University of Miami - John Chacona writes

Newcomer Emma Hedrick Is Making A Career On Her Own Terms

Published 5 August, 2025 By John Chacona

If jazz is dead, as so many fans like to think, somebody forgot to tell the singers, so many of who have lately emerged on the scene. For years, their playbook was simple: record an album of songbook standards with a trio, preferably with some name players, and wait for the phone to ring.

Not Emma Hedrick who will make her BOP STOP debut Thursday. All 10 songs on Newcomer, her debut recording released last Friday, are original compositions. Aside from producer Peter Eldridge who appears on two selections, the biggest name among the 16 musicians credited might belong to Connor Rohrer, 25, whom cognoscenti might recognize as Samara Joy’s pianist at Cain Park last August.

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Troy Roberts, A Saxophone Wizard From Oz, Lands at BOP STOP

Published 11 February, 2025 By John Chacona

I get a lot of records from publicists looking for a review, 788 last year. That’s way more than I can get to, but I try to check in on most of them. Last year I noticed that a lot of them had Troy Roberts on tenor saxophone, and even on records I didn’t care for–maybe especially those–I was drawn to his muscular sound. I missed his appearance last year with Pat Bianchi (a gig I previewed here), but I–and Cleveland—will get a second bite of the apple Sunday, Feb. 16 when the saxophonist returns to BOP STOP.

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At 40, Musical Polymath Bryan Kennard Celebrates Kennections

Published 10 September, 2024 By John Chacona

Turning 40 doesn’t have the big-deal, inflection-point significance of milestone birthdays like 21 or 65, but don’t try that argument on Bryan Kennard. The composer, flutist and organizer has plenty of highlights to mark as he heads into his fifth decade this week with a new big band and a celebratory concert at BOP STOP Sunday.

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In Baseball or Jazz, Lucas Apostoleris Plays In The Big Leagues

Published 16 July, 2024 By John Chacona

Do an Internet search for jazz and baseball and you’ll get no shortage of citations. Some of them are fascinating, most of them are sentimental and nearly all of them the are work of older men—further evidence that the once-“National Pastime” and “America’s Classical Music” (scare quotes intentional) are strictly for the AARP set. Enter Lucas Apostoleris a 31-year-old drummer who responds to that notion the way Jose Ramirez does to a hanging curve over the plate. Track, wall, gone!

Don’t look now, but baseball has become a young man’s game, at least on the field, and the athletic young band Apostoleris will bring to BOP STOP Sunday are a Futures Game-level lineup of talent on the rise.

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Poetry: It’s What Composer and Multi-Instrumentalist Aaron Irwin Is (after)

Published 2 July, 2024 By John Chacona

Before the comments section, before digital sampling, before AI large language models, there was after. As seen in titles, it signals the venerable practice of a poet responding or replying to, elaborating on, refuting or outright imitating the work of another poet. And it’s the organizing principle behind the music that multi-instrumentalist Aaron Irwin will bring to BOP STOP Sunday.

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Tag: University of Miami

Newcomer Emma Hedrick Is Making A Career On Her Own Terms

Troy Roberts, A Saxophone Wizard From Oz, Lands at BOP STOP

At 40, Musical Polymath Bryan Kennard Celebrates Kennections

In Baseball or Jazz, Lucas Apostoleris Plays In The Big Leagues

Poetry: It’s What Composer and Multi-Instrumentalist Aaron Irwin Is (after)