A Weekly Jazzonian Newsletter
December 4, 2017

...is a jazzonian e-newsletter published weekly unless the author is somehow incapacitated. It details the thriving jazz scene in Columbus, Georgia and the surrounding Chattahoochee Valley, written exclusively by
Rusty Taylor, the jester-singer for the vocal jazz band Southern Standard Time
Salutations Fellow Jazzonian,

Greetings!...

As I was writing this week's newsletter, I found within the definition of the word sensual a "Word Usage" paragraph that delineated the differences in some synonyms to the word, and that explanation included the following: "Sensual more often applies to the physical senses or appetites, particularly associated with sexual pleasure." It then cites a quote from William Seward: "Music... [is] the only sensual pleasure without vice." This is exactly what I want to convey about how, in particular, jazz music makes me feel, a feeling that I hope is felt by practically everyone who enjoys jazz... so I used it... and even if some decry plagiarism, I "stole" its use sans shame.

And now...

Welcome to our mutual weekly journey into the rhetorically inane, a bit of overly elaborate, pretentious, insincere, and intellectually vacuous word-calisthenics juxtaposed against information about local jazz events that is actually beneficial to you readers who are seeking the 411 on area jazzonian phenomena located at a single point in time-space regarded as a sensuously experienced entity in relativity theory and is pertinent to one's coveted path to goodness quickened through jazz and all of its connotations. This week's pedantic proffering is brought to you by the words afferent, mucilaginous, and sensual.

  • afferent (adjective): Carrying inward to a central organ or section, as nerves that conduct impulses from the periphery of the body to the brain or spinal cord.
  • mucilage (noun): 1. A sticky substance used as an adhesive. 2. A gummy substance obtained from certain plants
  • mucilaginous (adjective): 1. Resembling mucilage; moist and sticky. 2. Relating to or secreting mucilage.
  • sensual (adjective): 1. Relating to or affecting any of the senses or a sense organ; sensory. 2.a. O, relating to, given to, or providing gratification of the physical and especially the sexual appetites. 2.b. Suggesting sexuality; voluptuous. 2.c. Physical rather than spiritual or intellectual. 2.d. Lacking in moral or spiritual interest; wordly.

Example # 1:
Jazz music is an improvisational art form for which I possess abysmal ambivalence. When played by masters, jazz is good... really, really good; it simulates all my senses, initially excited by afferent impulses that ultimately stimulate the positive responses within my visceral theater. Jazz affects me intellectually, emotionally, and, I am willing to bet, instinctively; unfortunately, these impulses also agitate negativity when the jazz is not up to my standards, which lie somewhere between the arcane and the superfluous.
-Anonymous


Example # 2:
As I was writing in my weekly jazzonian journal, I was searching the dictionary for the word machismo when I just happened upon the word mucilaginous. (Yes, I, at the time, didn't realize that the word machismo wasn't spelled as a derivative of mucho--as in having an excessive and exaggerated sense of masculinity, but I digress...) This, obviously brought to my mind the following disgusting image:

Even though he is as slow as molasses in February (in the Northern Hemisphere), Sloppy Joe actually caught the Flu, which was so bad that the mucilage flowed from his nose and ears with the viscosity of 30-weight oil; fortunately, his industrious son gathered it and used it to insulate the house, which saved his family more money than if they had changed insurance companies.
-Anonymous

