Shabaka Hutchings (Pic: Russ Escritt)

Jazz Club
The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham
26-11-09
Many bands like to take their time and build to a big finish – not this trio of saxophonist/clarinettist Shabaka Hutchings, electric bassist Neil Charles and, for this gig, Seb Rochford on drums. We were in at the top, at the centre of a churning storm of free jazz intensity, Hutchings on tenor howling and screaming with double notes, harmonics and overblowing, Charles hitting thumb slaps and strumming chords simultaneously, Rochford stirring around the kit playing those accents only he can.

It was pretty full-on for the first three quarters of the set with pieces like Surman Part 2, and even when Hutchings finally switched to the gentler clarinet and tunes like The Forest the storm only abated temporarily.

There is a great amount of delicacy there in the digits of the band’s debut CD, Night Time On The Middle Passage (Babel BDV2982) and the band played nearly all material from it, but in live performance, and in the cruder ambience of the Rainbow’s back courtyard, delicacy needs to give way to power and intensity and, quite rightly, that’s the side of the band it chose to accentuate.

And what intensity! For those of us who remember the young Shabaka Hutchings standing tentatively at the side of the stage awaiting Andy Hamilton’s encouragement, or rising from his chair in the Walsall Jazz Orchestra saxophone section to play a quietly powerful solo, the man who on Wednesday evening turned his silver tenor into a raging bull elephant has come an awfully long way and grown immeasurably in stature. He is surely now one of the most original voices on his instrument(s) in this country today.

The man he most strikingly reminded me of was Pharoah Sanders – for his sheer instrumental force, for his expertise way up in the higher reaches of the tenor saxophone, and also for the way he worked away at fairly simple melodic phrases. So many modern saxophonists are keen to rip up and down the instrument, fitting in as many different notes as quickly as they can. Hutchings can do that if he chooses to – thankfully he chooses to quite rarely and so those lightning runs are always eloquent contrasts to the power of a piece like Chief, in which he restricts himself to a single note for a fair amount of the time, relying on tonal and rhythmic variation to give the interest.

Charles is an original player, too, using quiet wah-wah and a lot of chordal work. He could have been louder for a lot of the gig, but that is a minor carp. Rochford is not this band’s regular drummer but he fits in just fine, having just the right melodic sense and trans-stylistic abilities to do free rhythms when they are needed, or a kind of jazz metal or hip-hop when that might be appropriate.

Very strong playing, especially from Hutchings, but employed to bring out strong writing, too, and that makes it even more rewarding. Great band, great gig.

We all know that London’s West End theatre land has left economists baffled with it’s recession defying ticket sales, seems the musical theatre fans are out in force this autumn/winter. You can see it with your own eyes when walking along Shaftsbury avenue of an evening; queues everywhere. But a little known and secret trend is starting to grow, an off shoot of the big West End hits and it’s already started to gather an eclectic following of theatre fans, show cast members and sophisticated revellers. Fuelled by the lack of talent on our talent TV shows, people are casting the remote aside and seeking real live entertainment. Not wanting to spend £65 a ticket, this new elite are headed for the Jazz clubs and cabaret venues hidden in the streets of London’s West End. Whats more all the stars of the hit West End shows are eager to get their own cabarets up and out there. The likes of Ronnie Scotts and Madame Jojo’s are putting in more and more of these cabaret dates.
Check out www.westendconnections.com for details of our cabaret shows starring leads from the West End Stage!

Up coming Cabarets at Madame Jojo's starring West End leading ladies

You wonder what SL will be  like without Halloween!  It seems it’s a big deal all around the world, celebrating the night that the witches and spirits come out to play.  Not so much for us in the UK, but it seems we are catching up a bit with trick or treat for the kids, which has become a custom over here too.  The grid had so many haunted places to visit this year and so many parties arranged, you couldn’t be everywhere  at once which was a shame.  I had already been to some early parties.  Hibiscus had looked fabulous in her witches outfit the other night at the Garden Cafe party, she got the dress as a bargain and she is good at spotting the right thing to wear.

