The Warm Autumn Weather Continues-So Does the Hot Music | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

Colorado Public Television (Channel 12) in Denver has produced a documentary on jazz guitarist Joshua Breakstone titled Soft Hands: Jazz Ethereal. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1955, Breakstone has evolved into one of the most attractive, bop-rooted guitarists around. His latest CD 88, like a number of his recordings since the early 2000s, is on the Colorado-based Capri label and it features his striking Cello Quartet revisiting compositions from a number of famed pianists from Sonny Clark and Harold Mabern to Mal Waldron and Lennie Tristano.  The Documentary will be broadcast in early 2017 however, before his 2 sets there will be an advance screening in the Dazzle Lounge at 5pm.

 

On Sunday, Breakstone celebrates the documentary that follows him in New Jersey, Denver, KUVO  and Japan with sets at Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, at 6 and 8 p.m. (303-839-5100).  On the disc 88, the Cello Quartet is made up of the guitarist, cellist Mike Richmond, bassist Lisle Atkinson and drummer Andy Watson. While Richmond will be on stage with Breakstone, the rest of the quartet here has Mark Diamond on bass and Dru Heller on drums. Cellist (and bassist) Richmond, of course, has a long list credentials from Stan Getz and Lee Konitz to Horace Silver, Arnie Lawrence and the Mingus Dynasty. 

 

Back to the guitarist, Breakstone recorded his first album in 1983; and on the many discs he has recorded since, he amply displays a special touch. The documentary is scheduled to appear soon and you can get a taste of it on a trailer from Colorado Public Television

 

On Saturday, the night before Breakstone hits Dazzle, the club on Lincoln has a trio called Invisible Bird that sounds like the kind of group you want to catch. This trio that blends genres has Shane Endsley on trumpet, Dave Devine on guitar and Scott Amendola on drums. All of the players also provide various musical “effects.” Endsley is part of the widely recognized, genre-bending band Kneebody, while Amendola spent a lot of time with guitarist Charlie Hunter among others. The trio plays at 7 and 9 p.m. 

 

Another special kind of trio is also at Dazzle on Friday at 10:30 p.m. This threesome is called the Chris Combs Trio with roots in the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey band. Combs is the guitarist with Jacob Fred, while Josh Raymer, who now lives in Nederland, is the drummer with the trio and the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (JFJO). Bassist Hunter Roberts rounds out the group. The only missing member of JFJO is keyboardist Brian Haas. 

 

Before Combs’ late-night set, Friday finds the 16-piece Denver Jazz Orchestra led by Andrew Hudson and Jerry Noonan at Dazzle at 7 and 9 p.m. Other performers at Dazzle during the musical week are: bassist Ron Bland and the Styles Bitchly quartet doing jazz from movies and television on Thursday at 7 p.m. (I’ll let Bland explain the name); the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra on Monday at 7 p.m.; drummer Bobby Ferguson’s Transient Ensemble on Tuesday at 7 p.m.; and the Art Deco quartet with a rhythm section that has Matt Smiley on bass and Heller on drums on Wednesday at 7 p.m.  

 

Drummer Heller is also part of saxophonist Pete Lewis’ quintet that remembers the famed sound of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at Nocturne, 1330 27th St., on Saturday at 7 p.m. The group will also appear at Nocturne on November 16 and 26 (303-295-3333). And over at Baur’s Listening Lounge, 1512 Curtis, trombonist/singer Natalie Cressman returns to the spot on Thursday in a duo with guitarist Mike Bono at 8 p.m. Born in San Francisco, Cressman, a talented young player, released her first album on 2012. On Friday, Baur’s lights up with the Latin-rooted sound of Calixto Oviedo’s Cuban Jazz Train. The Train with singer Lily Hernandez makes its stop at 8 p.m. (303-615-4000). 

 

Speaking of singers, there will a host of them on stage on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, 417 W. Magnolia, for “The Summit” that brings together Manhattan Transfer (that got started back in 1969) and Take 6. Combined, the two vocal groups have a host of Grammy Awards (970-221-6730). On Friday, “The Summit” with the Transfer and Take 6 moves to Macky Auditorium on the campus of University of Colorado Boulder at 7:30 p.m. (303-492-8423).  Then, on Saturday, “The Summit” appears at the Parker Arts, Culture and Events Center, 20000 Pikes Peak Ave. in Parker also at 7:30 p.m. (303-805-6800). 

 

Since we started with New Jersey as the birthplace of guitarist Breakstone, let’s end on a Jersey note. The musical Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, is back at the Buell Theater in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday (303-893-4100). I must confess that when that vocal emerged in the early 1960s, I was listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman rather than the four-part harmony vocal group made of some guys from Jersey. But the musical, with a serious book from Marshall Brickman (who wrote the screenplays for Annie Hall, Sleeper and Manhattan) is filled with what you might call Jersey charm along with all the stereotypes of the Garden State. It’s effective, it’s entertaining, it makes you want to sing along and it’s all about Jersey – populated by “youse guys” and song. 

 

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