Enjoy the newsletter...
Groovy Upcoming Events
  • Friday, December 8 – Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis at Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, starting at 8 pm.
  • Friday, December 8 – Kamasi Washington at Variety Playhouse. Fo' mo' info, click here. To access Kamasi's website, click here.
  • Sunday, December 10, 17, 21-23 – David Ellington's Peanut Gallery Presents A Charlie Brown Christmas At Venkman's starting at 6 pm. Fo' mo' info, click here.
  • Monday and Tuesday, December 18 and 19 – check starting time – A Charlie Brown Christmas Live is sponsored in part by the Columbus Jazz Society. Click here. fo' mo' info.
  • Sunday, December 10 – Trio Deluxe at Venkman's starting at 12:30 pm EDT. Trio Deluxe plays jazz; the band members are Dan Coy - guitar; Andrea DeMarcus - vocals, bass; John Norris - drums.
  • Friday, December 15 – Atlanta Funk Society at Venkman's starting at 10 pm EDT. Atlanta Funk Society is a 12-piece Funk band from Atlanta, GA, playing classic hits from the '60s, '70s and '80s, including "Superbad" by James Brown, "Underdog" by Sly and The Family Stone, and "Whatcha Gonna Do For Me" by Chaka Kahn. Check out their website by clicking here.
  • Friday, December 22 – Southern Standard Time (my band) will play a vocal Christmas Jazz program for the third straight year at The Loft in downtown Columbus, GA. Free Admission, so if you are downtown from 7-9 pm, come on in from the cold, order a hot beverage, and listen to some groovy Christmas Tunes.
  • Friday, December 29 – Southern Standard Time (my band) will play vocal jazz at the Eighth and Rail in downtown Opelika, AL from 8 'til midnight Central Time.
  • Saturday, January 13 – The Tivon Pennicott Quartet at Venkman's starting at 7:30 pm EDT. Tivon Pennicott was born & raised in Marietta, Georgia in December of 1985. He began studying tenor saxophone in high school, garnering recognition early on as an outstanding soloist in the Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington competition, as well as the Georgia All-state Jazz Band. In 2004, he relocated to Miami to study at the University of Miami, where he had the opportunity to perform alongside artists such as: Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker, and Maria Schneider. Visit Tivon's website by clicking here.
  • Sunday, January 14 – The Glenn Miller Orchestra begins playing at 3 pm at Spivey Hall in Morrow, Georgia. Fo' mo' info, click here.
  • Saturday, February 3 – The Afro Cuban All Stars at The Rialto Center for the Arts in Atlanta, the Afro-Cuban All Stars band begins at 8 pm EDT. Afro-Cuban All Stars is a Cuban band led by Juan de Marcos González. Their music is a mix of all the styles of Cuban music, including bolero, chachachá, salsa, son montuno, timba, guajira, danzón, rumba and abakua. To visit their website, click here.
  • Friday, February 9 – Diana Krall - Turn Up The Quiet World Tour At Atlanta Symphony Hall.
This Week at The Loft
Columbus, GA's Weekly Home for Jazz
Friday, December 8, 2017
7 - 9 pm EDT

The Columbus Cavaliers big band will be playing on The Loft's main stage this Friday, December 8 from 7-9 pm EDT, so you'll want to come early to secure a seat. It's going to be a packed, fun-filled evening of music from the Swing Era when Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, William "Count" Basie, Glenn Miller, and Benjamin David "Benny" Goodman (AKA " the King of Swing") glided on the planet like Music Gods. Swing is an American invention that takes the quarter note of the standard time signature and gives a driving triplet "feel."

Admittedly, the definition is not easily digestible, but when heard, one's body gyrates with subconscious autoerotic satiety as the underlying rhythm expectantly (anticipatorily ?) quickens one's idiosyncratic recognition of aural patterns formed by the big band's playing a series of notes of varying tone, stress, and duration. Yes, "the rhythm is gonna get you."

This Friday, when the Columbus Cavaliers Big Band (as directed by Jim Evans) begins playing, their "swinging" sound waves will passively and positively invade your nervous system so that Happiness will control your quintessence, and its life-affirming aspirations for a peaceful existence will gaily evanesce into and easily control the vast Universe, even the ninety percent of Black Matter of which it is composed. Yes, it's true; experiencing the totality of human emotions catalyzed by the Columbus Cavaliers (the "Double Cs") will initiate Universal Peace. We here at A Few Jazz Notes strongly encourage you to join the revolution and save the aggregate of everything. It promises to put a Grinch-like grin on your face, one that gently curls around your ears. Do you really want to miss out on that possibility?

Upcoming Schedule :

  • December 08 - The Cavaliers under the direction of Jim Evans
  • December 15 - Six String Theory featuring Neil Lucas
  • December 22 - Christmas Jazz with Southern Standard Time featuring Rusty Taylor
  • December 29 - A Solar Quintet New Year/possibly a CD release party

And coming in January is Dr. Jackie Pickett, Kevin Vannoy and Chris Otts, so keep your eyes and ears open for the news, which will certainly be included in this e-rag.
Last Week at The Loft
Columbus, GA's Weekly Home for Jazz

