April Showers Us With Jumpin’ Jazz | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

It’s April and the shower of music keeps pouring down here in Denver. This past week, for example, you could have heard the monster saxophonist James Carter and his Organ Trio and drummer Rudy Royston returning home with his chamber-music-like quintet, Flatbed Buggy. This week is no different with the great singer René Marie at Dazzle on Friday, the super all-star SF Jazz Collective at Dazzle on Saturday and Sunday, the great guitarist Bill Frisell in Ft. Collins on Saturday and First Baptist in Denver on Sunday Miles Okazaki and his New York quartet Trickster at Nocturne on Tuesday and Ragtime pianist Reginald R. Robinson at Dazzle in a MAS Eclectic concert also on Tuesday.

Singer Marie is truly an original talent who has staked out a compelling vocal path. Armed with a package of original tunes and unique twists on standards, Marie isn’t like anyone else. At Dazzle, 1512 Curtis, she has her trio plus guitarist Randy Napoleon in tow on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. (303-839-5100). That trio has John Chin on piano, Elias Bailey on bass and Quentin Baxter on drums and her performance is named Experiment in Truth in line with the title of her 2007 CD.

Following Marie into Dazzle on Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 and 9 p.m., there is the SF Jazz Collective. The octet that carries the San Francisco tag line in its name is one amazing all-star collection of players with saxophonists Miguel Zenón and David Sánchez, trumpeter Etienne Charles, trombonist Marshall Gilkes, vibraphonist Warren Wolf (who was displaying his chops at Dazzle with pianist Cyrus Chestnut not too long ago), pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Obed Calvaire. It would be easy to take up the next three columns discussing the achievements of these eight players, but you can summarize things by simply saying that you would go to a show where any one of the eight players was on stage with his own band. The SF Jazz Collective has had a changing roster of players over the past dozen years or so, but each edition of the group has been a super, all-star aggregation., including this one playing the music of Jobim.  

Also on Saturday and Sunday, homeboy Frisell (who went to East High School) is in Ft Collins at the Armory, 314 E. Mountain Ave., on Saturday for a sold-out show and on Sunday at the 1^st Baptist Church, 1373 Grant, for a Swallow Hill show at 7:30 p.m. (303-777-1003). Frisell’s Harmony band has Petra Haden, Luke Bergman and cellist Hank Roberts who was just at Dazzle with Rudy Royston.            

Then, on Tuesday, there’s also a doubleheader with New York guitarist Miles Okazaki at Nocturne, 1330 27^th St., with his quartet that has Matt Mitchell on piano, Sean Rickman on drums and Anthony Tidd on bass. This is the lineup on the guitarist’s 2017 CD Trickster, except that Mitchell is on piano in place of Craig Taborn. Okazaki has played with a wide range of players from Kenny Barron to John Zorn, Steve Coleman, and Vijay Iyer. His quartet plays starting at 6:30 p.m. (303-295-3333).

Nocturne’s current lineup also features guitarist Dave Corbus doing “Inside Ornette Coleman” on Thursdays, Mark Diamond on Fridays, drummer Brian Claxton’s “Groove in the Foreground on Saturdays, “Cowboy Songs: Revamped and Infused” with Khabu Doug Young on Wednesdays.

Back at Dazzle, saxophonist Chris Ferrari with Greg Gisbert is on stage on Thursday at 7 p.m. and the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble plays at 7 p.m. on Wednesday following a Wyoming reception at 6 p.m. And the last chance to have to see the classic musical, Hello, Dolly!, that has a story line that goes back to the 19^th century is on Sunday at the Buell Theater in the Denver Performing Arts Complex (denvercenter.org). The play opened on Broadway 45 years ago and in the new, national touring company, Betty Buckley knocks the role out of the park, even if jazz fans can’t help thinking of Louis Armstrong.

Meanwhile, at the non-for-profit, musician-owned and operated venue, Muse Performance Space in Lafayette, the nationally renown fiddler and vocalist, Katie Glassman will play with Colorado’s own Expeditions ensemble in the continuous “Plus One” series. Expeditions is led by drummer Clare Church which will combine their jazz groove with Katie’s western swing for a very danceable evening.

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