Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

If you are looking to hang out with some live music this week, your best bet is Nocturne where a number of area-based groups are on tap from Thursday through Wednesday. Things kick off on Thursday with pianist Tom Amend and his trio on stage at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Following Amend, there’s saxophonist Heath Walton and his quintet on Friday 6:30 and 9:00 p.m.

Then along comes trumpeter Derek Banach on Saturday with his quintet at 6:30 and 9:00 p.m. doing the music of Wayne Shorter. Shorter, as anyone who follows jazz well knows, is a master composer, in addition to being a great player. There’s “Footprints,” “Infant Eyes,” and “Night Dreamer,” to name just a few. In 2004, Coloradan writer Michelle Mercer produced a strong, Shorter biography Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter. That’s still the book to check out on Shorter from his days with Art Blakey, through his time with Miles to that as part of Weather Report.

Nocturne has pianist Stu MacAskie’s trio on Sunday at 6:30 and 8 p.m. and drummer Dru Heller’s trio moving “In Motion” at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Motian received a lot of attention during his time with pianist Bill Evans. Through the late ‘60s and half of the ‘70s, he spent his time with Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet. As a leader, Motian had a trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano and and an Electric Bebop Band that included a number of newer players on the order of Joshua Redman. The trio led by Heller also includes Dawn Clement on piano and Greg Garrison on bass. The Philadelphia-born Motian passed away on  November 22, 2011 at 80 and throughout his life he charted his own percussion course from his playing on the classic, 1961 live album Sunday at the Village Vanguard with Bill Evans and bassist Scott LaFaro to his own bands.

Jazz Notes 11-5-2020
Norman Provizer