First up this week is news of a short Jazz Road Trip that may be appealing to Snarky Puppy/modern jazz fusion fans in the area. Snarky Puppy guitarist Bob Lanzetti is on tour promoting his debut solo album Whose Feet are These That are Walking, which has already garnered great reviews. His band will play a show at CityNews Suzy’s SmokeRoom in Mansfield on Friday, February 2nd. Doors open at 6:30pm and Mansfield vocal duo EDJE opens the show. More details are available here. The tour also touches down at BLU Jazz+ in Akron on Saturday the 3rd at 8pm – tickets and details are available here. Should be some good chances to experience great live jazz in different locales!
Shows To See This Week
Saturday, February 3rd (Noon – 3pm): First Saturday with Trista Hill at Asterisk Supper Club, Westerville. Harpist Trista Hill is a veteran of the area jazz scene, having played regular gigs at venues like Natalie’s and Barcelona as well as playing in Nova Madrugada with Stan Smith and Roger Hines in the past. Starting this past September, Hill now plays a free monthly First Saturday gig at Asterisk, a new speakeasy-style comfort food restaurant and bar in Uptown Westerville. Hill was kind enough to provide some details on the venue and the event:
“Asterisk is a great place to play. If you’ve never been there before, the theme is roughly centered around the Prohibition era, and the space is a long corridor with community seating, a long bar, and floor-to-ceiling shelves of books. It makes for a really cozy atmosphere and I’m set up in the large front window most of the time. I wind up playing many jazz standards, including some Brazilian pieces, all on which I greatly improvise. I also throw in (some) popular, contemporary, a tiny bit of classical, and some of my own compositions into the mix. I add jazz elements to just about everything I play. [She feels] it’s important to give patrons a few music anchors – pieces they know and recognize – while also keeping myself interested in what I’m doing by basically never playing the same piece twice, or never in the same way!”
Saturday, February 3rd (9pm – midnight): fo/mo/deep at Brothers Drake. These veteran jazz-funk experts are celebrating 10 years in groove in February. Saturday’s free show at the meadery for Gallery Hop will feature a trio lineup of Ron Holmes on bass, André Scott on drums and Kevin Jones on keys “performing some of the new cuts we are working on for our next recording” and more. Doors open at 8pm. The same lineup also plays a Black History Month show at Natalie’s on Saturday, February 17th at 10pm – tickets available here. Enjoy a night out in the Short North this weekend with some high-powered grooves, and stay tuned for details on the new album!
Sunday, February 4th (5:30 – 8pm): Dave Powers House Jazz Concert Series: “The Art Of The Trio” with Andy Woodson featuring the music of Horace Silver at Clintonville Woman’s Club. Pianist Powers’ House Jazz series at the Woman’s Club returns in 2018 with trio shows “spotlighting the traditional lineup of a piano/bass/drums ensemble.” Sunday’s kickoff will feature veteran bassist Woodson, a professor of jazz bass at The Ohio State University and anchor of bands like FLIPPO, Magically Delicious, and the Ohio Jaztet OSU faculty group, where he plays with Powers. Powers and drummer Louis Tsamous fill out the band for a program focused on hard bop legend Horace Silver. Doors open at 5 for this swingin’ affair, and cover is $15 for adults and $10 for students. This is a BYOB event – There will be food and non-alcoholic beverages for sale, provided by the Clintonville Woman’s Club. End your weekend in style with a dynamic look at the piano trio and the music of a true piano hero.
Have a great week! Here are some videos from this week’s artists to get you warmed up: