Exploring the scene. Notes from an NYC visit.

[David B]

I'm in NYC for the week, with the primary aim of taking in as much of the jazz scene as possible.

MONDAY

After a couple of hours rest after a long travel day, it was out to ZINC for Jonathan Kreisberg's 8.30 set. Great to connect with Jonathan and drummer Colin Stranahan in person again, as their last UK visit was in 2019. The band, joined by pianist Martin Bejerano visiting from Miami, has some strong new original tunes in the book and there were salutes to the music of Wayne Shorter and Richie Beirach. Zinc's a really nice room. Great live sound.





On to Mezzrow for Pasquale Grasso's 10.30 set (I also ended up staying for the 12.00 set).

[David B]

TUESDAY

I've been a fan of Jim Campilongo for years. After about 20 years in NYC, he's recently moved back to the Bay area. Perfect timing, then, that my visit should coincide with his return to play a couple of shows this week.

Caught his show at Rockwood Music Hall. If he can't do it on a Tele, then it's not possible! Great live performer, knows how to engage an audience. Writes great tunes and was accompanied by a great band, including guitarist Luca Benedetti, who is now on my list to check out.



After hitting Katz's for a between show sandwich, it was on to the Village Vanguard to catch the beginning of Ben Wendel's run this week. A killer band with Larry Goldings on piano and Rhodes, Harish Ragavan on bass and Nate Wood on drums. Julian Lage was originally billed as guitarist, but had to step out a couple of days before. Gilad Hekselman stepped in to cover the first four nights, with Nir Felder filling in this weekend.

No photography during shows in the Vanguard. Fantastic atmosphere and history in that room!

[David B]

WEDNESDAY

A day for saluting the masters.

Passed by Jim Hall's home.

[David B]

Spent the evening at Smoke for George Coleman's 88th birthday celebration shows.
With Mike LeDonne, Peter Bernstein, John Webber and George Coleman Jr.
Coleman is a titan of the tenor and his playing remains top notch. His SOUND is incredible.
He invited up a bunch of guests in the second show, including some young guns he's a mentor too. Everyone played great but then Coleman roars out of the blocks and it's on a whole other level. Even long after the show finished, he was sat passing on tips and stories to anyone who wanted to sit and speak with him (and there were plenty of us!) until his ride home arrived.

[David B]

THURSDAY

A guitar (and photo) free night! To Mezzrow for violinist Zach Brock, pianist Aaron Goldberg and bassist Matt Penman's second set. Some of the best music I've heard this week.
What the Smalls/Mezzrow streams fail to capture is the warm atmosphere (it was packed in there) and the true live sound of the spaces. No PAs or microphones at either venue, save for a piano mic at Smalls (I think).

Then across to Cellar Dog (formerly known as Fat Cat). This is a pool/ping pong/shuffleboard club that just happens to have a grand piano and space for a jazz group to one side! Two bands a night.

[David B]

FRIDAY

Not my best photo, but back there are saxophonist Harry Allen, guitarist Andy Brown and bassist Mike Karn at Mezzrow. Allen is a keeper of the narrative flame, with the ability to keep ideas going and turn sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into stories. I've followed Andy Brown's playing via YouTube, so it was a treat to catch him when we should both be visiting NYC (he's based in Chicago). He got a nice feature on 'Lullaby of the Leaves'.

From there, I shot up to The Jazz Gallery for the first of two nights of Peter Bernstein's Guitar Invitational. Friday night saw Bernstein joined by Pasquale Grasso, bassist David Wong and drummer Andy Watson.

[kris]

Thanks for great infos.

[SOLR]

THURSDAY

Not my best photo, but back there are saxophonist Harry Allen, guitarist Andy Brown and bassist Mike Karn at Mezzrow. Allen is a keeper of the narrative flame, with the ability to keep ideas going and turn sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into stories. I've followed Andy Brown's playing via YouTube, so it was a treat to catch him when we should both be visiting NYC (he's based in Chicago). He got a nice feature on 'Lullaby of the Leaves'.

From there, I shot up to The Jazz Gallery for the first of two nights of Peter Bernstein's Guitar Invitational. Friday night saw Bernstein joined by Pasquale Grasso, bassist David Wong and drummer Andy Watson.

Wow, quite the "trip" ...thx for sharing.....

S

[DougB]

Is that a Vintage 47 amp that Grasso is playing. Looks too new to be an old Gibson amp.

[wintermoon]

Is that a Vintage 47 amp that Grasso is playing. Looks too new to be an old Gibson amp.

Yep

[rpjazzguitar]

How was the sandwich?

What a great tour through the NYC clubs.

The Zinc Bar, btw, in an earlier incarnation had Monk as the house pianist and Billie Holiday as a performer.

[David B]

SATURDAY

I met up with the great NYC guitarist Peter Mazza for a night on the town. First stop was the 7.30pm set at Smalls from Rodney Jones, Peter's teacher back in the early 90s. We got in early to get on the front row.

I'll defer to Peter's Facebook post about the set:
"First stop was Smalls to hear the great Rodney Jones (My former teacher and an ongoing incredible inspiration!). Rumor has it that there was a recording of Wes with Coltrane that got burned in a fire….well hearing Rodney was like hearing them both, but they were “ONE GUY!”

Such unrestrained fire burning in his deep modal space! It fused powerful lines, swinging rhythm and electric energy! A great rhythm section with Lonnie Plaxico on bass, Ronnie Burrage on drums and Dabin Ryu on piano, transmitted Rodney’s energy and took it to the next level."

