Checking in...

As I continue to enjoy a brief respite, please enjoy this new (for me) discovery. Great footage of Lovano and Harrell:

Part 1

Part 2

The Jazz Showcase & Jimmy Heath

A benefit to having family near Chicago is that on every visit, I get a good Chicago fix.

Last night I ventured in to the new Jazz Showcase to hear Jimmy and Tootie Heath and it was just beyond words. First, a few words about the venue. I have a long history with the Showcase, going back to its tenure at The Blackstone Hotel, through its location on Grand. It was the first jazz club I ever went to thanks to their very progressive and still in place All Ages policy. I have heard too many heavies there to count but some of the standouts include: James Moody, Elvin Jones, David Liebman, Ira Sullivan, Tom Harrell, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano and John Scofield. I even had the great opportunity to perform there for a week. When I was at NIU, the Jazz Ensemble had a long standing performance there the week of the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic - this is when the Showcase was at The Blackstone - and I played there with Jon Faddis doing all of Dizzy's Big Band rep. I was very happy to read that the Showcase was back in action at Dearborn Station in the South Loop.

The room is great. Not a bad seat in the house and the sound is to die for. It is still a pantheon of jazz history with pictures and playbills of "Showcases past" and enormous photos of Bird and Trane still watch over all proceedings.

Jimmy Heath was just KILLIN!!!!! If you have the chance, RUN, do not walk, stroll or otherwise prevaricate to hear him. The man is a walking Rosetta stone of the jazz language of the past 60 years. His vocabulary is deeply rooted in Bebop but he has kept pace with the rhythmic, sonic and harmonic progression since the Bebop era. He has a rich, dark sound with, to my ear, overtones of Trane and Joe Henderson but not sounding at all derivative. The harmonic language, while rooted in Bebop, was very forward thinking and always grounded in a sense of melody that can sometimes be lacking in very harmonic playing. His rhythmic interaction with Tootie was just off the map. These two were completing each other's sentences left and right. Something that comes for YEARS of playing and developing together.

The only disappointment was the size of the audience. There were probably 25-30 people in the club, and for a town like Chicago on a Friday night, I would have expected more.

Through Sunday at The Jazz Showcase
806 S. Plymouth Ct.
Chicago IL 60605
312-360-0234

Sets at 8 & 10 on Saturday
4, 8 & 10 on Sunday

Live from beautiful Hebron IN....

I'm on vacation for the next few weeks.

It's very nice to have days where I can shed, write and ride at my leisure. Tonight I'm going into Chicago to hear Jimmy Heath at the new Jazz Showcase, expect a full report tomorrow.

Not nearly as exciting as what's happening over at Bottomless Cup...reporting from Down Under and all...

In the mean time, enjoy some Wayne here, here and here.

Sunday Links

In the second edition of the occasional feature, Here is some killin' Newk!

My Top 5 Sonny Rollins Tracks:

Sonnymoon for Two - A Night at the Village Vanguard

St. Thomas - Saxophone Colossus

Without A Song - The Bridge

The Eternal Triangle - Sonny Side Up

Body and Soul - Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass

You???.....

"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. " - H.H. The Dalai Lama

I've been thinking about this quote a lot over the past few days.

Most will probably have heard about the tragedy in Knoxville this past Sunday.  If not, here is a link to one of many stories covering the events.  Now, it is probably safe to say that there are incidences of gun-related violence every day, but this one hits me a bit closer to home.  I attend and am very active in my local UU Church.  I have found a home there where I am free to explore and develop a personal theology while being in a caring and supportive community that cares about many of the same issues that I do.  

Yes, it is true that I am a Liberal.  I wear the term proudly.  Most of my friends are Liberals and the Church I attend supports many Liberal causes.  I have always valued discussion and discourse with those whose viewpoints differ from my own, but the level of discourse has been steadily declining and I believe that this decline is one of the many things that contributed to this tragedy.  

Discussions decline into defensiveness.  Defensiveness declines into shouting.  Shouting declines to silence.  Silence declines to anger.  Anger declines to irrational rage.  Rage...well, we can see where that leads.

In that light, I will not use this space to bring an indictment to any of the icons that one could blame.  In fact I won't even list them; we all probably have a long list of both individuals and institutions that we feel are responsible.  Instead I will offer these words which have been serving as a mantra of sorts for me in the past few days.

Compassion

Tolerance

After my initial shock and rush of feelings, compassion was the strongest emotion I felt. Compassion for the victims, families, community, and even for the shooter.  I can't imagine the series of events and circumstances that would lead a human being to the conclusion that this was not only a rational act, but that it was the best course of action. 

I feel compassion for the community of Knoxville.  And, of course, for the congregates of TVUU. I hope with all my heart that you will be able to feel safe again.

I also hope that as we process, grieve, and discuss this horrible tragedy that we can remember tolerance.  If we allow our discourse, discussion, thinking, speaking and action to decline to the level of irrationality, we will loose much of what we as Liberals - religious and otherwise - strive for.

Suffering, I have learned, is a fact of life.  I am angry.  I'm sure many of my friends are angry. But it is not an anger that consumes me.  I see it, acknowledge it, allow it to pass over over me, and come back to my "baseline" of compassion and tolerance.  When a being allows anger and rage to replace compassion and love, the consequences become more and more unthinkable. 

Please, keep the city of Knoxville in your thoughts.

If I knew you were coming I'd have tidied up a bit...

At 2:03 today there was a hit on this site from the US Senate Sgt. at Arms.

RIP Little Giant

Here is the sad news...