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Tag: jazz

Chris Pitsiokos and Weasel Walter Open the 2025 New Ghosts Season

Visit the website of Chris Pitsiokos (click on this name and you’ll get there) and you’ll see an image of a blue sky striped with contrails. The saxophonist is no conspiracy theorist, but he is a roaddog, logging 92 shows in 2024. He’s off to a strong start in 2025, too, with a tour that will bring him to the Little Rose Tavern for a duo gig with eruptive drummer Weasel Walter presented by New Ghosts.

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At BOP STOP: Grease and Grace Combine In Pat Bianchi’s Organ Trio

Pat Bianchi
photocredit: Aidan Grant

It was a simple question that I asked Pat Bianchi: Which is your dominant hand? His answer was more complex than I expected.

“I’m kind of both,” he said. “I write with my left hand. I can write with my right hand, too, so it kind of flips back and forth.”

Ambidexterity is a useful trait for a keyboard player to possess, and because Bianchi’s primary instrument is the Hammond B-3 organ, his feet are also involved.

The lack of a dominant hand is an interesting footnote for sure but it’s also a metaphor for the absence of a dominant aesthetic in Bianchi’s musical choices, something that makes his Friday appearance at BOP STOP an unusually compelling event.

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For Versatile Max Johnson, There’s A Play At Every Bass

Max Johnson
photocredit: Aidan Grant

For something a little different today, let’s talk politics. Not electoral politics; we’ve all had enough of that. No, let’s talk musical politics, which can be just as divisive and irrational. Just ask Max Johnson. He plays bass in various jazz contexts, including a trio with saxophonist Neta Raanan and drummer Eliza Salem that makes stops at BLU Jazz+ and in Avon Lake this weekend. But he also plays and composes bluegrass and concert music. It could drive a gatekeeper mad.

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