Then we made our way up to The Jazz Gallery to hear Peter Bernstein (including his London date with Larry and Bill the previous Saturday, this was my fourth time seeing Peter in seven days!). The second night of his 'Guitar Invitational' found him playing with guitarist Charles Altura, bassist Ben Street and drummer Eric McPherson. A pairing of guitarists that I was very curious to hear together. No overlap from Friday's setlist, with Peter calling on his deep knowledge of standards, Monk tunes and some lesser-played Wayne Shorter compositions ('Tom Thumb' and 'United'). It's apparent why the likes of Chick Corea, Tom Harrell and Terence Blanchard call Charles. A creative modern virtuoso, with plenty of fire and push coming from Street and McPherson.

[David B]

How was the sandwich?

Probably wasn't my brightest idea to eat a whole one myself, just as jet lag was hitting me like a train and I was going on to listen to music in a dark, warm room!

[wintermoon]

That sounds like a fun trip where the stars aligned for you nicely.
I saw George Coleman over 40 yrs ago. we sat right in front of him and called Au Privave, and he opened w/that tune. He was fabulous, I don't know if he can be called underated but his name doesn't come up as much as it should imo.
Is Grasso playing that L-7 exclusively now? I thought he just got a Trenier?

[DougB]

Originally Posted by DougB

Is that a Vintage 47 amp that Grasso is playing. Looks too new to be an old Gibson amp.

My eyesight's not bad for a 69 year old geezer, eh?

Doug

[spencer096]

My goodness…I don’t even know what to say

[starjasmine]

Thanks for sharing - super cool!

[bako]

There sure is a lot going on in this city I live in, thanks for the detailed reminder.
Wow, what a week.

[kevmoga]

Wow, I'm envious! Thanks for sharing.

How do you plan a week like that? I can never seem to get find the calendars with enough advance time to map out something like that, in terms of airline flights, accommodations, etc. What's the secret? Do you just roll the dice and take your chances under the assumption that every week is like that?

[David B]

SUNDAY

To The Ear Inn on the lower west side to see the The EarRegulars, after getting the tip off from fellow forum member Omphalospsychos that Chris Flory would be on the gig. Led by trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso, Sunday nights at The Ear Inn feature a long-running trad/early swing/dixie gig. All excellent players. Matt Munisteri is the usual guitarist, but you might find fellow major players like Chris Flory or Joe Cohn filling in from time to time.



Hot-footed it across to the Blue Note for the last night of Ravi Coltrane's run. Various lineups through the week but Sunday featured Adam Rogers on guitar. I love Rogers' playing, especially when he strapped on a Strat or Tele, as he did here (switching back and forth to his 335). A grooving set, with the Adam Rogers and keyboard-bass format inevitably bring Chris Potter's Underground bands to mind. I wasn't wild about Blue Note as a venue.

[David B]

How do you plan a week like that? I can never seem to get find the calendars with enough advance time to map out something like that, in terms of airline flights, accommodations, etc. What's the secret? Do you just roll the dice and take your chances under the assumption that every week is like that?

I only booked my flights and hotel on 17 February. I picked a rough target window (first half of March) and created a spreadsheet to plot out the best week to pick. I booked ahead for some of the bigger shows and venues (George Coleman at Smoke, for example) but left space to fill in closer to the journey or once I was here.

New York City Jazz Record The New York City Jazz Record and Hot House Jazz Guide Hot House Jazz Guide, New York's Most Current Jazz Events are monthly free magazines found in many venues and shops that contain detailed listings sections. Both have online sites and NYC Jazz Record can be downloaded as a PDF from their website.

[David B]

That sounds like a fun trip where the stars aligned for you nicely.
I saw George Coleman over 40 yrs ago. we sat right in front of him and called Au Privave, and he opened w/that tune. He was fabulous, I don't know if he can be called underated but his name doesn't come up as much as it should imo.
Is Grasso playing that L-7 exclusively now? I thought he just got a Trenier?

George Coleman was at Smalls last night but I didn't book ahead and the queue for walk-ins was down the street for both sets.

Grasso has been using an L7 all this week. He's still a Trenier man but the L7 is new to him so it's getting a lot of action. It was a bit of a fixer-upper. He's carrying around a Vintage 47 VA-185G for all his gigs. Surprisingly light amp.

[David B]

MONDAY

My last day in NYC.

I met up with guitarist Will Sellenraad after communicating through social media for the last couple of years. We paid a visit to the great Peter Leitch at his home. Peter hasn't been able to play for the last ten years. I want to take some time to digest the afternoon spent with him and will write more about it, but I'll just say for now that it was a very moving experience to listen to music with him and talk about his life and music.

I went to the 11th Street Bar to hear the weekly Monday night gig led by pianist Richard Clements. This is a core cast of musicians from the bebop scene, many of whom have had associations with Barry Harris. The front line last night was Grant Stewart and Joe Magnarelli. Videos from this gig regularly appear on YouTube.



Pouring rain, so splurged for a cab to Mezzrow to close out with Pasquale Grasso's 10.30pm and 12am sets. These were quartet sets, with Grasso's usual colleagues Ari Roland and Keith Balla joined by pianist Jimmy Keys. This might be the first time I've heard Grasso play with a pianist.

[ccroft]

Man, that's a nice tour! I love all these posts. Thanks for sharing. Have to say it seems like there's a lot more jazz going on in Manhattan these days than when I lived there (1980's). Or maybe I wasn't working at it or something. I did see George Coleman in '82 and a smattering of other greats. It's quite likely I just didn't have the scratch to keep up.

Nice to hear the Ear is still a going concern. That in itself is really something, though at this stage it must be immortal.

Altura and Bernstein seems interesting. What did they play?

[yebdox]

What a trip! Thanks for sharing, definitely motivates me to create something like that, but would have to leave my wife at home to cover that much musical ground Do you think summer would not be as good a time for such a concentration of guitar music for any reason? (Clubs more packed, people on tour, etc?)