I had been dressed as a witch too that night, and wanted something different for last night’s parties in SL London.  I went off wandering earlier in the day and went over to a store called Evie’s Closet.  I had covered Evie’s designs at the Virtual London Fashion Week and really loved her beautiful gowns, so I decided to join the group.  Luckily I did, as I got a free faery outfit on joining, and it was a gorgeous floaty dress with autumn colours.  I put it on when I got back to my place and decided it would look ok if I put a pale skin with it.  I found a goth skin and decided that would do for the parties.

I went over to the Mayhem Club in SL Mayfair, as their evening started earlier than the Underground Club, and the place was already packed out.  Ed joined me over there and people looked amazing, Ed had his Zombie skin on as well. 

SL London Director Brie Janick dropped into the Mayhem dressed as a ghostly bride and she looked great, I’ve no idea where she found that outfit, but it was terrific.  Brie was dj’ing at the Underground Club party later and I was pleased to see her call into the Mayhem Club.  There is something nice happening to Virtual London, a coming together of managers, Torric Rodas (who runs Mayfair)  and Brie seem to be working together now for all of Virtual London and you can see things have settled down.  There are things planned for Virtual London that sound just what we want there, I will, of course be publishing them in Virtually London (lite) as they take shape!  I was lucky last night though, I saw a couple of people in The Kensington building in Virtual Kensington, so I decided to go over and have a chat with one of them.  Hib had always said that The Kensington building would be ideal for the Jazz club that London so badly needs, and that is exactly what’s happening, a new Jazz club is being set up there.  I spoke to Almo Skytower, who was setting the whole thing up, and he appears to have the right ideas about how it should look with the right kind of music too, so I am waiting for him to send me the final details before I publish the good news to Virtual Londoners in a few days.

After the Mayhem Club I went over to the Underground Club and once again it was packed out.  I counted 50 people in Knightsbridge and another 50 in Mayfair at one time, just amazing!

UGC Manager Seany and his team had made the club look fantastic and in the end I could hardly move my camera about as the amount of people in the sim caused so much lag.  So much chatter was  going on that it was hard to follow in the text chat, people were having a great time and filled the text with banter and gestures!  One thing is a problem though, you get so many different chats going on, as the group chats start up as well, that you sometimes miss tags of people trying to IM you and you may not always be available if you are talking to one or two people at the same time.  Any Mr or Ms Lindens who are reading this, and I know you do sometimes, could you send a note to your boss asking if we can have a pre-loaded message in our IM response saying ‘Unavailable for IM’s a the present time’ that we can set, not just ‘Busy’ that stops us reading the local chat unless we have the chat window open.  From people like me’s point of view, sometimes I get three or four IM’s coming in all at once, I would like to pick one IM to answer at a time and be able to load the ‘Unavailable’ message on for any other incoming IM’s.  Just a suggestion!

Well I supposed Halloween is finished, but just around the corner is Christmas, (no not Winterval or EndofYearAval, Christmas!  like it should be!), so I will be looking forward to exploring all the sites that people will now be setting up, I can’t wait!!!

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the one that makes my mom's fake smile look like a beam of sunlight, that's my dad.

It’s my Dad’s birthday.

Hmmm.  Write about my dad.  Ok.  Fuck it.  Let’s go!

Luis turns 60 today (October 14th), which officially makes him old.  Not THAT old, but our birthday’s are only four days apart and where people are always telling me I’m a baby with my whole life ahead of me, you’d be insulting my Father’s intelligence if you tried to tell him the same.  After countless conversations in the car, just us, where the silent parts are more profound then the words spoken, I learned we share the same view on life.  That’s that simply existing can often be a pain in the ass and that having to do it mostly in the presence of other people is more a chore than a pleasure.  So you gotta give him props for making it this far.

When we immigrated to Canada I was 6 months old, my Dad left the up and up lifestyle he could have been living in Manila.  He was a journalist.  And that’s the coolest job you can have in The Philippines, because all the great ones were journalists or writers.  In the 70s and 80s there was a hint of danger added to it because the great ones usually got jailed or were already martyrs.  I stopped thinking Pops was cool when I was around 14, so it was great to go back to his hometown and hear people tell of what a smart and good-looking guy my Dad was at my age.  The chicks he got and his cool job.  He was the kid from the small-town that moved out to the big-city.

