June Blooms with Jumping Jazz | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

To borrow a line (with modest alterations) from a tune by Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers, June is definitely busting out all over with jazz. On Thursday, the opening day of the new month, the new Dazzle location at Baur’s, 1512 Curtis, officially gets rolling with Otis Taylor on stage at 6 and 8:30 p.m. It may sound strange, but it’s no hard to make the case that most creative voice in modern blues comes from a Coloradan. In jazz, the highest complement is to say that an artist has an individual voice and that’s exactly what Taylor displays with his “trance blues.” His latest disc is Respect the Dead and his music is a dynamic and dramatic adventure that you don’t want to miss. Along with his two sets on Thursday, Taylor is back at the new Dazzle on Friday at 6:30 and 9 p.m. (303-839-5100).

As soon as Taylor heads out, singer Catherine Russell take the stage at Dazzle at Baur’s on Saturday ay 6:30 and 9 p.m. Russell, the daughter of noted musicians Luis Russell and Carline Ray, has worked across the musical spectrum and has a half-dozen discs under her own name, including the recent CD Harlem on My Mind. A consummate performer on stage, Russell, unlike many jazz singers, travels beyond any one era with tunes that go back to the ‘20s. With Matt Munisteri, Mark Shore and Tal Ronen, Russell is batting second in the new Dazzle at Baur’s lineup.

Third up this week at Dazzle is tenor saxophonist Ralph Lalama, known for his big band work with Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Carla Bley, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, as well as the large group led by Joe Lovano. In Denver, he joins with young saxophonists Greg Wahl and Kenyon Brenner for a night of Totally Tyrannical Tenors at 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Then the cleanup act of the week takes the stage at Dazzle at Baur’s on Tuesday and Wednesday (and also June 8^th) at 6 and 8:30 p.m. That act is Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, a group that always makes my short list of the bands I most want to listen to. Led by the great drummer Blade, out of Shreveport, Louisiana, the Fellowship features Jon Cowherd on the keyboard, Chris Thomas on bass, Melvin Butler and Myron Walden on saxophone and Denver’s Dave Devine on guitar.

There’s a reason that so many top-shelf artists, whatever the musical labels attached to them, use Blade on their recordings. He has more gears than a Ferrari and the music produced by this band is simply intoxicating.

Outside of the new Dazzle, there’s the 27^th annual Estes Park Jazz Festival in Performance Park, 417 W. Elkhorn. The Saturday schedule for the sounds in Estes Park runs from noon until 5 p.m. is: the Estes Park Big Band; saxophonist Peter Sommer’s sextet; singer Sheryl Renee; and trumpeter Tom Gershwin’s sextet. The schedule for Sunday, also from noon until 5p.m. is: saxophonist Max Wagner’s quartet; the headlining combination of singer Vanessa Rubin and saxophonist Don Braden (at 1:35 p.m.); and Mistura Fina. Keep in mind that the event is no longer free and has a modest charge at the door. Wagner also is at Mama Rose’s, 338 E. Elkhorn, at 6:30 p.m. (970-586-3330).

Additionally, pianist Purnell Steen and his Le Jazz Machine band is at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe, at 7 p.m. on Friday (303-293-0075) and pianist Jeff Jenkins leads a group exploring new music produced by the Gift of Jazz students at La Cour Art Bar, 1643 S. Broadway, at on Sunday (303-777-5000). La Cour also has singer Teresa Carroll with Justin Adams on Thursday. At Nocturne, 1330 27^th St., there’s the kickoff party for Negroni Week on Monday at 6:30 p.m. The event supports a non-profit aimed at having no kids hungry in Colorado (303-295-3333). And on Sunday, the annual, summer long City Park Jazz event gets going with trumpeter Wesley Watkins and The Other Black  aggregation from 6 until 8 p.m. (cityparkjazz.org). 

On a final note: The new Dazzle location in the historic Baur’s Building is just about one block from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). And until June 18, the DCPA’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House has the simply amazing play The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time. The play by Simon Stephens, based on the 2003 novel by Mark Haddon, received five Tony Awards in 2015, all well deserved. When you combine the staging with the story and the acting (especially that of Adam Langton), you know you have witnessed a truly a memorable event, not just an evening out.

Comments and submissions: normanprovizer@aol.com