Allison Kershner and Friends was last week's featured jazz ensemble for The Loft's weekly jazz concert. Accompanying Allison's dulcet and soul-massaging voice was a trio that included the always solid Nick Fiveash (guitar), Reggie Corbie (bass), and the ubiquitous local jazz drummer Eric Buchanan, and let me just interpolate into this text an acknowledgment that playing jazz in a trio has special challenges. The main, and obvious, concern is that each musician is highlighted with much more scrutiny; her instrument is more easily heard than when hidden within a bigger band. Each musician must be accomplished if she is to accept the challenge of playing with only two other musicians, especially when accompanying a vocalist, and the trio accompanying Allison did a wonderful job. Of course, the bass and drums must be "in the pocket" throughout the gig or the sound quality suffers beyond repair, and if this happens, not even your best friend will lie to you and tell you that they liked your music... not if they truly love you and don't want you to embarrass yourself any longer. Fortunately, Eric and Reggie kept the rhythms driving and steady.

By the way, when I listened to Nick Fiveash's playing guitar, I couldn't help but think that Wes Montgomery might be an influence. Nick's use of duple chords followed by scintillating riffs and the chordal progressions brought Wes to my mind. I haven't asked Nick if Wes is an influence, although I imagine he has quite a few inspirations... there are many out there. Also, when the duo of Nick and Allison performed "I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)," I got chills. It takes a certain skill set to accompany a singer with one instrument. Those that do it well are priceless. Of course, Allison sang wonderfully. It was, I believe, the second time they performed as a duet, and I hope they do more of it.

Allison's voice is sunshine and rainbows, a soprano capable of hitting high notes, really high notes--Minnie Ripperton notes--with a soothing ease that is comfortable for the listener, not the abrasive kick in the most sensitive areas of one's body that doubles one over in pain after someone sings too damned loud, which annoys me beyond understanding with nearly military aggression, the type of aggression a warrior needs to aim a flamethrower at another human being. I can't count how many times I've heard an otherwise talented singer who errantly believes that loudness equates to passion, so she sings with the intensity and clamorous insistence of a locomotive's warning horn unconscionably blasting within the confines of a small concrete bunker and with such an exceptionally great concentration of power that the listeners' ears bleed profusely... with possible fatal consequences. Contrarily, Allison's vocal technique tames such unnecessary intensity; her vocal quality is sublime.

Allison also scatted on a couple songs, and I love scatting*. It's an opportunity for the singer to just cut loose; however, to scat effectively one must release ALL inhibitions. On a personal level, my scatting abilities made major advances after Elwood Madeo encouraged me to completely disregard everything save the music. It took a couple of tries, but when it took effect, I understood immediately... and now it seems as obvious as the difference between an habanera pepper and Cool Whip. Please don't misinterpret my intentions here. Allison has a beautiful voice, one I really enjoy hearing, and her scatting is good, but it can be great, and when she learns to simply let loose without the anxiety of being mocked by superior musicians (which was my major concern), then she will become an elite singer. She's got the foundation; she will soon mature into a very formidable vocalist. I'm stoked by the unintended privilege of watching her maturation.

Before I take off to fill my bong with "the weed," I think it necessary to admit that I was non-pharmaceutically intoxicated to maximum pleasure when Allison harmonized with Katherine Ambrester on "Lullaby of Birdland"! She has inspired me to look for the music so that if I ever get an opportunity to harmonize jazz songs, I will be prepared. Allison and Katherine also harmonized on the Christmas classic "Winter Wonderland," and, again, I was floored. I really hope they harmonize together again... soon. They may acquire a third voice and harmonize as Jan Hyatt and her vocal trio in the past, which I really miss.

