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All Is Sound In Ben Tweedt’s Tribute To Hermeto Pascoal

Published 11 November, 2025 By John Chacona

When the protean Brazilian producer/arranger/composer/instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal died in September at age 89, obituary writers were challenged to find someone to compare him to (maybe Prince came closest). Hermeto, as he was invariably known, summed up his musical philosophy as tudo é som, “all is sound.” No wonder his nickname was o Bruxo, the Sorcerer.

As a student at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, pianist Ben Tweedt came under Hermeto’s spell, an enchantment that inspired an evening of the master’s compositions at BOP STOP Saturday evening.

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Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, March 7 – 13

Published 7 March, 2024 By John Chacona

*Artemis (clockwise from bottom left:) Nicole Glover, Allison Miller, Noriko Ueda, Ingrid Jensen and Renee Rosnes)*

Friendly Experiencers,

Oops!…I did it again! Last week came and went without a Countdown, and it was a big week of shows, too. Once again, real life intervened (TLDR: we’re preparing to move). Mea culpa, But on to the good news: an early spring efflorescence of musical excellence, and all in the next seven days. Just look at this lineup!

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A Free Outdoor Jazz Festival Swings The Doors Open In Hingetown

Published 30 August, 2023 By John Chacona

With its high blue skies, comfortable temperatures, clambakes and promises of a Super Bowl season for the Browns, it’s hard to imagine how September in Northeast Ohio could possibly be better—though a free outdoor jazz festival might be a nice start.

Wish granted. Make way for the inaugural Hingetown Jazz Festival Saturday, Sept. 2.

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Cabaret Crooner or Jazz Singer? Dane Vannatter Is A Man of Two Worlds

Published 8 February, 2023 By John Chacona

*from left: Joe Hunter, Bryan Thomas, Dane Vannatter and Ricky Exton*

The legendary Patti LaBelle has been on stages large and small since Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House. As a performer, she’s done it all and seen it all, but she couldn’t have expected what happened at her 2015 performance at the Ohio State Fair in 2015.

“She called a group of guys [on stage] as a thing in her show,” Dane Vannatter wrote me in an exchange yesterday. “She asks them to sing, they can’t, and the audience laughs when she says, ‘Well then dance!’”

Vannatter was one of those guys, but when he opened his mouth to sing, the great soul diva fell silent. She couldn’t have known that Vannatter had been on a few stages himself, and when she gathered herself to address her unexpected guest, all she could say was, “You better sing, fool! My God!”

Tag: Max Schlenk

All Is Sound In Ben Tweedt’s Tribute To Hermeto Pascoal

Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, March 7 – 13

A Free Outdoor Jazz Festival Swings The Doors Open In Hingetown

Cabaret Crooner or Jazz Singer? Dane Vannatter Is A Man of Two Worlds