Then he became the man from the third-world moving to the big-shiny first-world.  I learned a term today used at the University of Toronto, instead of saying third-world they say “Global South”, which is like saying the “World’s Crotch/Ass”.  And Pops might as well have come from the Ass of the world, because for ‘THEM’ <— interpret that however you want- to consider him on the same level, even after all his top notch big-city education and experience, he had to go through parts of high school and all of University all over again.  We’re talking about a guy who speaks perfect english, reads EVERYTHING and had to live with my Lola as his mother-in-law who was pretty much the smartest-meanest woman alive.

So he worked odd jobs during my infant and toddler years.  The story goes is that he used to bring me along to interviews because there wasn’t anyone to watch me back then.  One of the odd jobs was being a busboy at the now defunct Montreal Bistro (legendary jazz bar in Toronto).  A gig he’s particularly proud of and one that mirrors my own journey through Toronto.  He finally ended up working a desk at Air Canada for around 20 years.  Nothing exciting really happened during that time.  I guess that’s where ‘existence’ got him.

I owe a lot to Pops.  I owe my near obsession with Filipinoness to him.  When he taught me that basketball was a Filipino’s favorite sport I made it my own.  He taught me how to shoot on a net he set up in my room.  Gave me loonies to blow on basketball cards.  Drove me and my friends to our games.  And didn’t deny me my dream of being the first Filipino in the NBA, even though he knew I sucked ass at sports and he really wanted me to be nerd like he was.  But back in the nineties, we were the only two people who knew that Micheal Jordan wasn’t the best shooting-guard in the league, it was Joe Dumars.

He still never denies me my hopes and dreams, even when he thinks they’re a bad idea.  Like this trip to the Philippines.  And he’s always bailed me out of the shit when I needed.  Which is probably why I walk through life happy go-lucky and seemingly invincible because I know I can always fall back on my Father when I’m bound to fuck up.

I never asked him why he came to Canada and what it cost him, I imagine it was a great deal.  I have to thank him for doing it because being Canadian grants me the opportunity to be a fuck up all around the world and makes ‘existence’ more of an intellectual pursuit and not a matter of survival.  We don’t talk much, so I can never be sure if he’s ever been proud of me.  I’m sure when he used to take me along on those interviews, put his palm on face, and tell me stories of ‘back home’ he never intended on me becoming this strange less-serious cartoon-version of himself.  To that I say “maybe you shouldn’t have left all those dirty garage sale novels lying around and maybe you should have insisted I study harder instead of telling me to marry a rich girl.”

Just kidding, Pops.  Congratulations, you made it through another one.

peace,

-mlv aka BOOM-BOOM

“We regret at due to the stringent way that Age Verification is enforced in Second Life, that running Soho as an adult sim has become no longer viable. With regret, we have decided not to renew the Soho sim as part of the estate.  We ask that you contact management with any questions.  Until the tier payment comes due, we will open the sim up for everyone.  Thank you for your understanding. – London Team”

And there it is, how quickly things change in SL, there had been lots of hard work, lots of passion put into building Soho in SL London, we all waited eagerly for the opening of this most unusual sim and were given a preview just before it opened.  It’s very sad for all concerned and there were some nice buildings there.  Maybe people weren’t as eager for the sex side of things as was anticipated, but then it needed other stuff going on to draw people in and more publicity, it’s very hard though with a new sim, getting regular traffic and I’m sure it would have grown gradually.  I always thought that as Soho was seemingly only about the Phoenix Club, that they could have built it into the corner of an existing sim, one that has Mature rating, as the rest of Soho seemed empty. 

I wondered back over to Chelsea where I had my lovely apartment and looked in at the Jazz club, which had closed a few days before.  It looks like they opened the doors again and there is piped music going on, surely this would be a great place to concentrate on after the closing of the Phoenix, people love romantic places, but who am I to say!!

 Oh well, onwards and upwards! lets hope some happier news is waiting just around the corner!!

Lviv, Ukraine

Monday 6^th July 2009 – Lviv, Ukraine

Today is our last full day in Lviv, and we decide to scope out the bus station, since we are considering getting the bus to our next destination tomorrow.  In our Bradt guidebook, the map simply has an arrow on a road pointing to the bus station (i.e. it was off the map) and thinking Lviv isn’t very big we decide to walk it.

Beforehand we enjoy a lazy long lunch in the centre of the old city, in a restaurant in a cobbled side-alley. We sit and sit and drink beer and eat food, putting off the trek to the bus station for as long as possible. After two hours of nothing but lounging in the sun, we decide we should leave. We pay our surprisingly small bill (life is cheap in Ukraine) and make our way to our ominous destination.

Another two hours, and four more blisters, later we are still walking to the bus station (the arrow must be well off the map). Fed up, frustrated and thirsty, we catch the first bus back to the old city, and decide if we can’t get to our next destination by train we won’t bother going.

Back at the hostel we find train times to the Carpathian Mountain city of Ivano-Frankivsk, decide it looks cool, and pack our bags.

Afternoon Beers In Lviv

Tuesday 7^th July 2009 – Ivano-Frankvisk, Ukraine

We leave the hostel at 7.45am for the train station, reaching our destination in plenty of time to get our tickets. With time on our hands we sit and eat breakfast on the platform, bidding our time before the game of locating our train begins.

Unprecedented, we manage to track down not only our train, but carriage and seats within ample time of it leaving. Having previously travelled via coupe (second class), being in hard (third) class was another interesting perspective on Ukrainian transport. In a carriage with 59 other passenger, who were in various states of sleeping, eating or lugging baggage about for the entire trip, the smells and heat emitting from so many bodies was an overwhelming, but enlightening experience.

The train journey itself offers pretty scenery, we dash through chocolate-box villages, whilst wild geese waddle the marshlands and stork nests dot the track’s power pylons.

We arrive at Ivano-Frankiisvk just after 13:00. Wandering from the train station we navigate our way to the town centre, where our guide promises hotels lay (we didn’t have anything pre-booked). After walking in circles for hours (via lunch and a beer) we eventually find ourselves as the Dnister Hotel. We get a large room, with hot water and a glorious bathroom for 240 UAH (£20) a night.

By this point it is late afternoon, and we have a wander around the town – buying a few bits from the various delis, grocery stores and bakeries that flit the quaint streets. Post this, and having woken early, we decide to settle in for a lazy evening of reading, writing and nothing much else.

Dnister Hotel, Ivano Frankivsk

Wednesday 8^th July 2009 – Ivano-Frankvisk, Ukraine

We enjoy a lie-in, before breakfasting in the hotel’s eatery and making our way to the few ‘cultural’ offerings on hand in the city.

A stones through from our hotel, in the middle of ‘Rynok Square’ we find the ‘National Carpathian Museum’, offering everything from a stuffed local wildlife to the social/ religious history of Ivano-Frankivsk (I-F). The rooms seem endless and our 1UAH entrance (less than 10p) goes a long way. Having seen golden eagles, mammoth bones, tools from the Stone Age, religious portraits, old racing cars and pretty much everything else you can think of, we decide to move on.

Next we ventured towards the Art Museum in the former Collegiate Church. Under soviet rule this was a museum of atheism, however the religious iconography was hidden in a secret basement and is now once again on full display in all its questionable splendour.

Having hit the two places of interest denoted in our guide, we spend the afternoon simply wandering the streets, letting the city’s architecture gently soak in. In other words, we find a beer vendor and enjoy an ice-cold mid-afternoon break from the blazing sun.

Having been here for a full day now, we have both noticed that Ivano-Frankivsk has a slightly uneasy feel to it compared with other cities we have graced in Ukraine. That’s not to say it feels overtly dangerous (although we stick to the well-light areas at night), but perhaps until now, having settled in touristy towns, we have taken for granted the realities of a country which has been in turmoil, either politically or economically, for over a century.

Ivano Frankivsk at dusk

Thursday 9^th July 2009 – Ivano-Frankvisk, Ukraine

I get up early this morning and write for a couple of hours before Maddi awakens. Maddi slumbers lazily until around ten, by which time I am in an irritatingly productive and bright frame of mind.

We head to I-F’s large market, just north of the centre. The market is large and hustling with activity by mid-morning, and unlike back home, seems to be the preferred shopping destination over supermarkets. We buy a few necessities (soap and string), along with a brilliant device which boils water via two electrical coils (essential for morning coffee in hostels).

For lunch we pack a picnic and head to the large man-made lake on the outskirts of the city, aptly named ‘City Lake’. We find a grassy verge and enjoy a prolonged lunch until a thunderstorm rolls in from the near-by Carpathian mountain range, forcing a hasty retreat back to our hotel.

