A bassist who gets style points

John Lamb has duende. Lots of it.

John Lamb

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the Spanish word "duende" as meaning someone or something having the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm.

The late writer George Frazier, who penned jazz essays for Esquire and several Boston newspapers, used it when describing people whose presence made them irresistibly attractive. “So difficult to define, but it is there it is unmistakable, inspiring our awe, quickening our memory,” Frazier wrote.

Now, about St. Petersburg-based Lamb. He’s a magnetic presence on every stage because of his brawny musical style – and his singular way of interacting with his band mates.

A night Bass'd on a True Story

The Barrel Room at the Twisted Vine Bistro in downtown Fort Myers was packed on Saturday, September 28 for bassist Brandon Robertson's CD release gig/celebration. By my head count, it was standing-room-only and then some.  In addition to those fortunate to get seats at tables or the bar,people were standing wherever they could find space.
 
 It was a well-deserved turnout to note the release of Bass'd on a True Story (Slammin' Media). 

The Barrel Room was the natural choice for this, since Brandon performs weekly at the club as an integral part of the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto quartet each Thursday night. He's built quite a following since settling in the area. He performs frequently in a variety of contexts and directs the jazz program at nearby Florida Gulf Coast University.

Brandon Robertson

While the CD includes two terrific jazz standards (Brooks Bowman's "East of the Sun (West of the Moon" and Benny Golson's "Stablemates"), the other eight tracks are Robertson originals. Each was inspired by a profound moment in the leader's musical or personal life, hence the clever CD title.

The band for the evening included Miller on trumpet, Del Gatto on tenor sax, Zach Bartholomew on piano and Josh Platt on drums. Bartholomew, a longtime collaborator with Brandon since their Florida State undergrad days, earned his doctorate and teaches at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. Platt is a Frost student.

Frost Band heats things up

The Mike Frost Band was a pleasant surprise at the Charlotte County Jazz Society’s January 14 concert in Port Charlotte, stepping boldly into more contemporary genres while also digging deep into the mainstream jazz canon.

Mike Frost

This was the Aiken, South Carolina-based group’s first appearance in Port Charlotte – and in Florida, for that matter. The unit featured leader Mike Frost on 4- and 5-string electric basses; Lauren Meccia on alto and saxophones, wind synthesizer and vocals; Shannon Pinckney on piano and electric keyboard; and Ron Green on drums.

Lauren Meccia

The quartet skillfully blended jazz and the jazz sensibility with a bit of Latin, some pop classics and even a taste of rhythm & blues. The result underscored that fact that jazz is a musical process, not a specific repertoire. It’s not what you play, it’s how you play it. Their polished blend of contemporary jazz and updates of some familiar classics worked well – because the players delivered the goods.

The standards scattered throughout their two sets included “That Old Black Magic,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” How High the Moon,” “Night and Day” and Paul Desmond’s “Take Five," dropping in a few bars of the "Theme from Mission Impossible" to add a novel twist to the Dave Brubeck quartet’s signature tune. There were a few more-modern jazz pieces: Chick Corea’s exotic “Spain” and a Herbie Hancock medley featuring “Cantaloupe Island” and “Watermelon Man.”

Jazz with an unrivaled intimacy

Michael Ross

There is nothing quite like the intimacy and congeniality at a jazz house party. That was clear on Thursday, March 1, when bassist Michael Ross and his wife, Amanda, welcomed about 40 friends and jazz lovers into their Sarasota FL home for an evening of music.

Fred Johnson

The band for the one-hour-plus set of music included Ross, singer-percussionist Fred Johnson and reed player Danny Jordan, who performed on tenor sax and several flutes.

This was like having jazz in your living room - except for the fact that it was held outside on Ross's lush garden patio as the full moon rose in the distance.

St. Petersburg-based Johnson's deft fingers added colors and accents with his cajon, a box-shaped wooden percussion instrument on which he
sat, but his vocal creativity carried the night. 

A jazz event 50+ years in the making...

To say it was long overdue is an understatement. Joshua Breakstone and Don Mopsick grew up in Linden. NJ. Their families knew each other and sometimes hung out together back in the 1960s, long before either man had any designs on a career in music.

Joshua Breakstone

Guitar modernist Breakstone and Mopsick, best known as the bassist in Jim Cullum's Jazz Band for more than 18 years, performed together for the first time on Friday,. February 17 at a South County Jazz Club matinee concert at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice.

No matter what you call it, it covers jazz

Sunday afternoon's concert by the Naples Jazz Orchestra outside the Boca Grande FL Community Center was musically excellent - and a bit different for its visuals.

Bassist Paul Shewchuk was playing what you could call either a "bass umbrella" or an "umbrella bass." The crafty musician attached a small black umbrella to the top of his upright bass, presumably to shield himself and his bulky instrument from the warmth and direct rays of the sun. 

Perhaps he did it to protect the bass fiddle, as some call it, from the possibility of a sudden shower, which pop up at any time in Florida. It would work for both possibilities. Either way, it was a sight to behold.

The art of the jazz duo

Pianist Johnny Varro is best known for his interpretations of vintage jazz, most of it dating to the 1920s through the '40s. But Friday afternoon's duo concert with bassist Mark Neuenschwander for the South County Jazz Club gave Varro a chance to spread his wings a bit into material not associated with his Swing 7 classic jazz band.

Their duo came about by accident a few years ago when the drummer never showed for a trio gig. They shifted gears and the third man out wasn't missed.