OK. So I got sidetracked again, but I will end this already voluminous section by reiterating the nearly encomiastic praise of Allison Kershner. When she sings... and smiles... she is sunshine and rainbows. Please, Allison, smile more when on stage. You already possess an ineffable charm, but it is illimitably intensified when your smile crashes through the social ennui that presently incarcerates our nation and inspires everyone who hears you to feel the subliminal warmth that everything is all right... that the world is a marvelous planet with auricular treasures that please celestial puissance.
_________________
* Incidentally, I just made the unintentional discovery that the verbs to scat and to scatter have similar connotations: To scat can mean to sing jazz by musically articulating improvised, meaningless syllables that become a distinctly new melody over the song's chord changes. To scatter means to cause to separate and go in different directions. Ergo, when a jazz singer scats, she scatters the melodic notes of the song. Incidentally, this aside was developed without the use of recreational pharmaceuticals, which, admittedly, is difficult to discern from my writings realized under the influence of such pharmacopoeia.
It's Not Jazz Per Se, But...
A retired Spanish professor from Auburn University (with teaching stints at Texas Tech and Pacelli High School in Columbus, GA), local singer/songwriter Ted McVay and I (Rusty Taylor... just a singer) will open the singer/songwriters competition to be held at Tavern on Main (also in Columbus, GA in the Main Street Village off of Veterans Parkway) on Thursday, December 7 staring at 7 pm EDT. Ted will open with four of his original tunes accompanying himself on acoustic guitar: "My Congressman," "Island Paradise," "Romantic Fantasies," and then "Voice." I will then join him for the rest of the hour adding harmony to Ted's songs among which are "Moonfall Waltz," "Redneck Riviera," and "Stuff." Ted has a knack for melody, and his lyrics range from sublime to subtle to fiery, and, of course, some are very, very funny-yes, I even attempt an unintentionally comic yodel when singing "Redneck Riviera"! It's not jazz, but it is very original and very fun. Ted whistles wonderfully over some of the chord changes, and I scat, so... maybe, just maybe*, Ted's songs can be called a folk/jazz fusion, and I don't know of anyone else who does that. I can't wait 'cause it will be a blast.
________________
* A very subtle homage to Ted's lyrics from his song "Maybe."
A Rusty Taylor Christmas
Sponsored by the Isle of Misfit Toys
I am proud to announce that for the third year in a row, my band Southern Standard Time will be playing at The Loft on the Friday before Christmas, December 22 from 7-9 pm EDT, so if you dig a baritone voice crooning familiar seasonal tunes that nostalgically encourage adolescent dreams of hanging stockings filled with excessive sugary goodness, gaudily decorated Christmas trees, blinking lights, shimmering stars pouring nocturnal rays of Hope onto a silver landscape, trips to Grandma's house, and little elves dancing in outrageous tiny outfits that make you laugh out loud, then you will not want to miss this Yule Tide evening of jazz-influenced Christmas music. It will be a charming night filled with Love; all it needs is you, tapping your feet, nodding your head, and listening with a smile as you sip a steaming cup of holiday joy... marshmallows available on request.

Everybody is welcome, regardless of... well, regardless of anything that is not life threatening or just plain dickish. Come into one of the coziest venues on the planet and let the anxiety associated with trying to fulfill outrageous expectations dissipate into the atmosphere; relax as the superfluous anxiety you've been harboring within your soul since Black Friday eagerly escapes from your consciousness into the distant horizon then beyond the vast emptiness of space never to be terrestrially experienced ever again. The inner peace you will feel is its own reward.
For vocalists, lyrics to songs take on an obvious emotive significance that practically begs the singer to interpret the melodic theme, and this exegesis legitimizes the oft-distracting aspect of merely expressing oneself easily in clear and effective language and morphs it into an elegant Art form adding emotional elements to music that already has sentimental qualities, which encourage an intense human mental state often accompanied by psychological changes that arise like they do when watching a stirring sunrise, subjectively rather than through conscious effort and, hopefully, encroaching the listener's imagination to invoke from ineffable puissance an earnestly impassioned plea for positive patronage. You just gots to know what I mean... fo' really real!

Recently, I heard the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's song "Talk to Me" (I'd bet the life of someone I've never met that Jaco Pastorius plays bass on this song... it is incredibly incredible!**), and the lyrics simply knock my fat ass out. (You do not want to see my unconscious gelatinous body wigglin' and jigglin' and seeping through my wheelchair, which is a solid chick magnet that, juxtaposed against my unaesthetic corporeality, appears much more conducive for the adoring approval of potential bright-eyed lovers and the accompanying acquiescence to consensual rewards.)

A guy can dream, can't he?

