Wayne Shorter - John Chacona writes

Bounceback: Akron’s Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival Is Back In A Big Way

Published 5 September, 2023 By John Chacona

It could just be a case of wishful thinking, but the terrific things I’m hearing about this past weekend’s inaugural Hingetown Jazz Festival show what can happen when top-flight musicians, welcoming venues and tireless, community-minded organizers come together to meet audiences where they are. Who wouldn’t be stoked for the future?

And you won’t have to wait to get a glimpse of what that future might look like, because this weekend brings Akron’s annual Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival Sept. 7-9.

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Local Musicians Add Flavor To the Sauce At Tri-C JazzFest

Published 20 June, 2023 By John Chacona

For fans of improvised music in the Black American tradition, the arrival of Tri-C JazzFest to Playhouse Square with a roster of artists including Herbie Hancock, Christian McBride and phenomenal shooting-star vocalist Samara Joy is hands down the biggest week of the year.

The touring artists whose shelves are heavy with Grammy Awards and other honors deservedly grab the clicks and dominate the buzz, but for dozens of musicians from throughout Northeast Ohio, JazzFest will be the biggest gig of their year. For some of them, it will be the biggest opportunity of their young careers.

Terence Blanchard and the Turtle Island Quartet Ride A Second Wave To Tri-C On Saturday

Published 13 October, 2022 By John Chacona

David Balakrishnan-Terence Blanchard

To be an improvising musician at the highest level means being ready for anything that might happen. Still, nothing could have prepared violinist David Balakrishnan for the call he received in February 2020.

It’s just an amazing story,” said Balakrishnan, 68,the founder and first violinist of the Turtle Island Quartet, the rare string quartet expert in improvisation. “I got a call from a friend of mine who worked for a booking agency. He said, ‘Do you want to record with Terence Blanchard in two weeks?’”

If you’ve heard Blanchard’s double-Grammy-nominated Blue Note release Absence, you already know how Balakrishnan answered. And if you want to hear how that music sounds live, you’ll have a rare opportunity to do so when Blanchard and his five-piece E-Collective ensemble and the Turtle Island Quartet visit Tri-C Saturday evening to perform music from Absence.

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Caili O’Doherty Returns to Bop Stop with a New Band and a New Record

Published 14 June, 2022 By John Chacona

In the Irish language, céilí, pronounced KAY-lee, broadly means “dance.” That’s an apt description of the effervescent pianistic style of Caili O’Doherty, who will bring a quartet to the Bop Stop on Sunday to support “Quarantine Dream,” her new recording released last Friday.

Vibraphonist Chris Dingman Brings His Journey of Healing to Cleveland’s Bop Stop

Published 12 April, 2022 By John Chacona

Chris Dingman

Listening to music has increasingly become a solitary, disembodied experience, these days. Yet an opposite if so far unequal reaction is rising: a new interest in music that serves a social purpose.

In the dim past, all music was social. It was used for celebration and worship, to lull children to sleep and to blunt the drudgery of hard, repetitive labor. The social music that Chris Dingman will bring to his solo concert at Cleveland’s Bop Stop on Thursday is similarly intentional yet with a somewhat different purpose: healing.

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Tag: Wayne Shorter

Bounceback: Akron’s Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival Is Back In A Big Way

Local Musicians Add Flavor To the Sauce At Tri-C JazzFest

Terence Blanchard and the Turtle Island Quartet Ride A Second Wave To Tri-C On Saturday

Caili O’Doherty Returns to Bop Stop with a New Band and a New Record

Vibraphonist Chris Dingman Brings His Journey of Healing to Cleveland’s Bop Stop