Hot Jazz For a Hot June | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

This week in music clearly represents one of the great contributions that Dazzle, located at 1512 Curtis Street, has made to the Denver jazz scene. That contribution, to put it simply, is bringing bands led by noted, newer players to town, providing listeners with a chance to place their ears on the current pulse of the music without having to travel to New York. 

To illustrate, on Thursday has a group called Invisible Bird on stage at 6:30 and 9 p.m. (303-839-5100). The trio is made up of drummer Scott Amendola combined with two Denver residents – trumpeter Shane Endsley and guitarist Dave Devine. Amendola is widely known for his stick work with guitarists Charlie Hunter and Nels Cline; and is a player who has no trouble crossing musical lines. The same can be said of trumpeter Endsley who teaches at Metro State University here and is a member of the nationally recognized, genre-jumping group Kneebody. Devine, too, teaches at Metro State and has played and recorded with drummer Brian Blade’s Fellowship Band.

On Sunday, the genre jumping continues with drummer Dan Weiss and Starebaby. Weiss has played with saxophonists Ruudresh Mahanthappa (originally from Boulder), Chris Potter and John Zorn and has a new CD out on the Pi label called Big Fish. He is in town with all the “big fish” players. That means you get to hear not just Weiss, but keyboardists Craig Taborn and Matt Mitchell, guitarist Ben Monder and electric bassist Trevor Dunn. Having heard Taborn and Monder, they are players you would go see on their own. Starebaby plays at 6 and 8:30 p.m.    

Then on Tuesday, Dazzle offers up alto saxophonist/ hip hopper Soweto Kinch in a trio that has Nazir Ebo on bass and Nick Jurd on drums. Despite his name, Soweto was born in London and has gathered all kinds of awards in the U.K. since he was named the rising star in jazz in 2002 and released his first disc the following year. Drummer (and tabla player) Weiss’ music has been called a mix of jazz, metal and new music. Using those glasses, you can see Kinch’s sounds as the fire you can get when you rub jazz ad hip-hop together. The trio plays at 6 and 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

In the midst of all of that, Dazzle also has pianist Aaron Parks and his Little Big quartet on Friday at 6:30 and 9 p.m. Little Big is made up of guitarist Greg Tuohey, electric bassist Vincente Archer and drummer Tommy Crane. Born in Seattle, Parks recorded his debut on the Blue Note label in 2008 and his second ECM disc (Find the Way) in 2017. At the ripe age of 18, Parks joined trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s band and recorded with Blanchard through much of first decade of the 2000s. He has also worked with any number of other groups, including James Farm, a quartet with saxophonist Joshua Redman.

The musical week at Dazzle ends on Wednesday when a young, Denver-based saxophonist Rico Jones brings a his Countercurrent band to the club at 6 p.m., followed by “Open Option” session from The Other Black at 9 p.m. Speaking of area-based players, Nocturne, 1330 27^th St. offers those musicians five nights at week on an extended basis (303-295-3333). And at City Park Jazz, Hazel Miller is on stage with the Harmony Chorale at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

On a final note, trumpeter Hugh Ragin, who has lived in Colorado for decades, is one of the major trumpet voices in the jazz avant-garde and is a member of the new version of the great Art Ensemble of Chicago band. Joining the group’s founding members (Roscoe Mitchell and Famadou Don Moye) are Ragin, cellist Tomeka Reid and bassists Jaribu Shahid and Junius Paul. It would be a great band to have in town. Another avant-garde note, saxophone giants Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders will deliver a high-powered concert at Colorado College in Colorado Springs in late September. Details will keep coming.

Comments and submissions: normanprovizer@aol.com