The June calendar brings another great jazz-focused installment of the Wednesday night Dick’s Den residency, this time courtesy of saxophonist Alex Burgoyne. Each show starts around 10pm and cover is $5. Burgoyne has scheduled an exciting month of shows with many of his frequent (and new) collaborators, and was kind enough to provide details on each show and a bit of background, so keep reading for his thoughts on his four shows. Alex Burgoyne: “First, I’m very grateful to the Dick’s Den family and Mr. Tim Ackerman for the opportunity. I learned how to listen to jazz and drink whiskey in this bar. I got to know most of the musicians I’m playing with this month there and even after playing there for nearly 10 years, I’m still excited every time I get a call to play at Dick’s. THANKS!
I tried as hard as I could to put a month of music together that represents me. Though I’m not playing any Desenclos or Ibert (‘classical’ saxophone?), and I don’t have any big band on the schedule, I think each Wednesday will do a good job of exploring many of the corners of my musical self. Plus, it’ll be really fun.
Wednesday, June 7th – Aaron Quinn (guitar), Seth Daily (drums), Danny Bauer (keyboards), John Allen (bass)
When I was giddily thinking about what to book for the first week of the residency, my first thought was that Liver Quiver (Aaron, and Seth) would play. When I asked, Aaron said he could do the date, but he also asked what we were going to do. I hadn’t considered anything but Liver Quiver, but I got excited about the possibility of maybe LQ +1 or something.
I didn’t want to add another horn player, but I’ve always wanted to add bass to the band. Plus, I thought Danny would sound great and fit in well. I’m very much looking forward to having Aaron and Seth match wits with Danny and John all night, while I stand in the middle and sing and wail.
We’ll do a set of Liver Quiver tunes, and probably a set of standards. The middle set is going to be a re-imagining of Miles Davis’s modal masterpiece, Kind Of Blue, which should be very fun.
June 14th – Free Jazz Hit Parade (and Turtle Boat)
Maxwell Button (drums), Mark Donavan (tenor saxophone), Zakk Jones (guitar), John Allen (bass) (with special guest Aditya Jayanthi, guitar)
The music of Ornette Coleman came into my universe by way of Matt Paetsch and Maxwell Button, and has continued to be a maniacal and fruitful influence on my musical heart. Thanks, fellas!
A tribute to the music of Ornette and his free jazz peers and pupils, this band is full of ferociousness and fun and so much energy. It’s about as enjoyable as music gets for me. We’re lucky in Columbus to have so many musicians who dig this music, many of whom we’ve been grateful to have in the band.
I’ve also invited my longtime musical friend Aditya Jayanthi to do a set of music with his band Turtle Boat (featuring the music of Paul Motian).
AJ and I have been playing in bands together since college, and during that time, he among many others (Tom Davis, Aaron Quinn, Tyler Evans, Ishmael Zghoul, to name a few) inspired my preference for playing with guitar players, and brought the music of Paul Motian to my attention. I’m looking forward to making a beautiful and raucous noise with him!
June 21st – Stan Smith (guitar), Lisa Bella Donna (keyboards), Justin Campbell (drums), Steve Perakis (bass) (with special guest Chris Appel, poet)
A huge part of my musical upbringing was playing in the band beautyofmyland which was led by poet/hairdresser/badass/crazy person, Dairdre Scriven. We met at a jam session long ago (Ruby Tuesday on Summit, hosted by Evan Oberla), and began our musical partnership soon afterward. I feel like I grew up with that band, and I played with all of the musicians featured this week for the first (or nearly first) time with BOML. I consider Dairdre and BOML a huge influence on the evolution of my intention in music.
We’re going to honor the spirit of that band, with poetry by me and perhaps other members of the band. We’ll also play an improvised set with a new friend and poet, Chris Appel (whom I met (re-met?) a few weeks ago, and absolutely floored me on a set we did with Sonikora and Stan Smith at The Vanderelli Room).
June 28th – Small Songs
Devin Copfer (violin, voice), Andrew Sais (guitar), Josh Bryant (bass), Dan DiPiero (drums)
In many ways, Small Songs is the synthesis of my musical and creative influences. Haiku (burgoynealexburgoyne.com), folk music, 90s rock, and teaching young piano students, combined with collaboration with some of my best friends and oldest musical comrades, Small Songs started as an experiment in off-kilter songwriting, and has turned into a very purposeful expression of the many shades of anxiety, heartache, loss, and joy for the band.
As we say: ‘Each song is meant to be a snapshot of a feeling. Sometimes the feeling is big, and sometimes it’s small. Sometimes the snapshot comes from an idea, or from a conversation, or a long, quiet moment alone. But we’re not trying to pull one over on you. Some of the songs are about dogs.’
Also, we’re planning a new album (or two) for fall/winter of this year. Get excited!”
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Read the JazzColumbus.com review of Small Songs’ debut album Hey here.