The Jazzcat

Click Picture to hear an interview with Gregoire Maret and LeRoy Downs

“Live with the Jazzcat“

Hello all, this is LeRoy Downs and each week I will broadcast a live 15 minute segment every Tuesday at 5:15 PM PST on KRMLradio.com and 1410 AM KRML radio in beautiful Carmel California.

Gary

Hamada ,who is a director at KRML Jazz and Blues station, has taken me

on to do a weekly segment that I am sure your are going to enjoy! He

has one hour show Monday thru Friday called

“For Locals Only“.

On each Tuesday of the month @ 5:15 for about 15 to 20 minutes, Gary will turn it over to me for a segment of

“Live with The Jazzcat“

Each week there will be an interview of someone special and wonderful in this beautiful art form we call jazz.

I will see you there!

              

               

LeRoy Downs will be live on the air

one young man who has mastered an instrument and carved out one of the sweetest niches in the music

Gregoire Maret

KRMLradio.com

Click picture to listen live online!

“Monterey Bay's Jazz and Blues station in Carmel California”

The sound of his harmonica is so emotionally exhilarating your soul controled by the breeze of every fleeting note

Gregoire Maret

live on KRMLradio.com or on

1410AM KRML radio in Carmel California

Gregoire Maret

 Click Picture above for Gregoire Maret Interview

Click here for all archived Interviews

Click Picture to hear an interview with Lewis Nash and LeRoy Downs

“Live with the Jazzcat“

Hello all, this is LeRoy Downs and each week I will broadcast a live 15 minute segment every Tuesday at 5:15 PM PST on KRMLradio.com and 1410 AM KRML radio in beautiful Carmel California.

Gary

Hamada ,who is a director at KRML Jazz and Blues station, has taken me

on to do a weekly segment that I am sure your are going to enjoy! He

has one hour show Monday thru Friday called

“For Locals Only“.

On each Tuesday of the month @ 5:15 for about 15 to 20 minutes, Gary will turn it over to me for a segment of

“Live with The Jazzcat“

Each week there will be an interview of someone special and wonderful in this beautiful art form we call jazz.

I will see you there!

 

You may have heard that pianist Larry Willis’s house burnt down… so the community is trying to take care of him…

Please Attend and help spread the word…

Larry Willis Benefit St. Peter’s Church

Fazioli Salon presents:

“Pianists Play for Larry”

Monday, February 26th

7-10pm

Fazioli F-278 Concert Grand Piano

suggested contribution $20

featuring

Randy Weston 

Geri Allen

Don Friedman 

Bertha Hope

Jean  Michel Pilc

Mamiko Watanabe

  Ran Jia 

Matthias Bublath

 

Sachiko Kato

Patrick Poladian

Kathy Farmer and others…

Fazioli Salon presents

“Pianists Play for Larry”

Top piano players unite to assist pianist Larry Willis after his house fire

Monday, February 26, 2007, at 7pm at St. Peter's Church (54th and Lexington)

“We have all delighted and benefited from the decades of wonderful

music made by Larry Willis, and in his hour of need, the piano

community has responded, and we are proud to be able to create a great night for him.”

– Jim Luce of The Fazioli Salon at Klavierhaus.

  Larry Willis Benefit features the Fazioli F-278 Concert Grand Piano

and a lineup of distinguished pianists (subject to change) including:

  Mamiko Watanabe          7:00 – 7:10

  Orrin

Evans                  

    7:10 – 7:20

  Bertha

Hope                

    7:20 – 7:30

  Sachiko

Kato               

    7:30 – 7:40

  Randy

Weston             

    7:40 – 7:50

  Hal

Galper                    

    7:50 – 8:00 

  Don

Friedman              

    8:00 – 8:10
  Ran

Jia                          

    8:10 – 8:25

  Geri

Allen                      

    8:25 – 8:35

  Rachel

Z                        

   8:35 – 8:45

  Armen Donelian                8:45 – 8:55

  Lenore

Raphael           

    8:55 – 9:05 

  Barney

McAll                

    9:05 – 9:15

  Matthias Bublath               9:15 – 9:20

  Patrick Poladian               9:20 – 9:30

  Kathy

Farmer               

    9:30 – 9:40

  Jean Michel Pilc               9:40 – 9:50

  Deanna Witkowski           9:50 – 10:00

  Pete Malinverni        10:00 – 10:10

  James Weidman              10:10 – 10:20

  Ronnie Mathews              10:20 – 10:30

Plus Dr. Billy Taylor, Onaje Allen Gumbs, Gene Perla and others.

This evening is produced by Rev. Dale Lind of St. Peter’s Church, in

association with The Fazioli Salon at Klavierhaus.

Tickets available online at www.pianoculture.com, or at the door.

For more information, contact Jim Luce at lucegroup@mac.com.

See Doug Ramsey’s article for more info:  http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/archives/2007/02/larry_willis_bu.html

For more info contact: lucegroup@mac.com

I have been to LACMA several times for jazz performances. On

any given Friday during the summer, you can always experience three sets of

great music out in an open courtyard filled with many of LA’s lovers of jazz.

But, today the plan was to motor west just one block to discover a venue that I

did not know existed before this performance. LACMA West, located in the upper

level of the former Macy’s department store on the corner of Wilshire and

Fairfax. Today’s acclaimed guest is not one who I see in Los Angeles very often so of course it is

always an honor to welcome the one and only Kenny Barron!

 

Kenny is not that old although introduced this afternoon as

the greatest living jazz legend. That greatness is always represented in the

mastery of his playing that makes his mind, the music and the piano one

beautifully melodic instrument! The Da Camera Society is an organization that supports

mostly chamber music and they prefer to hold their venues in historic sites

around the city. Their mission is to bring the highest quality chamber music to

their members in environments that the chamber music was originally written

for. Each season they present to their members a few jazz performances always

staying true to their mission of the utmost quality! Kenny Barron certainly

falls right in line when it comes to top notch players. He has performed over

the years in many different configurations but, for this performance he will be

accompanying himself.

