Pennsylvania native Dale Bruning settled in Denver more than 50 years ago; and during those decades, the guitarist (and once bassist) has remained among the most substantive and significant players on the city’s jazz scene. Thus it seems entirely appropriate that the first effort to establish a named scholarship in the Jazz and American Improvised Music program at Metropolitan State University of Denver carries his name.
On Saturday, there is a concert to raise funds for that scholarship at the King Center on the Auraria campus from 4 until 7:30 p.m. with Bruning (who, as a teacher, helped Bill Frisell develop his jazz chops), guitarist Gene Bertoncini (who has played with everyone from Buddy Rich to Clark Terry and Lalo Schifrin), trumpeter Ron Miles, saxophonist Fred Hess and a host of other players (303-556-2296).
Sticking to the guitar for a moment, another superb player who has settled down in the area is pianist Art Lande. And when Lande plays at Dazzle on Thursday with his quartet and trio starting at 7 p.m., the pianist will have guitarist Khabu Young by his side (303-839-5100). Later on Thursday, at 10 p.m., pianist Mikey Smith and singer Joseph Lamar continue their highly engaging Fresh Noise duo that keeps things going at Dazzle later into the evening.
On Friday, the potent Convergence sextet does it monthly thing at Dazzle at 7 and 9 p.m. (Trombonist Mark Patterson of Convergence, by the way, also studied with guitarist Bruning.) Then, on Saturday, the Denver Jazz Orchestra co-led by Andrew Hudson and Jerry Noonan is at Dazzle at 7 and 9 p.m., followed on Sunday by bassist Myles Sloniker at 7 p.m. Sloniker, a native son, now resides in New York and he is with a trio that has Tuomo Uusitalo on piano and Israeli Itay Morchi on drums. They celebrate a new disc called Love Song.
After the weekend, on Monday at 7 p.m. at Dazzle, the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra is featuring trombonist and educator Steve Wiest, who is now teaching at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. On Tuesday, saxophonist and singer Max Wagner brings his quartet sound to Dazzle at 7 p.m. And then on Wednesday, Dazzle has FioNina at 7 p.m. That’s four vocalists plus the Dana Landry Trio revisinf the music of Fiona Apple and Nina Simone. The FioNina vocalists are: Kim Dawson; Kelsey Shiba; Julian Cary; and bassist Erik Applegate.
On Saturday, soul-jazz bassist Julian Vaughn is at the Soiled Dove Underground, 7401 E. 1st Ave., with singer Danette Hollowell at 8 p.m. (303-830-9214). And on Thursday, saxophonist Sam Williams continues his Bridge music at Nocturne, 1330 27th St., at 7 p.m. The Bridge is a reference to the 1962 Sonny Rollins that marked the tenor saxophonist’s return to music (303-295-3333). That quartet effort by Rollins featured Jim Hall on guitar. As it happens, it was Jim Hall who helped convince Dale Bruning to give up the bass and focus on his guitar playing.
Finally, one of KUVO’s ”30 Under 30″ featured artists from their 30th Anniversary year-2015, pianist Walter Gorra and his quartet continue their residency at Nocturne, 27th and Larimer in the hot RiNo District of Denver, Fridays-7 til 11pm. Walter on piano accompanied by Gonzalo Teppa-bass, Manuel López-drums and Greg Tanner Harris-vibes. They will be performing Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and mainstream jazz every Friday through the end of October.
Comments and Submissions: Normanprovizer@aol.com
Copyright 2019 KUVO . To see more, visit
KUVO .
9(MDA3NDU1Nzc2MDEzMDUxMzY3MzAwNWEzYQ004))
