A Kansan Walks Into a Portland Bar

Hankering for live music while stranded without transportation in a suburb northeast of Portland's downtown last Sunday evening, I dejectedly cross-referenced local listings against Google Maps. I spotted a nondescript post for a 8:30 p.m. "jazz jam" at a joint with the unpromising name of Clyde's Prime Rib Restaurant and Bar. It was exactly one mile away. I began walking.

I was encouraged to find that the parking lot at Clyde's was full. I was even more pleased when I secured the last open seat at the bar of the lounge that housed the jazz jam. Host Ron Steen, a personable drummer, seemed to know all sixty people in the room. (He even chatted up a sweaty stranger at the bar.)

The house band was impressive. When guests began to arrive, however, I felt as if I'd entered a jazz lover's dream. A rhythm section of bassist Essiet Essiet (Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Bobby Watson) and drummer Dick Berk (Ted Curson, George Duke, Cal Tjader) supported a bunch of lesser known but equally impressive musicians. The most immediately distinctive character was David Leshare Watson. He's something else.

I don't know if my sublime experience was a result of karmic serendipity or if the city's jazz scene is on fire. Either way, I wish I wasn't currently sitting 1,803 miles from Clyde's.

(Original images by Plastic Sax.)

Kansas City's Jazz Rebels

Exactly when did jazz become polite?  The music would benefit from a hint of hooliganism.  That's why a rough video capturing a brash display by a Kansas City rhythm section at the 2012 Jazz Education Network conference in Kentucky delighted me.  "They wouldn't let us play," the clip's introduction suggests.  "So we waited 'til they finished breaking down the stage and went at it 'til 5 a.m."  Pianist Andrew Ouellette, bassist Dominique Sanders and drummer Ryan Lee are captured tearing through John Coltrane's "Impressions."  I'm pretty sure that's Brian Steever fronting on Lee and Josh Williams stepping up after Floridian Rane Roatta's solo at 3:53.  The person holding the camera talks about the facility's displeased staff.  Sure enough, the musicians are forced to cease as the clip closes.

Now's the Time: Reptet

Wonderful or just plain wacky? I intend to decide for myself when I catch Reptet at the Record Bar on Monday. The Seattle-based band filters the exuberance of New Orleans brass bands through the playfully adventurous canons of Henry Threadgill and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Aside from its irritating vocals, I enjoy Reptet's 2011 album At the Cabin. Here's Joe Klopus' preview of the show. Reptet's set will be followed by a performance by Beard Crazy, a band featuring Hermon Mehari and Les Izmore.

Review: Trombone Shorty at Crossroads KC

A multi-generational audience of over 300 danced, laughed, smoked and drank at Crossroads KC on Father's Day. Could it really have been a jazz concert? Yes and no.

Trombone Shorty improvised on both trombone and trumpet as he led a five-piece group. Much of his performance featured brass band music straight out of New Orleans' Treme neighborhood.

But Trombone Shorty, aka Troy Andrews, is a 24-year-old also conversant in hip hop, funk, rock and pop. In addition to his melodic original compositions, his band performed covers of the Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started," Allen Toussaint's "On Your Way Down," Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and the Isley Brothers' "Shout."

I'd like the band even more if they lost their rock-oriented guitarist, but Trombone Shorty's good-time music is impossible to resist. In terms familiar to Plastic Sax readers, Trombone Shorty mixed Diverse's youthful energy with the wild abandon local listeners associate with Hearts of Darkness.

Good times.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*A most unusual jazz performance transpired last weekend at the Kansas City Irish Fest. Eric Rigler of Bad Haggis is a piper, alright, but his band offered a chagrined audience a blast of jazz fusion in the vein of Return to Forever and Weather Report.

*Andrew Zender composed a beautiful review of a new Hot Lips Page biography.

*Mazuka was profiled by Joe Klopus.

*Steve Penn visits with musicians about Charlie Parker's legacy.

*The New Low Down outs me in his superior analysis of this year's Charlie Parker memorial. Lee is too gracious to mention that Kansas City's jazz community suffered a terrible blow when he left town.

*How I Came To Love Jazz is the title of a new book by Kansas City poet Phyllis Becker.

*An unissued Charlie Parker recording is scheduled for release.

*Miles Bonny has four gigs in Germany and Austria over the next few days.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)