Wednesday Nights

There have been a lot of people wondering about the status of Crash and how they have been suspiciously absent from the Wednesday night post that they held for over a year. Crash for the time being has put on the back burner. Never say never but the band has basically decided not to do anymore together. A totally mutual decision by myself and my great partner for seven years Jerry Cook. There are rumours that Crash and Dr. Lonnie will still be hooking up from time to time but nothing is set in stone as of yet.

I do however want to tell you that there will be new band taking Crash's place on a full time basis for Wednesday nights. The band has yet to be named but the personnel includes myself on alto sax, Rod Murray on trombone, Rob Hamilton on guitar, Kerry Galloway on bass, Geoff Hicks on drums and some rotating guys on fender rhodes but for November it will be Bruno Hubert. Kerry Galloway and I have been writing for the past few months and have come up with some funky music that I think you'll like. We're hoping to return the Wednesdays to the way they were in the 'old day'..FULL....We start November 9th, No Cover. Come and check it out!

Control Room A

Its ironic that last week I took the test FINALLY to become a control room A operator at 102.7 CFRO and now I don't have a dam show. I have been trying to take the test for the better part of 2 years and now that I can finally use the fabulous new studio I don't have a show to broadcast. I have been told by the brass at COOP that its just a matter of time before I get a show. they are just working on a time slot.

The new studio will allow me to do a whole bunch of great things that I couldn't do before from the old studio, like play records air interview that I have had on minidisc and in general just have an all around better show. The Cellar is coming up with a new website very soon and it will include a link to my show where you can find out whats upcoming on it.

Check it out!

Albums

Cellar Live is releasing a couple of new albums. One is from a Toronto drummer named Joel Haynes who enlisted the talents of bassist Jodi Pronzick and pianist Tilden Webb. The album is made up of a few standards such as Georgia which Tilden arranged absolutely beautifully. It also features the lush vocals of Denzal Sinclaire. Other gems include the title track 'The Time Is Now' written by Webb and a gorgeous arrangement of 'Blackbird'. This is a very very fine jazz record that is sure to turn some heads. Should be available in the next few weeks.

On August 29th, 2005 Cellar Live got the Christmas spirit. Pianist Bruno Hubert and his trio (Brad Turner on drums and André Lachance) swung through some Christmas classics that make up the first half of the record. The other half of the record was recorded by THE B3 KINGS, the Christmas house band featuring Chris Gestrin on organ, Bill Coon on guitar, myself on alto sax and Denzal Sinclaire on drums and vocals. It was a lot of fun and the record is going to sound great. Look for it starting November 15th.

BLOW FRANK BLOW!!!

Photo Steve Mynett

Way Out Wess

I had the drive of a lifetime a couple of days ago with non other than Frank Wess. I always get excited when I have an excuse to go to Seattle. It means I get a chance to check out Tower Records, Buds Jazz Records and The Elliot Bay Book Store. I escaped with only minor scars as I purchased Bird and Diz, Live @ Townhall, 1945. What a find!! Gavin Walker turned me onto this and its a must have for any serious jazz fan. The sound starts off a little weak but as the set progresses so does the sound. Bird is in fine form and you get to hear a great solo by tenor man, Don Byas who was asked to show up becuase they didn't know if Bird would show up. He did and he played his ass off especially on Gillesipie's HOT HOUSE, I also picked up a great Jeff Tain Watts cd called 'Detained' Live At The Blue note which features some great playing by him as well as tenor saxist Marcus Strickland and alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett. Pianist Dave Kikoski sounds wonderful as well. I also got a brand new CD from trumpeter Brian Lynch called Con Clave featuring his latin band. I was lucky enough to sit in on the session in Brooklyn last year and was eagerly awaiting its release. In my humble opinion it is Lynch's best cd yet!!

Okay, the drive. Frank is a wonderful man and at 83 years old its safe to say he has pretty much seen it all. He told me that he had heard that Linton Garner passed on and that he played with Linton in Billy Eckstine's band in 1946. He then went on to tell all kinds of amazing stories about all the people that played in that band; Bird, Diz, Gene Ammons, Miles, Fats Navarro, Dexter Gordon. Many of the players came from Earl Hines' band that folded.

Wess had all kinds of great stories to tell, I only wish I had a tape recorder!! He played so beautifully last night. A beautiful rendition of 'My Funny Valentine' which I'm listening to right now (he let me record the nights) and he ripped through 'Just One Of Those Things' and 'Lester Leaps In' on tenor. YOu would expect an 83 year old man to lose a step or to but thats not the case with Frank. He tore it up at every turn.

I can't wait for tonight.

I HOPE PEOPLE READ THIS POST

Its not often that I use my blog as a promtional post other than just maybe mentioning some things that are coming up that are exciting. Im putting a plea out to students for an upcoming show. I also invite students to contact me if they can think of any reasons why they're not down here checking out a living jazz legend like Frank Wess. There was not one single student or musician here last night with the exception of Morgan Childs and Amanda Tosoff...anyways, thats rant for another day.

The Uptown Quintet feat. one of the finest trumpet players around Ryan Kisor and a burning alto sax player named Ian Hendrickson-Smith. These guys can really rip it up and the Uptown Quintet writes some great tunes. Listening to their latest record "Live In New York" reminds of a lot of Jackie McLean / Donald Byrd collaborations. They play hard bop and they can really rip it up. They are here on October 20th and 21st. Tickets for students are only $8. The group will be augemented by New York pianist Spike Wilner who is a great talent and a very nice composer and local bassist Jodi Pronzick and drummer Jesse Cahill.

On the Thurday night there will be beer specials and Russell Brewing will be doing a tasting of their new PORTER beer which is to die for.

Hope to see you down here.