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Tag: Wayne Shorter

Flowers Around Cleveland (and Akron too)

Back in the 1980s I became obsessed with the saxophonist David Murray and set out to collect his entire recorded oeuvre. This was a problem because the man recorded almost indiscriminately, sometimes releasing five or six records a year. I was a racing greyhound chasing the mechanical rabbit of his ever expanding discography, and I gave up at 54 items. But not before scoring a French rarity called Flowers Around Cleveland (Bleu Regard, 1995).

Looking out at Signora’s newly colorful rosebushes, that title came to mind when I checked Jim Szabo’s jazz calendar of events, which is my go-to guide in making the lets call this editorial calendar. All over northeast Ohio, the flowers are starting to pop, and on the area’s stages, so is the music scene.

So this week I bring you a spring bouquet of concerts by local and touring artists that includes a Napoleonic invasion, a throw-down at Lock 3 and a rare appearance by a notable big band. It’s a beautiful thing.


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It’s Three For The Keys At BOP STOP This Week

If you are searching for a glimmer of light in this dark and ominous hour, consider this. We are living in a golden age of jazz piano. There are more interesting pianists playing in a wider spectrum of styles at a high level of artistry and technique than at any time in the music’s eleven-decades of existence.

And it gets better. Three such pianists, Orrin Evans, Simona Premazzi and Philip Golub, can be heard in Cleveland over the next eight days. Though they might not have the name recognition of a Herbie Hancock or Jon Batiste, all are singular stylists who encounter the jazz piano tradition in idiosyncratic and brilliantly original ways.

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Two Bands + Two New Releases = Three Shows in NEO

In the circular economy of jazz, new recordings are supported by album release tours or shows and those performances in turn create a market for the recordings. Just how this works is on display this week as concerts by pianist Ben Tweedt and saxophonist Matthew Alec, two artists with ties to northeast Ohio, celebrate the releases of their latest recordings.

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Angelika Niescier’s Transatlantic Trio Breathes Fire

Angelika Niescier Trio

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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