We spend the evening in a Jazz club a few doors up from our hotel. The place is empty and has a singular oboe play on-stage (who leaves midway through our first drink, after which we are treated to a Jazz DVD – great!). The drinks are pricey for Ukraine, but we unwind and enjoy a few hours in the ambivalent atmosphere, under the watchful gaze of the sole musician who is now sitting in the corner, drinking and staring at us.

Ukrainian Picnic

Friday 10^th July 2009 – Ivano-Frankvisk, Ukraine

Today is our last day in I-F, we catch a train to Kiev at half eight tonight.

We spend the day burning time. We drink cheap coffee by a fountain.. We walk the circumference of the ‘City Lake’. We drag out a long lunch (partly the very inattentive waiter’s fault). We wander around the shopping centre looking for dress shops. We buy a cake from a road-side seller. We sit in another park. We walk back to the fountain and have an ice-cream. Eventually, it is 6pm.

We decide to slowly meander toward the train station, having convinced ourselves the walk will take forty-five minutes (it takes ten). At the train station the information board is broken and the platforms don’t have numbers on them, so we sit in between the bustling masses of people on the platform and just wait until our train is meant to arrive.

Through good fortune (which smiles on us more than we may realise), our train is early and we manage to find our vessel, and climb aboard, in plenty of time. Our fellow compartment dwellers for the evening are two middle aged women, and although they don’t make any conversation they do offer us some home-made cake. We retire to our bunks a little later, Maddi dropping straight off in a soundless slumber, whilst I struggle to enter the realm of dreams with the clattering wheels bellowing and fluorescent light flooding in through the window.

Ivano Frankivsk Train Station

Saturday 11^th July – Kiev, Ukraine

We pull into Kiev at around 9am, pop our bags into Left Luggage (we are getting another train this evening) and exit the station.

Just down the road from the station is the Ukraine Natural History Museum. This seems too good an opportunity to miss, despite Maddi’s hesitance to spend hours pouring over dinosaur bones.

I spend too long photographing bones (which Maddi insists aren’t real “They keep the good stuff behind locked doors.”) before whisking quickly through the two floors of rocks (geology is even duller than usual if you can’t read the placards).

Maddi treats me to a pizza from our favourite pizzeria, Pizza Celentano, on Kiev’s main strip lunch. It is a sweetened pill, as on finishing the last crumb she asks if we can go dress shopping. I have no choice to relent and we spend four hours browsing Kiev’s underground shopping centres.

As twilight dwindles lazily, we wander to the train station via a few park and board our train.  Within our compartment, we find a nasty surprise. A stubby middle-aged woman, lets call her Jude, is standing on my seat yelling for someone strong to stow her heavy luggage. I aide her, to no thanks. Next, she has crawls into her bedding (the train hasn’t left yet), draws the curtains and tries to turn off the lights. Jude lies there the whole evening as we chug toward Odessa, pretending to be asleep but with one eye open, staring at us suspiciously.

Natural History Musuem, Kiev

Sunday 12^th July 2009 – Odessa, Ukraine

Maddi battering my face with pillows awakes me at 6am. The train has slowed to a crawl and we are edging our way into Odessa’s main railway station.

Both eyes and speech slurring, we waddle off the train and consume a vital cup of coffee.

Feeling, maybe, 10% better we lug our heavy bags on to our backs and head to Hotel Zirka.  Eventually arriving we check in to the hotel, which over-looks the suburban Odessa (it’s at least an hours walk away from the beach or anywhere else of interest).

We shower and decide to have a celebratory early morning beer. The alcohol has its desired effect and we are soon asleep.

Getting up a few hours later we head towards the city’s seaport and the Potemkin Stairs. On the way, we cross a bridge that bears thousands of personalised padlocks, fitted to the railings by couples as a testament of love’s eternity. Despite the over-cast skies, Odessa is surprisingly warm.

As evening descends, we eventually orienteer ourselves back to our hotel and after another shower (make the most of ‘em, while you got ‘em) we wander to a beach where we drink a beer on the shores of the Black Sea. The breeze is warm, the beer cold and nothing, nothing at all, could be better than right now.

