It’s Vail Jazz Party Time! | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

On Thursday, the large-scale Vail Jazz Party kicks off with an evening event in the tent at Vail Square starting at 6 p.m. The Vail Jazz All Stars are up first, followed by the Alumni Quintet before the festival’s House Party Band takes the stage at 8 p.m. for a sold-out show. That high-powered House Band has John Clayton on bass, Bill Cunliffe on piano, Terell Stafford on trumpet, Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, Lewis Nash on drums and Dick Oatts on alto saxophone.

Throughout the Labor Day holiday weekend until Monday evening, members of the House Band play in a variety of contexts in addition to a long list of other high-quality players, including bassist George Mraz, pianist George Cables, trumpeter Sean Jones, guitarist Russell Malone, singer Roberta Gambarini, saxophonist Joel Frahm and drummers Jeff Hamilton, Herlin Riley and Sherrie Maricle Those musicians and many, many more play afternoon concerts in the Vail Square tent and evening shows at the Vail Marriott in a number of different combinations. There are special tributes like drummer Nash’s multi-media tribute to his drum influences and trumpeter Byron Stripling’s multi-media tribute to the uncrowned trumpet kings. And on Sunday, there are gospel sounds.

While more-and-more jazz festivals in the state continue to add more-and-more performers who are well beyond the jazz label, Vail has stayed the course in presenting a jazz festival that actually features jazz players (vailjazz.org).

After the Labor Day weekend festivities in Vail, drummer Hamilton travels to Denver for a Tuesday-night date with the University of Northern Colorado’s Jazz Lab Band 1 at Nocturne, 1330 27^th St. The fine drummer propels the highly regarded UNC big band starting at 8 p.m. (303-395-3333). Nocturne has also announced the area-based players on stage for September and October. These include Dan Schwindt on Mondays, the Matt Fuller Group on Tuesdays, the Keith Oxman Trio on Wednesdays, the Steve Wiest Quartet on Fridays and Jeff Jenkins and the Organization on Saturdays.  For the Labor Day weekend, Dazzle has the Annie Booth Trio on Friday at 7 p.m. and the Mark Diamond Trio on Saturday at 7 p.m.

This week also finds the extremely talented pianist Helen Sung back in town with a quartet at Dazzle. Sung was trained as a classical pianist and then she heard pianist Harry Connick Jr. That exposure to jazz changed everything. She moved to New York in 1999 and released her first CD in 2002. She has played with a long list of noted players including T.S. Monk, Terri Lyne Carrington’s Mosaic Project and the Mingus Big Band. Also, think of this, Sung is one of three noted pianists who went to Houston’s High School of the Performing and Visual Arts. The other two are Jason Moran and Robert Glasper. That’s quite a lineup. Sung’s new CD, her first on Concord, is titled Anthem for a New Day. She is a player and so too are the members of her quartet, saxophonist Walter Smith III, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Malachi Whitson. She is on stage on Saturday at 7 and 9 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday (303-839-5100).

Dazzle also offers a couple of duet performances during the week, beginning with pianist Marc Sabatella and saxophonist Aakash Mittal joining forces at 7 p.m. on Thursday in what you have to call a very creative combination. Then, on Tuesday at 7 p.m., it’s the Epistrophic Vibes Duo with Gregg Harris and a very young player, Rocco Williams.

Also on Friday, the strong Convergence sextet is at Dazzle at 7 and 9 p.m. with guest saxophonist Greg Wahl, while Mikey Smith’s Longest Road Project is at the club on Lincoln on Wednesday at 7 p.m.  On August 31, Dazzle had a farewell party and jam session to recognize Kevin Lee departure as the club’s music director. During his time in that capacity, Kevin has helped Dazzle gain an extremely strong reputation among players across the country as a place you want to play. The lineups he produced kept Dazzle moving in the direction of being a world-class jazz spot. You did a great job Kevin, and good luck in your future endeavors.  

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