Fabulous February’s Live Music Menu | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

If you had been planning on catching guitarist John Abercrombie’s Quartet at Dazzle on Friday and Saturday, you’ve discovered that the foursome’s appearance has been cancelled. But even if you take that event off the books, there’s still a lot of music to go around – most notably in the person of singer René Marie who is at Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, on Tuesday and Wednesday at 6 and 8 p.m. (303-839-5100). 

During the time that Marie was living in Denver, the Mile High Town could legitimately lay claim to being home of two of the finest female vocalists in jazz, Marie and Dianne Reeves. While Marie has returned to the east coast, her connection to Denver remains strong and her return visits here are always something special. It would have been nice if, after the Grammy® Awards earlier this week, Marie came to town with a Grammy®  in hand for the best jazz vocal album. She was a Grammy® finalist in that category for her latest Motema release “Sound of Red”, a follow up to her Grammy®-nominated tribute to Eartha Kitt, “I Wanna Be Evil”. Unfortunately, the nomination didn’t end in a win this time around.   

 

At Dazzle, with her group, René Marie, among other things, harkens back to her 2007 CD “Experiment in Truth” that contains some potent material like “O Nina” (for Nina Simone) and ‘This Is (Not) a Protest Song.” And in 2012, she quite rightly captured the top spot in DownBeat annual “Critics Poll” as the rising star female vocalist on the scene. Marie is at all ordinary in any sense of the word. She is someone you definitely want to hear.

 

Outside of Dazzle, Friday finds trombonist Steve Wiest and his Phrontrange aggregation at the Schoolhouse Theater at the Parker Center, 20000 Pikes Peak Ave. in Parker, at 7:30 p.m. (303-805-6800). Also on Friday, the University of Colorado Denver’s trad-oriented band the Claim Jumpers with guest Clint Baker performs at the Recital Hall in the King Center on the Auraria campus at 7:30 p.m. (303-556-2296).  

 

Back at Dazzle, guitarist Dale Bruning’s trio fills the space left by the Abercrombie cancellation on Friday at 7 and 9 p.m. People frequently remark that Bruning is the teacher that helped swing guitar master Bill Frisell toward jazz. But no one should forget that in pure playing terms, Bruning, who has recorded with Frisell, is a master as well. The Saturday slot created by the Abercrombie cancellation is in the hands of guitarist Dave Devine doing the music of Prince with a quartet plus vocalists Joseph Lamar and Julia LiBassi. Lamar is also a regular for the late evening, 10 p.m. show at Dazzle on Thursdays with a duo called Fresh Noise with Mikey Smith.

 

Thursday also finds the band Mistura Fina celebrating the launch of its CD, A Little Bit of This, and a Little Bit of That, at Dazzle at starting at 6:30 p.m., while the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra with Pomona High School is at Dazzle on Monday at 7 p.m.

 

At 11 a.m. on Saturday, the Queen City Jazz Band performs live from the KUVO studio and later that day, at 9:30 p.m., Joe Smith continues in the trad-jazz vein with his N’awlins Swing Jam band at the Mercury Café, 2199 California (303-294-9281). 

 

Since I mentioned Marie’s “O Nina,” also keep in mind the striking documentary “What Happened, Miss Simone?” And speaking of documentaries, anyone interested in the Motown phenomenon has to check out the documentary about the famed band, the Funk Brothers, found on the hits created by Berry Gordy’s Detroit label. The members of that band were players with a background and roots in jazz. The Motown story is a historically relevant tale and the musical telling that story is at the Buell Theater in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday (303-893-4100) with a cast of strong singers, including Chester Gregory, who spent some time playing Gordy on the Broadway version of Motown: The Musical along with some area-based players who have their own roots in jazz. Motown created the soundtrack for an American age and everyone in the audience certainly enjoyed revisiting that musical era.  

 

The amazing Los Angeles based pianist Tamir Hendelman performs a program celebrating the birthdays of Monk, Dizzy and Cole Porter at Classic Pianos, 1332 S, Broadway, Denver, this Saturday evening at 7pm.

 

Comments and submissions: normanprovizer@aol.com