Sunset In Odessa

Akademia Umysłu.
- mózg może rozwijać się do 92 roku życia
- d 10-15 min dziennie czas treningu
- 3,5 miesiąca , obecny mistrz swiata pamieciowy, potrzebny był mu na naukę hiszpańskiego. Po tym czasie zdał na architekturę i rozpoczął studia w Hiszpanii
- inna uczennica potzrebowala 3 tyg na naukę włoskiego od podstaw. Po tym czasie zdała egz państwowy.

- albo jesteś samoukiem albo nieukiem
- samoksztalcenie to trend i wymóg obecnych czasów
- ilość połączeń miedzy neuronami to 12,5 mln km zer, jedynka i zera, pisane w zeszycie.
- jak magazynowac i zarządzać informacjami w mózgu ?
- aktywność to życie , bezwlad to smierć
- nowe informacje zamieniac na obrazy, ponieważ myslimy obrazami
- świadomie kojarzyć info z tym co już wiemy
- motywacja do uczenia; po co, dlaczeo , do czego potrzebne?
- uczenie jest kreacja

Na koniec otrzymałem niespodziankę. Części pierwsze  treningu  pamięci, postrzegania, szybkiego czytania. Teraz to już tylko pozostaje czyn!

someone has to pull a cart that someone could go

Every year in September, we present a little something called the New Jersey Blues & Jazz Festival at the Backstage Jazz Club. It’s 3 days and 6 sets of Blues and Jazz by some of the top musicians in the Blues & Jazz biz. What’s unique about these performances is that both the performers and the attendees sit on the stage, creating an intimate jazz club kind of setting (only 200 seats). Even the entrance to the festival, which is down the alley by the stage door has that small jazz club feel. I have many memories from these festivals and I have met many talented musicians. One of my favorite sets was Jon Faddis with Jimmy Heath. Heath, now 82 years old, can still jam with the best of them, not to mention he is one of the sweetest guys I have ever met. I was able to take a little footage (see below) of their performance at the 2007 festival…the video was filmed a little far back as if I was a fly on the wall, but it’s still cool to watch.
–Kelly Skinner, Director of Public Relations

The 2009 New Jersey Blues & Jazz Festival line-up includes:

Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers
Thu, September 24 at 8pm & 10pm

Marcia Ball
Fri, September 25 at 8pm & 10pm

Yellowjackets
Sat, September 26 at 8pm & 10pm

The State Theatre is located at 15 Livingston Ave in New Brunswick, NJ. For information or to purchase tickets call 732-246-SHOW (7469) or visit http://www.statetheatrenj.org/. Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube.

Miejski Dom Kultury w Mińsku Mazowieckim mieści się w zabytkowym pałacu, który obecną formę architektoniczną zawdzięcza XIX – wiecznej przebudowie. Położony w centrum miasta, nad rzeką Srebrną, otoczony parkiem krajobrazowym pałac jest perłą architektury mińskiej – perłą wpisaną w 1957 roku do polskiego rejestru zabytków.

widok z mostku

oswojone ptaki

By the time this post appears, the eBay auction will be over — but this is the first collection of jazz-related matchbooks and swizzle sticks I’ve ever seen, so I thought it was worth notice.  Someone went there; someone saved these things; someone had a wonderful time, I am sure.

Eddie Condon’s, the midtown version, New York City, the early Sixties — endearing jazz archaeology.

Spotkanie trwało około godziny. Poseł opowiedal o sytuacji polskiej przedsiębiorczości , własnym zarobionym pierwszym milionie, o polityce ( ustawach, przelomowych dla zwykłego Polaka)
Jego wlasna recepta na profesjonalizm:
1. Rano biała kartka i dlugopis. Spisanie zadań na dziś.
2. Relacje miedzyludzkie. Rozmowy o biznesach.
3. Podróże. A przez to podpatrywanie i nauka języków.

Wydał mi się człowiekiem otwartym, kreatywnym o innowacyjnym podejściu.
Będę odwiedzal Jego blog!

The Sub Ensemble at the Rainbow (Pic: Garry Corbett)

Jazz Club, The Rainbow
26-08-09
Getting the right band together is difficult enough in itself; keeping them together down the years in an uncertain world needs great determination and forbearance. Bassist Chris Mapp is managing just fine with the band that grew out of Sugarbeats, but last night illustrated the ongoing challenge.

