I just came across this "jazz compatibility" test on NPR. To say that most avid jazz listeners are pretentious is completely unnecessary, but come on...Eric Dolphy? Really? Miles Davis is probably the most basic/concrete example to use for this kind of thing.
But on to more timely affairs: Tonight's Jazz at Five concert (just off Capitol Square) will feature the Madison Mellophonium Jazz Orchestra at 6:30 p.m. The MMJO is dedicated to the great Stan Kenton and his love of mellophoniums. (The group I play in, The UW Jazz Orchestra, dedicated the fall semester of last year to Johnny Richards/Stan Kenton's Cuban Fire Suite. The complete live album recording can be found here.)
What's special about tonight's concert is that the group will be led by Joel Kaye, who played baritone sax with the Kenton band. And my saxophone professor, Les Thimmig, will be playing lead alto. EDIT: For some reason I didn't realize he would be playing, but my jazz director, Jim Doherty, was also featured on trumpet. He told me the sax section is particularly heavy--normally, Kenton preferred using one alto, two tenors and two bari players (as opposed to the typical two altos, two tenors and one bari), but tonight there will be one alto, one tenor, two bari and one BASS sax.
I am extremely excited for tonight's performance. They're also playing tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. in Baraboo's Town Square and again here on Sunday at First United Methodist Church for the service and a following concert at 9:30 a.m.
One last thing: if any jazz musicians are reading this, every Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. there's a jazz jam at Zander's (118 State Street). If Humanities is open after Jazz at Five I'm going to grab my alto and hopefully play there tonight. Come one come all!
I wish I could see one of those concerts with Les playing! It sounds so cool!
ReplyDeleteI wish you could have been there too...it was amazing, and Jim was in it too! A lot of the time Les and Jim had back-to-back solos or even song features!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about a jam at Zanders. Is this new? When did it start? Well attended?
ReplyDeleteI actually don't know much about it myself - I've only been once and it was small (four musicians and pretty small audience). The only reason I know about it is through a friend who played there last week, Kristen Schram. Hopefully the news will spread and it'll get bigger.
ReplyDeleteThere's been no publicity that I've seen. Doesn't seem like they're trying very hard to get the word out. I'll post something about it on my site and that should help. Once I know more about I can get it on the Madison Jazz Calendar too. I'll also be posting about a new jam within the next several days.
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