I haven't been a real fan of Joni Mitchell until recently, but that's probably because I grew up in the red state of Georgia, so the hippie philosophy of Joni Mitchell/Steven Stills/David Crosby/Graham Nash and their ilk rarely penetrated my cognition; local radio stations only played their less-controversial pop hits. The sad thing about it is that I dig the hippie philosophies of love, flower power, anti-war, and no nukes; I dig practical all hippie musings save the noncommittal sex that seems to have been extant simply so that testosterone-inflated egos could conveniently forget the fact that they possess volition and should not, thereby, act like uncouth boors, couple that [pun intended] with the atavistic urge to act more like ignorant feral mammals that somehow insouciantly legitimizes their uncouth and boorish behavior, which belies any opportunity to refine the gift of urbane behavior granted to humankind by extraterrestrial puissance.***

Of course, I always dug "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Our House," "Teach Your Children," and "Helplessly Hoping," but I was groovin' on the groovy three- or four-part harmonies; lyrics, which were hard for me to discern, were always secondary to the lyrics. After the advent of the Internet, I could easily pull up lyrics of practically any song, and I did. Obviously, I then unabashedly fell in love with lyrics, and Joni Mitchell has become one of my favorite poets. Here are the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's "Talk to Me":

Talk to Me

There was a moon and a street lamp
I didn't know I drank such a lot
'Till I pissed a tequila-anaconda
The full length of the parking lot!
Oh, I talk too loose
Again I talk too open and free
I pay a high price for my open talking
Like you do for your silent mystery

Come and talk to me
Please talk to me
Talk to me, talk to me
Mr. Mystery

We could talk about Martha
We could talk about landscapes
I'm not above gossip
But I'll sit on a secret where honor is at stake!
Or we could talk about power
About Jesus and Hitler and Howard Hughes
Or Charlie Chaplin's movies
Or Bergman's nordic blues
Please just talk to me
Any old theme you choose
Just come and talk to me
Mr. Mystery, talk to me

You could talk like a fool--I'd listen
You could talk like a sage
Anyway the best of my mind
All goes down on the strings and the page
That mind picks up all these pictures
It still gets my feet up to dance
Even though it's covered with keyloids
From the "slings and arrows of outrageous romance"
I stole that from Willy the Shake!
You know, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
Romeo, Romeo talk to me!

Is your silence that golden?
Are you comfortable in it?
Is it the key to your freedom
Or is it the bars on your prison?
Are you gagged by your ribbons?
Are you really exclusive or just miserly?
You spend every sentence as if it was marked currency!
Come and spend some on me,
Shut me up and talk to me!
I'm always talking!
Chicken squawking!
Please talk to me


by Joni Mitchell

_______________________
** I know that it's redundant, but it is simply THAT good.
*** When I use the word 'extraterrestrial' within this context, I simply want to connote that whatever power gave humanity the gift of volition was, in fact, not from our planet. I don't really care if you conclude that I believe that humanity is not the only sentient life in the Universe... because I do. So there.
______________________
Incidentally, "Bergman's Nordic Blues" is my favorite poetic allusion of the song. In my mind, it is Joni's poetic acknowledgment that white musicians were guilty of larcenously stealing not only the blues from African-American musicians, but jazz as well, which, in reality, insidiously murdered the likes of Charlie Parker and Billy Holiday and too many others to innumerate.
The following may not really qualify as a "concern" of mine; it is merely an observation:

I recently saw a commercial on the ol' boob tube that featured some highly questionable enticements for unadulterated Capitalism by highlighting "the dumbest kid in school" as a young man who owns a Lucullan yacht [of or relating to Lucius Licinuos Lucullus (110? - 57? B.C.), a Roman general and consul noted for his self-indulgence or his luxurious banquets]... highlighting young man who owns a Lucullan yacht and coercing the viewer to use the advertiser's services in order to access this kind of prodigal behavior. As a viewer, I am encouraged to think about the outrage of the classmates of commercial's protagonist and his unjustifiably excessive remuneration for his buffoonery. Instead, I can't help but to wonder how the classmates of Donald J. Trump the Kleptocratic Moron(r) feel about the disparity between his lack of mental acuity and his financial "success," especially as the veracity of his rhetorical content is consistently challenged. This, along with the tightening of the noose of treason that aggressively tightens around not only Trump's pelican-jowled neck but the collective neck of the GOP as well. The next few months will be of great political interest.