It was the last gig for the drummer who has been there from the start, Alan Gardiner. He is sliding south to Brighton, and will, I reckon, be sorely missed. His ability to play a rock solid groove and yet bring light and energy to it as well has always been one of the band’s strong points.

But it was also the first gig with the band for trumpeter Aaron Diaz, and here there is great cause for celebration. Slightly reticent at first (or rather slightly down in the mix due to his softer tone when compared with that of fellow trumpeter Mike Adlington), he quickly started to look and sound at home and  played some of the evening’s strongest solos. The two-trumpet line-up was one of the things I liked most about later incarnations of Sugarbeats, and the chrome brightness it gives to the horn section suits perfectly the shiny vibe of the music.

So, as one door closes another opens, then… and I am sure there are some hot drummers around just longing to lock into the tight rhythm team of Mapp, keyboardist Rob Norman and percussion man Mark Robertson.

And up front? Needless to say Adlington continues to do the business, in his cool, always assured manner, and Colin Mills provides the wild card on baritone. There was one tune last night which paired Mills’ and Mapp’s bass clef instruments that I thought was particularly effective, and points to how Mills might be best used in the future. There is a tendency for his excellent solos to get lost in the mix if they are treated as conventional horn improvs against full rhythm backing (especially if Norman is feeling enthusiastic, as he was last night).

The band played lots of familiar favourites – 22-21, For You, Dual-eyed Entity, Beautiful Spring – and they were all sounding as fine as I have heard them, but the real stand-out of the evening was the band’s reworking of the 4Hero piece Humans. Like the encore, a Dee Dee Bridgewater tune (“done in one of my favourite styles: fast latin!” as Mapp told us), it showed the originality the band can bring to other material (though it must be stressed, Humans, is a near fresh creation compared to the original).

It is this strong and individual band character, and the huge bonus of the tunes former Sub saxophonist Mike Fletcher has bequeathed to them, that ensures them a healthy future. The cast may change but the story continues.

There are more of Garry’s mood-capturing pictures here.

Vicente Espì Quartet

Che i catalani fossero fieri della loro indipendenza storico-linguistica, lo sapevo da tempo, ma che arrivassero a ribattezzare Coltrane con il simpatico diminutivo di “Juanito”, questo mi ha decisamente sorpreso. Mah! Che volete farci. Sono le stranezze e le amenità che caratterizzano un viaggio che diventa bello anche così. Forse in Spagna si usa in questo modo e noi neanche non lo sappiamo. Del resto, quando il jazz sbarcò in Italia nell’immediato dopoguerra Louis Armostrong divenne Luigi Braccioforte. Ergo, non bisogna stupirsi di nulla. Perché questo episodio? Il nostro “Juanito”, quello di “Spiritual” per intenderci, è stato al centro del concerto omaggio del Vicente Espì Quartet che ho ascoltato in un carinissimo jazz club di Barcellona, il Jamboree, a Plaça Rejal, a pochi passi dalla Rambla. Se capitate da queste parti, non perdetelo. È un pezzetto della storia jazz di Spagna che merita attenzione. L’atmosfera non è fumosa, ma resa misteriosa quel che basta da archi e colonne della grotta che celano la vista e oscurano alquanto l’orizzonte. Il quartetto era guidato dal batterista, Vicente Espì appunto, ed era composto anche da Vicente Macian al sax tenore, Albert Bover al piano e Masa Kamaguchi al contrabbasso. Il concerto, che faceva parte della rassegna agostana “Mas i Mas”, è iniziato con puntualità e questo è certamente un punto a favore per gli organizzatori che animano con regolarità questo club: basta con il vizio italico dei canonici 45 minuti di ritardo per far ‘scaldare’ il pubblico e affollare il bancone del bar!! Iniziare con puntualità significa abituare gli spettatori ad essere a loro volta puntuali!Per ciò che concerne il concerto, invece, ho qualche perplessità. Nell’ansia di ‘prestazione’, passatemi il termine, Espì ha esagerato con assoli continui e ripetuti che avevano l’effetto di coprire i compagni sul palco. Tecnicamente pulito nell’esecuzione, ma ridondante nell’espressione. L’omaggio a Coltrane era talvolta sovraccaricato dallo sfoggio di abilità e di virtuosismi talvolta inutili che hanno penalizzato la passione e il sentimento. Il più interessante della formazione per le novità proposte è stato Masa Kamaguchi, il contrabbassista, che ha dato verve all’esibizione. Insomma, per me è un ‘sei’. O sarò troppo severa?