The duo format works well in the right hands, such as these jazz veterans. Varro and Neuenschwander, one of the finest and busiest bass players in western Florida, know when to lead, when to support, and when to sit out and marvel in the other's solos. 

Eyes on Jazz

This unplugged concert in the acoustically marvelous main gallery of the Venice Art Center included a wide array of jazz standards, most of them romance-inspired. 

Favorites included "Tangerine," the Johnny Mandel's "Emily" (the waltz theme from the 1964 film "The Americanization of Emily"), "Body and Soul," and a Duke Ellington medley that coursed through "Sophisticated Lady," "What Am I Here For?," "Prelude to a Kiss" and "Take the A Train." One surprising number - delightful to these ears - was Varro's inclusion of Thelonious Monk's 1954 bop standard "Blue Monk."

Farewell, Charlie...

Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, 
Montreal 2008

It's been a rainy day here in Florida, and such weather gave me a grand opportunity to revisit some of my favorite music by bassist, bandleader and NEA Jazz Master Charlie Haden, who left us last week at age 76 after a prolonged illness.

My clear favorites among the extensive Haden discography include two of his duet projects (Steal Away with pianist Hank Jones and Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories) with guitarist Pat Metheny), any of his eight recordings by the film noir-inspired Quartet West (but particularly Haunted Heart, released in 1992), and 2005's Not in Our Name by the Liberation Music Orchestra that he co-led with pianist Carla Bley.

Profiling jazz bassist Buster Williams

Buster Williams, Newport 1988

The March issue of Hot House magazine is out. Its features include my profile of bassist Buster Williams, who brings his quartet Something More into Manhattan’s Smoke jazz club at the end of the month. This extraordinary musician has worked with a very long list of jazz giants over the past 55 years. (Her went on the road with saxophonist Sonny Stitt at age 17). 

He talked extensively about the fine art of making jazz, which he described as “living in the realm of danger.” Not all of his perspective fit into the profile’s word limit. So here is a bit more to savor: 

Bud Leeds' jazz quartet in Venice

Bud Leeds

Clarinetist Bud Leeds peppered Friday's Venice Art Center concert for the South County Jazz Club with tunes that became brief two- and three-song medleys. It showed interesting connections between material that was either thematic or of similar structure.  For example: "Autumn Leaves" shifted to "Lullabye of the Leaves" and then "Softly as a Morning Sunrise."

But he had a different motive for the condensations.

Sarasota Jazz Festival - Gates and Lamb in spotlight

Giacomo Gates

Connecticut-based bop/vocalese singer Giacomo Gates took the 33rd annual Sarasota Jazz Festival by storm last night, sharing the evening's spotlight with former Ellington bassist John Lamb.

Lamb was a strong part of the headliner's rhythm section - after receiving the Jazz Club of Sarasota's Satchmo Award for his outstanding contributions to jazz as a performer and educator. After getting off the road, he settled in St. Petersburg in 1967 and spent nearly 30 years teaching in the Pinellas County School System. He is still one of the area's most in-demand bass players.

From Brazil to Ellington with a few stops in between

Nate Najar

Guitarist Nate Najar performed today at the South County Jazz Club's Englewood Arts Center series to the biggest crowd the venue has seen for jazz to date. There were 120 jazz fans in the center's main gallery. Additional folks were turned away due to space limitations.

Metz-Parrott-Sportiello - jazz in Sarasota

Sportiello, Parrott, Metz

"Don't be fooled by the name of the band," drummer Eddie Metz Jr. said. "We're really just his monkeys."

Metz got a lot of laughs with that line at last night's Jazz Club of Sarasota concert by what was billed as the Eddie Metz Trio. In reality it was an artful trio of equals, teaming Metz with pianist Rossano Sportiello and bassist/singer Nicki Parrott. Each of them brings powerhouse strengths to the stage.

Brothers in life - and jazz

Tonight's special moment at the South County Jazz Club's weekly jam session at Allegro Bistro in Venice FL belonged to the Mancini brothers.

Dominic Mancini, a longtime fixture on the southwest Florida jazz scene, is the regular bassist for the jam sessions and one of the busiest musicians around. He's one of the very best at what he does. That trait seems to run in the family. His brother Joe, making a pre-holiday visit from southern New Jersey, is a fine pianist.

Tonight, Joe sat in with Dominic for the first time at a South County Jazz Club jam session. Together with drummer Dane Hassan, they explored "I Close My Eyes," "What is This Thing Called Love?" and the beautiful Harry Warren waltz "Summer Night" to wind down the evening's first set.

A thing of beauty, and then some...

The South County Jazz Club's weekly jam sessions each Tuesday evening at Valenti's Allegro Bistro, in Venice FL, continue to pack in the crowds. Tonight's musical treat came deep into the third set. Bassist Dominic Mancini held the spotlight, even silencing most of the distant-table yackers, with his gorgeous intro and solo work on the 1930s jazz standard "Beautiful Love." His extended intro set up rhythm section mates Tommy Goodman on piano and Dane Hassan on drums for subtle, tasty and sparing fills behind him. The bass work - a blend of wood and honey, rich and supple, solid on the beat and inventive with Mancini's touch and vocal-like bass sound - made it resonate with emotion filling the room.

Ron Carter

 



The August issue of Hot House magazine is online and includes my profile of bassist Ron Carter (page 31). He's one of the most prolifically recorded musicians in jazz history. He'll be at Birdland with his Great Big Band for a six-night run that begins August 28. He's fresh off a European tour with his trio featuring guitarist Russell Malone and pianist Donald Vega.