The people who reign in the higher echelon of the GOP are the aristocracy of contemporization. Since Richard Nixon's run for presidency in 1968, the GOP has used Southern Strategy, which is the insidious and narcissistic justification for acting like a huge superfluous dick in the national political arena.
--Anonymous
Weekly Area Jams
Eighth and Rail
Every Tuesday 7 - 10 pm CT
The Eighth and Rail in historical downtown Opelika, Alabama is the venue for a wildly groovy weekly jazz jam as hosted by the Jane Drake Jazz Band. It's a cozy celebration of life that has become a buzzing collection of jazz-loving fanatics gathered together in a coterie of peaceful, fun-loving positive energy. I am downright proud as a peacock with enhanced LED-flashing feathers to participate in the jam on a regular basis, and I really love it! Proprietor Mike Patterson makes the wonderful sushi and Miss Tiffany keeps the affable atmosphere at a lovely level of emotive satisfaction. Plus... they serve an awesome cheesecake that'll make you wanna slap yourself so hard as to tell horrific knock-knock jokes to mimes. No lie. We have really talented musicians come in from the bi-state area: Auburn, Montgomery, Tuskegee, Columbus, LaGrange, Fort Valley, et al. The jam begins at 7 pm and ends at 10 pm CT. Hopefully, I'll see you there.

Eighth and Rail
Venkman's Jazz Jam
Every Tuesday starting at 8 pm ET
Venkman's is a nightclub in Atlanta, a venue that Joe Gransden uses for his weekly jazz jam. This is where the Who's Who of the Atlanta Jazz Scene come together to dazzle us mortals. It's free and starts at 8 pm ET. Fo' mo' info, click link below. I've participated in this jam a couple of times, and I love it as well. Joe Gransden always welcomes me with a smile that will melt antarctic glaciers in the middle of winter, which, oddly enough, is during June through August... when it's so hot and humid in middle Georgia that my toenails sweat. Nevertheless, Joe's band often includes keyboardist Kenny Banks (sometimes Kevin Bales), drummer Chris Burroughs and bassist Craig Shaw, and these cats kick it. When I find the transportation, I'm going.


Red Light Cafe Jazz Jam
Every Wed at 8 pm ET

I have not been to the weekly jazz jam at Red Light Cafe, but it is hosted by the Gordon Vernick Quartet, and I am a huge fan of Gordon's, so I'm planning to go soon, and when I do... Ha! I'm very likely to get excited. Fo' mo' info, click here.
Apache Cafe in Atlanta
Every Wed at 9:00 ET

Al Smith's Midtown Jam Session @Apache Cafe!  Contemporary Jazz , Soul, R&B vocalists jam Session. Featuring live band led by keyboardist Al Smith! Vocalists are invited to sign the list and jam with the band, musicians can sit in too... a must attend! Different Dj spinning on the back patio each week! SPECIAL GUEST HOST EVERY WEEK! Doors open at 9pm and list-sign up is at 9pm. Event admission, the day of, at the door, is CASH. Fo' mo' info, click here.
1048 Club in Montgomery
Every Sun at 9:30-12:30 CT

The 1048 Cafe is in Montgomery, AL. The weekly Jazz Jam led by Sam Williams, 9 pm CDT, $5 cover. I don't really know that much about it, but the 1048 has a jazz jam every Sunday from 9ish 'til whenever. Apparently the jam draws some incredible musicians. Fo' mo' info, click here.
Piccolo's Lounge, Auburn

It's not a jam, but the Piccolo lounge offers a comfortable, clubby environment. Leather club chairs, a cozy fireplace and comfy banquettes serve as a relaxing getaway. Enjoy a single malt scotch and relax and unwind from a hectic day or meet friends to hear live jazz every Friday and Saturday night, of non-home football game weekends. Fo' mo' info, click here.
A Little Lunch Music at Jule Collins Smith Museum, Auburn University
On Thursdays at Noon, make a lunch date with our region’s finest musicians. A Little Lunch Music is an informal, come-and-go performance presented by JCSM and coordinated by musician Patrick McCurry. You can sit in and listen to the entire performance, dine in the Museum Cafe from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT, browse the Museum Shop or explore the galleries.
  • November 2 - On Thursday, October 19, from noon to 1:00 pm, the series will present a free concert by Plains 2, featuring trombonist Matthew Wood and pianist Joshua Pifer.
  • November 9 - Clarinetist Patricia Crisp with pianist Beibei Lin
  • November 16 - pianist Vijay Venkatesh in collaboration with Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta
  • November 23 - No concert... it's Thanksgiving
  • November 30 - classical guitarist Kevin Manderville
  • December 7 - hornist William Shaffer with pianist Joshua Pifer
  • December 13 - The Auburn Music Club Singers
Jazz Association of Macon
We Promote Jazz in Macon
and Middle Georgia
Our purpose is to:
Encourage and support creation, presentation, and preservation of jazz music.
Support the creation of new audiences for jazz music.
Provide education and information about jazz.
Encourage young musicians to learn and appreciate jazz.
Develop a network among local and regional jazz advocates.
Increase awareness of jazz events and musicians in our community.

To read their blog, click here.
Area Musicians
Actually, this is a link to a page of my personal website, but it makes it much easier t maintain. It is a dynamic list of area musicians that will, hopefully, be continually updated until I can no longer do it. If you are a musician who is not listed or you are listed but with invalid info, please let me know, and I'll make the appropriate revisions. Thank you, and click here to visit the link.
High Museum of Art: Atlanta Jazz
Live jazz in the Robinson Atrium at the Atlanta High Museum of Art every 3rd Friday of the month. Fo' mo' info, click here .
On-line Radio
  • WCUG 88.5 Cougar Radio - Columbus State University.
  • KUNR 88.7 Reno, Nevada.
  • KNCJ 89.5 Reno, Nevado. (I listen to this station on Saturday evening from 9-1 a.m. ET to catch Saturday Night Jazz hosted by Scot Marshall and Dallas Smith.)
  • Saturday Night Jazz hosted by Scot Marshall and Dallas Smith (Columbus, GA native) - Scot and Dallas bring their rich musical experiences together in "Saturday Night Jazz" to feature music which ranges from the latest releases to jazz classics and occasional recordings by local artists, as well as announcements of upcoming local jazz events in the Reno-Tahoe area. "Saturday Night Jazz" is supported by the Reno Jazz Orchestra and For the Love of Jazz.The program airs every Saturday evening from 1pm-10pm Pacific Time.
  • WCLK 99.1 Atlanta's Jazz Station, Clark Atlanta University.
  • Adore Jazz - Adore Jazz makes listeners relax, feel, think and smile through listening to the finest vocal jazz.
  • WTSU 88.9 Troy State University - Ray Murray's Jazz Radio Show Saturday nights at 10 pm Central Time.
  • WVAS 90.7 Montgomery - Jazz, Blues, News, and views.
Video of the Week
The first video: 
This is the song whose poetic lyrics grace this newsletter above. And, yes, the bassist is Jaco Pastorius.

The second video:
If you are unfamiliar with Joni Mitchell or Jaco Pastorius, then this video should be the beginning of a lifetime musical journey.
Christmas Music by Area Musicians

Some area musicians have recorded Christmas music. Simply click on the cover art, and the link will send you to a magical, virtual store where you can buy the music. If I've missed an area musician who has recorded Christmas music, let me know and I'll include it here. Support local musicians; otherwise, Santa will leave you coal in your stockings.
Pat Trudell
One Silent Night
Annie Sellick
Let's Make A Christmas Memory
Joe Gransden
I'll Be Home For Christmas

If you know of an area musician who has recorded a Christmas CD, please let me know. Thanks.
Memories of Columbus Jazz

Memories of Jazz
The History of Swing and Jazz in the Columbus, Georgia Area
From 1940 — 1980... Who played... Where they played
by Gene Kocian

Fletcher Henderson and the Cuthbert Jazz Festival

The opening paragraph that introduces Fletcher Henderson states:

About fifty miles south of Columbus [GA] is the sleepy little town Cuthbert, Georgia. This in 1897 was the birthplace of Fletcher Henderson - who probably contributed more to jazz music as far as big bands were concerned than any other arranger or bandleader. He went to New York in 1920 to enter Columbia University to major in chemistry.

Highlighting the section that delineates Fletcher Henderson is a photo of Lionel Hampton at the 2nd annual Cuthbert Jazz Festival in 1989. In June 1987, the city of Cuthbert teamed up with its Chamber of Commerce, Albany State College, Clark College in Atlanta, and others to create the first Fletcher Henderson Jazz Festival with guest soloist Lionel Hampton.

On a personal level, it amazes me that so few citizens of Columbus, GA and surrounding areas don't realize that one of the most influential musical minds on the planet, the man who molded the Big Band sound that set our nation ablaze in the early twentieth century, was born just down the road in Cuthbert, GA. Not even I realized (until very recently) that Cuthbert holds a jazz festival honoring their hometown hero. Why is this a secret? I understand why Gertrude "Ma" Rainey only received only slight mention in the introduction of Gene Kocian's book; she predates the book's intention, yet even her place in our city's history seems almost purposefully neglected.

Columbus, GA has a rich musical history: according to one of them thar history markers outside the RiverCenter in the city's historic downtown district, the Columbus Symphony is the second oldest continually running orchestra in our nation. Although surprising, it shouldn't be. Georgia is one of the original English colonies, so it shouldn't be surprising that our great state (and our beautiful city) has such an interesting past. Hopefully, I'll get to explore the musical history of the Chattahoochee Valley in much more detail and include it in this weekly rag. Should be fun.

Peace Through Music
Valediction
Electric Boobs

Elton John is one of the most recognized popular musicians ever. He's been making music seemingly forever, and one of his early hits was "Benny and the Jets," which has the lyrics: "She's got electric boots and a mohair suit/ You know I read it in a magazine." Innocuous enough. Sure... but this song came out in the early 70s when I was around ten, and what I heard with my prepubescent ears was: "She's got electric boobs and a Mohawk, too/ You know I read it in a magazine." Yes, even at the age of ten, I was fascinated with the female anatomy.

My paternal grandmother was an irrevocably Catholic widow, a strict but loving disciplinarian who raised nine children and babysat for probably one billion other children. In the living room, she had two portraits: one of her husband, my grandfather (who sat regally in a chair, a young, beaming man in his late thirties, cross-legged and smiling at the camera in his tan U.S. Army uniform) and a portrait of Jesus with piercing blue eyes and light brown hair highlighted with subtle streaks of blonde. It wouldn't surprise me if her house had been blessed by the pope before the Catholic Mass' text was translated from Latin into secular vernacular. It was always the center of practically every family event, an embryonically comforting venue that always salved the conflicts that oft arise between loved ones.

Again, it was the early seventies. I was only around ten, Elton John's song about Benny's jets could be heard every time one turned on her radio; rock-n-roll was in its prime, guitar solos lasted at least ten minutes; hippies still rallied in Haight-Ashley; the culture evoked a less rigid morality, especially concerning the unadorned human body; sexual exploration was strongly encouraged, and nudity was celebrated. (Yet, in Alabama, George Corley Wallace centered his political platform of keeping segregation alive in the South.) 

If my mammary, uh... memory... if my memory serves me correctly, Grandma was in the kitchen cooking, which seemed to be all she ever did. It is early afternoon; I walk into the television room and see my uncle sleeping on the couch, which wasn't unusual 'cause he worked nights, but "The Graduate" was on the ol' boob tube. (boob... I was ten... and very affected by mammillary influence. Hell, my favorite piece of fried chicken is the breast!)

If you are unfamiliar with "The Graduate," it is a movie starring a young Dustin Hoffman, a middle-aged but visually stunning Anne Bancroft, and a nubile Katharine Ross. Hoffman's character is named Ben Braddock, who has recently graduated from college. His parent's are encouraging him towards a lucrative career, but Ben is more into lying around the pool. Soon, however, he is seduced by the wife of his father's best friend... Mrs. Robinson, the same Mrs. Robinson addressed by Simon and Garfunkel in their hit song. 

Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine, played by Katharine Ross, has also returned home, and Mrs. Robinson has no intention of losing her sexual playmate to her daughter, but her cuckolded husband and Ben's parents coax the youngsters to go on a date. As a show of solidarity with his more mature sexual partner, Ben takes Elaine to a strip club, and this really upsets the younger woman. She runs away. Ben chases her, catches up with her, apologizes, and, of course, they fall in love, which creates the conflict of the story.

The scene of the stripper really caught my ten-year-old attention. The "actress" had tassels hanging from her nipples, but she rotated them in opposite directions by undulating her deviously sinuous body in slow, especially seductive waves that easily derailed my mind far, far away from any of the Lord's commandments, especially the one about coveting my neighbor's wife. The dancing boobs, to me, was freaking awesome. Obviously, these were "electric boobs." I still don't know what a mohair suit is, but if a woman has electric boobs, she would definitely have a Mohawk haircut, too. The irony of this story is that my unexpected introduction to the sensuously stimulating electric boobs occurred in my paternal grandmother's sacrosanct house that was still damp from its domiciliary baptism. All I know is that electric boobs are far more fascinating to stare at than a portrait of Caucasian Jesus.

Peace Through Music
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