Wynton Marsalis and Eric Lewis, originally uploaded by Ed Newman.

Wynton and Eric sneak in on Robert Rucker’s Project. Actually, both men were summoned and showed up to support their efforts. 

Musicians:

Alex Mincek - tenor

Wynton Marsalis- trumpet

Eric Lewis – piano

Todd “Grits” Grunder -bass

Robert “Rook” Rucker -Drums

“Not Shown-Paul (piano)

Od tej pory słowo OBORY przyciągnie przyjemniejsze skojarzenia organoleptyczne.

Ps. Obory są kolebką, dzielnicą Konstancina.

Un’altra notte carica di note energiche, creatività strumentale e ritmi coinvolgenti è in programma stasera al Jazz Club di via Giolitti, dove nell’ambito della rassegna “Estate jazz Torino” prenderà forma una affascinante open jam session, aperta alla partecipazione di tutti i musicisti che vorranno cimentarsi, contribuendo così a creare delle atmosfere uniche e imprevedibili. Ad accompagnare i solisti, sul palco ci sarà un trio di base, composto da Roberto Pedroli al pianoforte, Enrico Ciampini al contrabbasso e Marco Breglia alla batteria. Lo spettacolo si svolgerà sulla terrazza coperta del Jct, e inizierà alle 21.30. L’ingresso è libero, con maggiorazione del prezzo della prima consumazione. Info 011/6686336.

Pietro Bellantoni

Pubblicato da Repubblica Torino

Britney Spears made all the tabloid headlines last night after she showed up at a Jazz Club in Chinatown last night. I love Chinatown. I’ve spent a lot of time there. When I’m in the mood for Chinese food, I usually head to Yang Chow. I’ve been to The Mountain Bar (which was once very cool), and I’ve received really good massages and acupuncture at this herb place right next to the Pet store.  One of my favorite parties ever was in Chinatown. For Stuff magazine’s first anniversary, they rented out a huge square in Chinatown. There were people dressed in dragon costumes, women with dim sum carts walking around, an open bar with all kinds of sake and Chinese beer and tons of Chinese decoration. I will never forget that party.

I’ve never been to Grand Star Jazz Club.  I want to go, and not because Britney Spears made an appearance last night. I love live Jazz.

From the Grand Star Jazz Club Website:

“The Grand Star Jazz Club Has been in the forefront of serving Los Angeles from the beautiful Chinatown area. Although we pride ourselves with some of the greatest Jazz Los Angeles has to offer . We also embrace Hip Hop, R&B, Rap and Blues we believe all forms of music are great and we offer this trendy and comfortable venue to share all music with you.”

I really love old, authentic jazz. There was this amazing older woman who used to sing at the Spot (my favorite speakeasy that is no more). Maybe she performs at Grand Star now?

From LA Weekly:

“Firecracker, yeah yeah – Frank and Wally and the dearly missed “Mommy” and Yasuko, when she makes it, are the real reasons to go. It was my regular weekend haunt for years…the ghost of Blue Lagoon Bibi attempting to remember all the lyrics to “La vie en rose” still walks the floor to this day…”

You can also read the reviews on YELP.

Św. Bonifacego na Czerniakowie
Dekanat wilanowski

Bernardyni to zwyczajowa nazwa Zakonu Braci Mniejszych gałęzi obserwanckiej, używana na ziemiach przedrozbiorowej Polski. Oficjalna nazwa brzmi obecnie: Prowincja Niepokalanego Poczęcia NMP Zakonu Braci Mniejszych w Polsce, OO. Bernardyni.

Nowy kościół wybudowany obok starego, gdzie znajdują się relikwie św. Bonifacego, patrona miejscowej parafii.

W nowym kościele, piękny, przestronny chór, z którego można oglądać cały kościół.

La Cumparsita napisana została w 1919 roku przez 17-letniego Urugwajczyka. Po podbiciu Buenos Aires piosenka zawojowała świat i została utożsamiana z samym tangiem.  Jest chętnie granym utworem przez akordeonistów.

Bimber, smalec i polska kiełbasa wozem drabiniastym po weselnych gościńcach