nine Lives Project” Offers Grace Through Music, Dance and Visuals

Published 11 November, 2021 By John Chacona

Chris Coles

When Akron saxophonist and educator Chris Coles composed his “Nine Lives Project” as a response to the 2015 murders by a white supremacist of nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., anger was not on his mind. Even after the tumultuous events of 2020, “Nine Lives”chooses light over heat.

Comments closed

Aaron Parks Returns to the road with a tour beginning at Cleveland’s Bop Stop

Published 1 November, 2021 By John Chacona

Aaron Parks had no problem filling the last 19 months of time once occupied by touring, recording and doing musician things. “We got a puppy in February 2020. And then we found out that we were pregnant in March 2020. And then everything shut down like 10 days after we found that out,” Parks said by phone last week. New fatherhood brings new challenges. “He just turned one, and he just discovered how to climb up the stairs, which is a little bit terrifying. He doesn’t walk yet, but he knows how to climb the stairs.”

That’s a big step for the little guy, but Parks Senior is a little more cautious about stepping out. When he kicks off his tour Friday at Bop Stop at the Music Settlement, it will be the pianist’s first touring gig since the lockdown.

Rob Garcia 4 in Erie and Cleveland

Published 13 September, 2021 By John Chacona

Drummer Rob Garcia might be the only man alive to have played with both Chicago creative music legend Joseph Jarman and Woody Allen. For the record, he’s also appeared with Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman and Diana Krall. If that suggests a wide musical curiosity and technical mastery, Garcia has all of those attributes and more. He’ll be appearing in Erie tonight under the aegis of JazzErie and at Cleveland’s terrific Bop Stop club on Wednesday.

The band is terrific. Saxophonist Noah Preminger is a restless and probing player who has been Garcia’s primary collaborator for 20 years. Bassist Kim Cass was brought into the band by Preminger and Argentine-born pianist Leo Genovese is onboard after an ear-opening turn in the bands of bassist and vocalist Esperenza Spalding. This, friends, is a heavyweight lineup.