No Tricks—Just Many Musical Treats! | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

This past week in music ended on an ECM note with Swiss pianist Nik Bartsch and his imposing Zurich-based quartet Ronin. The ensemble-oriented work of that band was totally compelling, shifting gears with the ease of a racing driver and delivering suite-like compositions that contained highly engaging multiple climaxes. On top of that Bartsch might well have delivered the most effective playing of the strings inside the piano that I have ever heard.

Well, on Thursday, the spotlight on ECM records continues with Danish guitarist Jakob Bro and his mighty trio that has Thomas Morgan and Joey Baron on drums. Guitarist Bro is wrapping up the special series of four visiting ECM artists at Dazzle during the month of October – a series that certainly added a feather to the cap of Dazzle’s growing reputation as a major jazz club. Bro has worked with drummer Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band and trumpeter Tomasz Stanko’s Dark Eyes quintet. (Motian passed away in 2011 and Stanko died this year.)

The guitarist has also released a long string of CDs starting in 2003, the latest if which are on ECM. Bassist Morgan (who had also played with drummer Motian) is a terrific player who works with guitarist Bill Frisell and has a striking, live duo recording with Frisell titled Small Town also on ECM, as well as appearing on cornetist Ron Miles’ potent I Am a Man CD. And drummer Baron is also monster player who also worked with guitarist Frisell as well as John Zorn. The trio plays at Dazzle, 1512 Curtis, at 6:30 and 9 p.m. (303-839-5100).

Then on Sunday, the ECM spotlight moves in a little different direction. Though the series of visiting artists is over, there is an area-based player who had a long stay at ECM who helps close out the month at the club with a retrospective of his ECM days at 6 p.m. plus a shout out to Halloween at 8 p.m. That player, of course, is pianist Art Lande and he will have a sextet at Dazzle made up of musicians from these parts. Among the ECM discs that have Lande on hand, I have always had a thing for those featuring his Rubisa Patrol band that featured Mark Isham on trumpet. At Dazzle, the superb, area-based trumpeter Shane Endsley (known nationally for his work with the band Kneebody) takes on that role. 

Dazzle also has the fine bassist Ken Walker with his sextet in on Friday at 6:30 p.m. for its monthly visit, followed at 9 p.m. with the heavy groove sounds of Free Bear that has the rhythm section of Patrick McDevitt and Alejandro Castaño at its core. You can get ready for Halloween at Dazzle with breakfast on Saturday with pianist Purnell Steen (starting at 9 a.m.) and the makeover of the club on Tuesday into “The Witches Realm.” And if you are in a dancing mood, Saturday has the Steel Horse Swing Band at 6:30 p.m. and harmonica man Ronnie Shellist at 8:30 p.m.

Over at Nocturne, 1330 27^th St., drummer Brian Claxton takes over the Friday night slot with “The Art of Blakey” tribute to the music of Art Blakey starting at 7 p.m. (303-295-3333). Claxton, who lives in Greeley, plays with Monty Alexander’s Harlem-Kingston Express. On Saturday, Nocturne also gets in the spirit of this season with its annual “The Great Zombie Gatsby Ball” with seatings at 5:30 and 9 p.m. There will be food and music from The Denver Hot 5 (with trumpeter Gabriel Mervine, saxophonist John Gunther and others). Halloween is also on display on Sunday at the Dickens Opera House in Longmont, 300 Main St., at with the Flatirons Jazz Orchestra offering “A Big Band Swing Dance and Halloween Ball” at 7 p.m. (303-834-9384).

Saturday at The Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Rd. in Lafayette, at 7 p.m. has the sextet Polarity that includes Victor Mestas-Pérez on piano and Bijoux Barbosa on bass (720-352-4327). The Muse space in Lafayette also has a Monday night “Jazz Jam” starting at 7 p.m. with trumpeter Brad Goode and saxophonist Pete Lewis.

On a final note: No matter what the art form may be, sequels always raise interesting and somewhat paradoxical questions. And those questions are clearly on display in the play Love Never Dies at the Buell Theater in the Denver Performing Arts Complex through Sunday (303-893-4100). Though he play has impressive staging, the identifiable sound of Andrew Lloyd Webber and an obvious connection to the audience, the effort to move “The Phantom” from the Paris Opera House to a carnival on Coney Island is stilted at best. Love may never die but maybe the Phantom should.

Comments and submissions: normanprovizer@aol.com