The Bridge Quartet (Alan Jones on drums, Tom Wakeling on bass, Darrell Grant on piano, and Canadian saxophonist Phil Dwyer on tenor saxophone) will be doing a rare Portland performance (perhaps the only one this year according to Wakeling) on Monday, March 8th.
The group will be performing at Cafe Mango (1215 SW 16th Ave) starting at 8 PM. Just a $10 cover charge.
Los Angeles-based Latin percussionist Luis Conte will be in Portland this weekend for two shows where he will be the featured guest with two Portland-based groups.
First, on Friday, February 12th, Conte will join the Portland Jazz Orchestra for a concert at the First United Methodist Church (1838 SW Jefferson St) for a concert called “El Rey del Timbal” where the big band will explore the music of Tito Puente. Don’t miss this chance to see Conte with some of Portland’s best jazz musicians, including Darrell Grant, Alan Jones, Farnell Newton, and more. Also, Portland’s own Latin-jazz king Bobby Torres will be joining the group on percussion for this special event.
Then, on Saturday, February 13th, Conte will join the Bobby Torres Ensemble at Jimmy Mak’s for another evening of hot Latin jazz. You won’t find another percussion section like this in Portland again in 2010: Bobby Torres, Carmello Torres (Bobby’s son), and Luis Conte.
This Friday (10/2), the Portland Jazz Orchestra will kick off its 2009-2010 season with a program called “Groovin’ Hard.” The concert will feature drummer Alan Jones driving the band through selections from the Buddy Rich book. This should be a fantastic chance to hear Alan stretch out on music that you wouldn’t normally get to hear him play. Plus, the sound of Alan kicking a big band is worth every penny they are asking for the ticket price ($22 / $15 students -- prices higher at the door).
During the rest of the season, you can look forward to “Linus, Lucy and the Duke” in December, “El Rey del Timbal” in February (the music of Tito Puente), and a special treat of “An Evening with Kenny Wheeler” in April.
To get you in the mood for some of what the Portland Jazz Orchestra has to offer, check out this video from last season -- “It’s Just Talk” from their concert featuring the music of Pat Metheny.
UPDATE: Phil Dwyer will not be playing this show. Devin Phillips will be subbing.
On Tuesday, September 29th, Mel Brown’s Septet will take a night off from their regular Jimmy Mak’s spot to hand over the stage to Alan Jones and his Bridge Quartet. The quartet features two other Portlanders (Darrell Grant on piano and Tom Wakeling on bass) as well as Canadian saxophonist Phil Dwyer.
The performance will be a CD-release event for the long-awaited second half of their “Day/Night” recording project.
In March of 2007, the quartet got together to record in Clackamas Community College’s state-of-the-art recording studio. After the group spent the daytime recording, they headed over to LV’s Uptown for a public evening performance. Originally, there were supposed to be two nights of shows, but Dwyer was held up while trying to cross the Canadian border and made it into Portland much later than expected.
The studio recordings were released last year under the title “Day.” On the 29th, they will release the evening performances, aptly titled “Night.”
Editorial:
I attended the LV’s performance back in 2007. It was the first time that I had ever heard Phil Dwyer and I was (of course) completely blown away. I was sitting next to my long-time teacher Warren Rand and I remember us looking at each other more than a few times during Dwyer’s solos, both being victim to a sort-of shock-and-awe effect that he has with the amount of energy in his playing.
The performance was pretty loose, I’m sure in part because of the problems in getting Dwyer across the border and the stress of being in the recording studio all day. But, loose isn’t a bad thing in this case. The energy, creativity, and spontaneity were all there, making it a great show.
- John Nastos
UPDATE: Phil Dwyer will not be playing this show. Devin Phillips will be subbing.
Although they’ve given it a horrible title (you’ll have to click through to see), KGW has posted a video they shot at The Cave for the return of the Alan Jones Sextet. The band (featuring Warren Rand on alto saxophone, John Gross on tenor saxophone, Randy Porter on piano, Paul Mazzio on trumpet, Tom Wakeling on bass, and of course Alan Jones on drums) played at The Cave for their return after a hiatus of a few years. If you don’t own them already, do yourself a favor and go buy their albums: Unsafe, and the Leroy Vinnegar Suite
Gordon Lee’s Rough Jazz Quartet is returning to Jimmy Mak’s on April 17th.
Be sure to catch this group, as they are some of Portland’s most in-demand musicians (Alan Jones on drums, John Gross on tenor saxophone, and Dan Schulte on bass) playing Gordon Lee’s incredibly creative and unique compositions.
Rough Jazz recently released a DVD on Diatic Records. Below is a clip from the DVD.
Last year, Alan Jones and the Bridge Quartet (Darrell Grant – piano, Tom Wakeling – bass, and Phil Dwyer – saxophone) released “Day,” their first record. “Day” was recorded at Clackamas Community College’s recording facility, which is proving to be one of the best choices in Portland (and the Northwest) to record accoustic music.
When the quartet was in town recording the record (all are Portlander’s except for Dwyer who hails from Vancouver BC. Side note: ask the band about trying to get him across the border in time for the recording sessions), they spent the evenings playing gigs. The live recordings from the public shows have now been released on Origin Records.
Aptly named “Night,” these recordings feature the band in a different setting than “Day.” They may sacrafice the state-of-the-art recording technology of the studio, but they gain the interaction and energy from performing in front of a live audience.
“Night” is available on the Origin Records website.
This week, The Cave presents:
The Cave is located at 636 SW Jackson. See their website for more details