 

Kenny usually does not start off a performance with a ballad

but in honor of a gentleman he met that lived to 100 years old, he proceeded to

play “Memories of You” by Eubie Blake. The members and subscribers of  The Da Camera Society know how to listen and

appreciate a performance.  When listening

to solo piano, silence is necessary to have all of the intricate details and

nuances that a wonderful pianist like Kenny can bring to the music.

 

“For Heaven’s Sake” was written by a composer that Kenny had

the pleasure of meeting at one of his performances at the Blue Note in New York City. Many

artists have certain fears about performing all alone in front of an audience. There

is a nakedness in the space where the only support is provided by solid notes,

improvisation and implication, creative spontaneous imagination and a

confidence to weave the finest of melodic fabrics. This is not even a challenge

for Kenny.  He is gracious, humorous and

quite a master at conquering  compositions,

no matter how elaborate or simplistic with a warm delightful forward motion and

tone that is as elegant as it is audibly delicious. The selection of music for

this afternoon’s performance are not classical pieces but the approach to them

comes off with some of that sensibility of course mixed with the spirit of jazz

all amounting to fragrant wisps of fresh flowers to the senses.

 

Miles made the tune “When Lights are Low”, famous with his

version of the wrong bridge.  Kenny

actually discovered this when asked by Benny Carter, the composer, if he knew

the piece. Of course listening to the most popular version for so many years,

Kenny proceeded to perform the piece and Benny told him, when he reached the

bridge, that this is not how he originally wrote the tune. The version Kenny

plays for us features the bridge that was actually intended in the composition.

 

Listening to solo piano is quite different without the rest

of the swing.  Kenny is so prominent and even

though the bass and drums are a faint part of your imagination, they still

cerebrally occupy some musical space.  I

would imagine that Kenny hears the other 2/3 of the swing as well as he walks

through these classic yet wonderful compositions.

 

“Lullaby” is an original composition and you can hear some

of the subtle differences in Kenny’s more modern compositions as to their

feeling and the way that they are arranged; still emanating feelings of romance

only in a modern day twentieth century kind of way.  Twentieth because the feelings are derived

from a distinguished old school player who studied the classics in an era that

differs from the sound that you might get from the younger piano players of

today. “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” many times sung so beautifully

by vocalists, is played with light and lovely colors as another ballad bestowed

upon this intimate crowd here at LACMA West. “I am confessing that I love you”

with its stridish textures mixed in with a note or two reminiscent of the one

and Theonlyus! The great sound of Kenny Barron is such a treat and we certainly

hope we get to hear much more from Kenny on the West coast!

 

LeRoy Downs

 

Eric’s set is loaded with mostly original music which has

the audience paying close attention to the music and talent of the musicians

rather than relaxing and taking in the same old standards. Eric opens his set

with “Perfection” giving everyone a feel for all of the intriguing music that

he has in store.  “Beauty”, a more recent

composition, is inspired by a friend who possess such.  John Rangel paints his way through chord

structures with such energetic romanticism and feeling.  Donald Barnett, the newest addition to the

quartet opens the music up with a natural ability to fill space with nuances

that span the spectrum from jazz to funk and back to lullabies on precious

ballads.  Trevor Ware, always

rhythm-a-ning, always so grounded in the earth of the music.  Eric is so fluid; a seamless ride on the

wave, against the grain, through the middle, out the back and up to the top

before the foaming cascade of alto and soprano caresses.

 

Music is the best when the cats are smiling and the

centrifugal force collectively acts as a beacon whose signal is strong, loud,

intoxicating and well received. “The Multitudes” ends with a big drop and is

inspired by the New Orleans

state of affairs. You know the story, rhetoric of reparation and restitution

with no solution for a culture rich in color, food and musical content but no

dividends! “Loverman”, one of the few standards, has eyes closed and bodies

swaying and this is not due to years of gold or lack of sleep.  It specifically relates to the enchanting

melodies, harmonious and artistic choices made in the music that are so

captivating.  These sophisticated,

cerebral, experienced masses of patrons are people who have lived life,

embraced culture, supported the arts and they 

certainly prove the value of and how to appreciated ageless beauty.

 

Say this “I think I hear a shot of the Blues”, and that you

did.  You would think that these cats

have been playing together for years, but oh contraire.  As tight as they are, this is the first of

what will hopefully be many more encounters of this majestic fourplex.  Four units in one building only appreciating

in value as the years go by. A sliding scale of power from the peaks of

arpeggios diving into the depths of the lower register with perfect entry; 10,

a perfect score! The evening was organic magic and the music lifted off of the

page like sunshine, water, cool breezes and enriching soil nourishing a field

of its flowers.

 

Click Picture to hear an interview with Gerald Clayton and LeRoy Downs

“Live with the Jazzcat“

Hello all, this is LeRoy Downs and each week I will broadcast a live 15 minute segment every Tuesday at 5:15 PM PST on KRMLradio.com and 1410 AM KRML radio in beautiful Carmel California.

Gary

Hamada ,who is a director at KRML Jazz and Blues station, has taken me

on to do a weekly segment that I am sure your are going to enjoy! He

has one hour show Monday thru Friday called

“For Locals Only“.

On each Tuesday of the month @ 5:15 for about 15 to 20 minutes, Gary will turn it over to me for a segment of

“Live with The Jazzcat“

Each week there will be an interview of someone special and wonderful in this beautiful art form we call jazz.

I will see you there!