Two Piano Playing Alexanders Visit Denver | Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

By now, most jazz fans in these parts know that clarinetist and composer Don Byron moved to Denver from New York this fall to join the music faculty at Metropolitan State University of Denver. And on Friday, you will have a chance to hear Byron’s enormous talent when he pulls into Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, with a quartet at 7 and 9 p.m. (303-839-5100).

Back in 1992, Byron released his first disc, Tuskegee Experiments, and was named jazz artist of the year by DownBeat magazine. Since then, the clarinetist, who also plays saxophone, has recorded discs paying tribute to: the klezmer-like magic of Mickey Katz; the music of the Lester Young Trio with Nat “King” Cole; the soulful R&B sound of saxophonist Junior Walker and, most recently, the gospel music of composer Thomas Dorsey and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

And that’s just the tip of Byron’s imposing musical iceberg of sound that also includes Bug Music and Music for Six Musicians. And on top of all this, in 2009, he was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his classical piece “7 Etudes for Piano.”

In 2012, Byron was in the first class of musicians receiving the designation of a Doris Duke Performing Artist and had a one-year residency in Rome. On the teaching side, he spent several years as a visiting professor at the State University of New York Albany, as well as holding residencies at Harvard, Columbia, UC San Diego and University of Nevada Reno. In 2007-2008, he was the Martin Luther King Visiting Professor at MIT.    

There is nothing ordinary, in any way, about Byron, who was born in the Bronx and has adjusted to the Rockies with a Subaru that has a mountain bike in back. At Dazzle, his quartet of area-based players has Solomon Chapman on piano, Gonzalo Teppa on bass and Dru Heller on drums.

Along with Byron, the week in music also puts the spotlight on two Alexanders both of whom play the piano. First up is the 12-year-old wunderkind Joey Alexander, out of Indonesia. The young Alexander was here a month or so ago and wowed a sold-out crowd at Dazzle with his enormously mature interplay with the members of his trio. The young player is the real thing as displayed on his Motema CD My Favorite Things. He is back on the Dazzle stage with his trio on Saturday at 7 and 9 p.m.

The other Alexander is Jamaican-born pianist Monty Alexander who can get any room moving and grooving. His Harlem-Kingston Express band blends strong jazz swing with island reggae sway in a highly infectious manner. While the young Joey Alexander has released one disc, the mature, 71-year-old Monty Alexander has some 70 discs to his credit.

Not very long after coming to the U.S. as a teenager, Monty caught the ear of the owner of Jilly’s, who happened to be a friend of Frank Sinatra. He worked at the New York club with Sinatra and many others. He also connected with Ray Brown and became a member of the great bassist’s trio. His current CD with the Express is River Rolls On. He is at Dazzle on Wednesday at 6:30 and 8:30 and is also on stage there on November 12 as well.

Also at Dazzle this week is trumpeter Shane Endsley, who is also a drummer. Endsley is from here and moved back recently – and like Byron he is teaching at Metro State. Endlsey has received a good deal of national attention as part of the genre bending Kneebody band. In recent years, he has been on the list of rising-star trumpeters in the annual DownBeat “Critics Poll.” At Dazzle on Tuesday at 6 and 8 p.m.,  Endsley has Dave Devine on guitar, Greg Garrison on bass and Matt Houston on drums.  

Nocturne Jazz, 1330 27^th St., has drummer Colleen Clark and her Collective on Thursday at 7 p.m.(303-295-3333). The young drummer, whose debut CD is titled Introducing Collen Clark, began her two-night stand at Nocturne this past Wednesday with a group that includes Jay Rattman, Nir Naaman, Bam Bam Rodriguez and Cesar Orozco. That band is back on stage on Thursday. Also keep in mind that Nocturne’s new artist-in-residence lineup for November and December has the Jeremy Wendelin Quartet doing Brubeck on Tuesdays, the Bob Montgomery-Al Hermann group on Wednesdays and a trumpet series on Saturday that this week features Pete Olstad. The sets all start at 7 p.m.

Additionally, blues master Otis Taylor is at Dazzle on Thursday with guitarist/singer Mato Nanji at an event marking the 45^th anniversary of the Native American Rights Fund. In 2013, Taylor released a powerful disc with a Native American orientation called My World is Gone that featured Nanji. It’s music you want to hear. The event that starts at 6:30 p.m. (with the music at 8 p.m.) is listed as sold out, but you can check the Fund’s website, narf.org.

Also, singer Janine Gastineau celebrates her new CD All My Wildest Dreams with a number of fine players including pianists Eric Gunnison and Jeff Jenkins at Dazzle on Sunday starting at 7 p.m., while trombonist/arranger Eric Richards is the guest of the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra-Colorado Christian University Jazz Ensemble’s collaboration at Dazzle on Monday at 7 p.m. And on Sunday at 4 p.m., the home concert Jazz for Jazz Lovers series with a trip south of the border with flutist Vince Wiggins and company (Hugh Ragin, James Torres, Larry Hinley and Tony Black).

Submissions and comments: Normanprovizer@aol.com