Wednesday June 18th: NANCY KING INVITATIONAL
This week Nancy invites the swift, wry, hoping, and still young pianist Dan Gaynor. Dan is what in astronomy would be called “an orbit”.
Thursday June 19th: ALAN JONES PRESENTS…
his new Quartet of Portland all-stars Randy Porter, Rob Davis and Tom Wakeling. Collectively known as The Cavemen This group will be performing new original music of Alan’s along with not too common and very interesting re-workings from the modern jazz literature.
Best-known for his leadership of the Alan Jones Sextet, which for many listeners defines the essence of Portland jazz with its adventurous, hard-swinging original music, grounded in both jazz tradition and the rugged individualism of the Northwest.
Friday June 20th: EZRA WEISS - NEW JAZZ QUARTET
Jazz composer/pianist Ezra Weiss has returned to Portland from New York City, where he recorded several CD’s and led bands at major venues. Now, Weiss has formed a new quartet, which will debut at the Cave on June 20th. The quartet includes drummer Alan Jones, bassist Dave Speranza, and saxophonist Renato Caranto.
Ezra Weiss’s piano playing evinces a distinctive expressiveness that is doubly impressive coming from a jazz musician who’s still in his twenties. He also possesses composing and arranging skills of an unusually high order. He has earned the coveted ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award no less than three times and has received rave notices from the press. Weiss’s new album, Get Happy, further evidences his wide-ranging abilities on a program of original songs and specially picked material from the Great American Songbook that, taken as a conceptual whole, concerns the pursuit of happiness. The album is available at ezraweiss.com and cdbaby.com.
Saturday June 21st: HAILEY NISWANGER QUARTET and the JEFF CUMPSTON “GOING AWAY TO ZIMBABWE” PARTY
Yes, Jeff Cumpston, one of the great drummers and musical educators in Portland is packing up his family and moving to Zimbabwe!!! Clearly Jeff is also a bold and fearless adventurer, which you have to be if you’re going to be any kind of jazz drummer…so we shouldn’t be too surprised by his outrageous move. Jeff has been an important teacher and inspiration to many students who have gone on to develop their own careers in music. This band is made of 3 of these young musicians who have benefited from Jeff Cumpston’s vision and wisdom and are obviously placing themselves as the next generation of deeply talented and highly motivated musicians.
Hailey Niswanger is 18 years old, has a real live time feel and plays the alto saxophone with the fearlessness of a true improviser. She has already made quite a scene in the jazz world performing with the 2007 and 2008 Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY Jazz Ensemble in Hollywood, California, receiving outstanding soloist awards from many festivals around the US and being selected for the MENC 2007 All Northwest Jazz Band. It looks like Hailey will go away to college next fall, possibly to Berklee on the full scholarship they’ve offered her, so come see her play and get her autograph while it might still be relatively easy. Hailey will be joined by fellow friend female phenom, Kate Davis on bass, her high school band director Jeff Cumpston on drums and the also very young and talented Sam Hirsh on piano.
Vocalist Retta Christie is releasing her newest CD this Sunday at the Old Church. The CD features an all-star trio with saxophonist/clarinetist David Evans and piano-legend Dave Frishberg. Tim DuRoche at Willamette Week has the following to say about Retta:
