[Tradjazz] thanks to Jon & Matt (and of course, Al)

Thu Dec 27 09:56:50 EST 2007

Bravo to the Blog writer, to Jon and Matt and to Al for posting this.

To all of you, or should I say "us," who haven't been there yet, this is a 
wake-up call. Let's all head down there this and every Sunday. Of course we 
want to support a good music gig, but also, WE WANT TO ENJOY THE SOUNDS.

Hope to see you all there.

McN

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <dakuehns at comcast.net>
To: <tradjazz at list.okom.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 7:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Tradjazz] thanks to OKOMmers for coming out to 'ear us at 
theEar Inn!

> Jon,
> Not only was it fun night, it was one of those special  nights of jazz 
> that'll not be forgotten. I and Don Greenfield have a lot of listening 
> under out collective belts, and we were blown away by you guys. I was once 
> talking to Herb Gardner trying to put into words something like what 
> happened on Sunday and he said, "You mean when the instruments disappear." 
> I think that says it.
> Al Kuehn
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "Jon-Erik Kellso" <jonnygig at gmail.com>
>> Hi there--
>>
>> Hope your holidaze were the merriest yet.
>>
>> Thanks to you OKOM-ers who came out to hear us at the Ear Inn Sunday 
>> night.
>> Meant a lot to have educated ears such as yours at the Ear--that was a 
>> fun
>> night!
>>
>> I'll paste in some info below about this steady Sunday night gig for 
>> those
>> of you who are interested--
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> Just thought I'd share the news of a relatively new (since this past 
>> summer)
>> steady gig I have Sunday nights in NYC, 8-11 pm
>> at the Ear Inn, 326 Spring St.
>> way west between Washington and Greenwich streets, Soho area on the isle 
>> of
>> Manhattan.
>> Very cool old joint, goes back to 1817, interesting history.
>> Guitarist Matt Munisteri and I are regulars,
>> we call the quartet the EarRegulars,
>> and we have misc. bass and reeds-or-whatever players with us
>> (Scott Robinson, Evan Christopher,  Howard Alden, James Chirillo, Chris
>> Flory, Greg Cohen, Joel Forbes and Frank Tate have been among the
>> EarRegulars).
>>
>> Below is an amusing blog/review someone wrote about last Sunday, pretty
>> nice.
>> He got some stuff wrong, of course,
>> such as --it's not the only place that has hot jazz weekly in NYC,
>> Arthur's Tavern still has the Sunday and Monday bands, and Charley O's 
>> has
>> the Stan Rubin All-Stars on Mondays., etc.....
>> Not sure what song he was trying to refer to, either, heh heh...I know we
>> played Willie the Weeper that night, and I do not think we played 
>> Farewell
>> Blues or Weary Blues that night...whatever!
>> And Dan Block was on with us all night on reeds,
>> and Harry Allen sat in with us for much of the night--it was a blast!
>> Hope you are able to swing by and have a taste with us there some time! 
>> It's
>> a fun hang.
>>
>> have a great '08,
>> Jon
>>
>> Jon-Erik Kellso
>> www.kellsojazz.com
>>  www.myspace.com/jonerikkellso
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>  The Ear-Regulars Live 12/23/07: Marquee-Caliber Jazz at a Ghetto
>> Price<http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/the-ear-regulars-live-122307-
>> marquee-caliber-jazz-at-a-ghetto-price/>
>> http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/
>>
>> December 24, 2007 ·
>> <http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/the-ear-regulars-live-122307-marqu
>> ee-caliber-jazz-at-a-ghetto-price/#respond>
>>
>> One of the most exciting developments in the New York music scene in 
>> recent
>> months is this weekly Sunday 8 PM hot jazz session at the Ear Inn run by
>> trumpeter Jon Kellso and guitarist Matt Munisteri. This is the best deal 
>> in
>> town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a fiver or 
>> two
>> for Philip the bucket, you can see an ever-rotating cast of star
>> international players join the two anchors here and push it as far as 
>> it'll
>> go. That was Kellso and Munisteri's plan from the start, and it was
>> definitely working tonight. The material is traditional jazz (mostly 
>> oldtime
>> stuff from the 30s or earlier) but the agenda, as Munisteri put it, is to
>> see "see how far outside we can take it." By outside, he didn't mean 
>> obscure
>> it or make it deliberately inaccessible. On the contrary, this crew does
>> what all great jazz cats do at the top of their game, hitting a lot of
>> peaks, taking the songs to the limit and sometimes beyond.
>>
>> The interplay and chemistry between the players is remarkable. They sank
>> their teeth into the old 30s hit Farewell to the Blues, upright bassist
>> Danton Boller taking a solo, and Munisteri didn't hang him out to dry. 
>> When
>> Boller slowed down his run, giving the notes room to breathe, Munisteri
>> picked up the rhythm, comping and punctuating it and it was clear that
>> everybody here is on the same page. Everything sounds better when the 
>> band
>> is a team and the song is the manager, and this crew knows that.
>> Kellso is a bluesman, straight up, no chaser, tonight alternating between
>> gregarious dixieland licks, admirably minimal straight-up blues and a 
>> coyly
>> magisterial Prez solo which Boller followed. The likelihood of hearing a
>> Lester Young-inflected horn line played on the bass is pretty rare, but 
>> the
>> guy did it. And later in the set he followed another Kellso solo, this 
>> time
>> a boisterous, bouncy dixieland one, without straying from the genre. The
>> band was joined this time around by a reed player doubling on clarinet 
>> and
>> sax, often working in tandem with Kellso, holding down the melody while
>> Munisteri or Boller were wailing away.
>> Munisteri is a great listener and expects the crowd to do the same: he
>> doesn't play very loud, but he doesn't have to. At one point, he took a 
>> solo
>> that was .... so amazingly authentic and soulful. Munisteri has blazing
>> speed and a fondness for whipping chords around, but he's just as likely 
>> to
>> mold the melody gently and sparsely....
>>
>> Considering how good the crowd was here tonight in a rainstorm two days
>> before Xmas, with Varick Street closed by police barricades at Charlton
>> Street due to debris from the latest Trump monstrosity falling from 
>> several
>> stories above, it would make sense to get here early to assure yourself a
>> seat.
>>
>> This series started early last summer and it's picked up enough momentum 
>> to
>> the point where it could explode. On one level, that would be fantastic,
>> considering how good the music is and that the players deserve a bigger
>> space. On another level, it's perfect just the way it is. In the 
>> meantime,
>> the Ear Inn - which has admirably designated itself a cellphone-free 
>> zone -
>> is the perfect spot, an oasis of decency, good food and fairly reasonably
>> priced drink way over on the west side, a mere couple of minutes walk 
>> from
>> the train. Where they put butcher paper on the tables and supply crayons 
>> for
>> your personal use.
>>
>> Believe it or not, this is the only weekly hot jazz blowing session in 
>> New
>> York at this time. In a city - or what's left of it - that has 
>> springboarded
>> the careers of so many thousands of great jazz players, it's about time 
>> we
>> had one. Bigtime props to Kellso and Munisteri for getting it going.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Tradjazz mailing list
>> Tradjazz at list.okom.com
>> http://list.okom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tradjazz
>
>
>

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