JAZZ FM 88.5 - "Erie's Jazz Station" - www.ErieRadio.com

Sammy Deleon/Jackie Warren Latin Jazz Sextet
w/ Nelson Orta-bongoes, Noel Quintana-congas,
Elmer Orocho-bass, & Joe Miller-trumpet.
Sunday, March 22
7 PM
$10

Sammy DeLeon
Sammy DeLeon a master timbales player has shared his talent far and wide. He has appeared in New York, Chicago, Miami, San Juan and points in between. He is the undisputed leader in latin music in the Ohio area. Formerly the musical director of Impacto Nuevo, Sammy has been leading his own group since 1996. Equally adept in latin jazz, salsa and merengue, Sammy and his Orchestra make it hard for an audience to sit still. DeLeon has shared the stage with many stars of latin jazz. He opened up for the late Tito Puente several times in Cleveland and New York City and was a favorite of the late master. Sammy has collaborated with many of the leading latin musicians throughout the world. They include Humberto Ramirez, Tony Vega, El Gran Combo, and Tito Rojas. Latin music has enjoyed a great revival in Northeast Ohio thanks to the leadership of Sammy DeLeon and his dynamic Orchestra.

Jackie Warren
Jackie Warren is one of the most in demand and prolific jazz artists working in the Great Lakes region. On any given night she can be found playing solo, leading her trio, or she may be heard as the featured soloist and arranger for Sammy DeLeon's Salsa and Latin-Jazz ensemble. Jackie is also a professor of music at Tri-C and has several private students. Jackie gets calls constantly from vocalists who want her to back them, and she is frequently called on to guest with national artists. In the past few years Jackie has performed with David "Fathead" Newman, Bobby Watson, Jane Bunnett, and Gerald Wilson. Her arrangements can be heard on Sammy DeLeon's new CD, and recently she recorded a session in collaboration with the legendary producer Tommy LiPuma.

Featured in the group will be Sammy DeLeon on timbales, Jackie Warren on keyboards, Nelson Orta on bongos, Elmer Orocho on bass, and Joe Miller on trumpet. Don't miss one of NE Ohio's premier latin groups, Sammy DeLeon Y Su Orquesta featuring Jackie Warren at Nighttown on Sunday March 22nd.

http://www.sammydeleonorchestra.com/

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Masters of Guitar Series in Association with ROAM

Hot Club of Detroit
with Special Guest Frank Vignolla (guitar) and Zach Brock (violin)
Thursday March 26
8PM
$20

Back in 1930s Paris, the Hot Club de France kept music fans jumping and dance floors filled to their intricate and lively brand of gypsy jazz. In 21st century Detroit, the fans are jumpin' and the dance floors are filled, this time to the sound of the Hot Club of Detroit, an electrifying and visionary ensemble that takes the traditions pioneered by Django Reinhardt and company and spins them in a way that's both reverent and refreshingly contemporary.

As guitarist and group leader Evan Perri explains, "We want to spread the music and keep the gypsy spirit alive. But we're from Detroit. Our influences come from stuff we grew up listening to here in Detroit. We just want to make music that's true to the spirit of Django but that's also true to ourselves."

The first recorded document of that philosophy is "Hot Club of Detroit", a 13-song collection and brimming with the energy and focus of a band honed to truly hot form. The repertoire is also a testament to their breadth and stylistic facility. The album certainly has its share of Reinhardt favorites "Nuages", "Belleville", "Stompin' at Decca", "Anouman" - but it also includes selections by Fapy Lafertin ("Aurore"), Wes Montgomery ("Leila"), Antonio Carlos Jobim ("How Insensitive") and Fats Waller ("Honeysuckle Rose"), as well as two Perri originals - "Swing One" and a variation on the theme from "The Godfather".

Currently The Hot Club of Detroit is touring behind their brand new Mack Avenue CD
"Night Town" which features the new composition "Night Town" by Evan Perri. The composition and album title were inspired by the Hot Club's past successful engagements at Nighttown. The record was recorded in a studio right here in Cleveland. Nighttown is proud to be playing an integral role in the ascent of this great new group.

Hot Club has been playing since 2003. The son of a jazz guitarist, Perri played bass as a youth growing up in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe before picking up guitar when he was 18 and soaking up influences such as Jerry Garcia, John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra and the improvisation-oriented rock band Phish. It was something I've never done before," Perri says of Reinhardt's complex style, all the more remarkable because a 1928 accident had left him with just three functioning fingers on his left hand. "It was such a challenge it drew me to it. It was harder than anything I've ever studied. Gypsy jazz is the hardest music I ever tried to play. I think people stayed away because it was so difficult to understand, but that's what drew me to it, having a good challenge like that."

Special Guest Frank Vignolla
Frank, when pronouncing his musical intentions at age 6, was gifted with his grandmother's vintage D'Angelico New Yorker guitar as well as records by Les Paul, and Bucky Pizzarelli, not to mention a stack of Django Reinhardt 48s he would quickly master. Frank also laid claim to the banjo and was crowned the Grand National Banjo Champion of Canada at 13 years old. From early on his influences were diverse, ranging from Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass and Les Paul to Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen and Bach. While still in his teens, Vignola was regarded as one of the top musicians in New York. He's been a bandleader with Concord Jazz, Acoustic Disc and Nagel-Heyer and spent many years as Les Pauls trusty side as well as guitar slinger in Mark O'Connors Hot Trio. Many Clevelanders will remember Frank Vignolla from his fantastic as well as humorous group, "The Frank and Joe Show" which also featured Joe Ascione on percussion.

Special Guest Zach Brock
Throughout the first ten years of his career as a jazz violinist, Zach Brock has shunned conventional notions of his instrument's role in the jazz idiom. He has been heralded by Blue Note artist and MacArthur Grant recipient Patricia Barber as "the one on whom to place your bets in jazz" and lionized as "the great bright hope for jazz violin" by the Chicago Tribune. Brock's wide-ranging accomplishments as a performer, composer, bandleader, and producer place him in the company of today's leading independent jazz innovators.

Brock's latest creative project emerges from his role in the upcoming independent documentary film “Passion," a tribute to the late Polish virtuoso jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert, produced and directed by Erin Harper. This new project offers a fresh take on the music of Seifert while presenting new music and arrangements by Brock that are inspired by the late violinist’s life and work, as well as Brock’s own personal journey during the filming of the documentary.

Brock's arrival on the international jazz scene is a culmination of five years with his first ensemble, The Coffee Achievers. Originally convened for Brock's debut recording, The Coffee Achievers progressed from a circuit of Midwest jazz clubs to performing at the Tudo e Jazz Festival in Ouro Preto, Brazil. The group also produced three recordings and a live DVD on Brock's own label, Secret Fort Records.

The education organization, Roots of American Music (ROAM), continues its new “Masters of Guitar” series with Nighttown. The fifth show in the series will feature the Hot Club of Detroit with special guests Frank Vignola and Zach Brock.

The Masters of Guitar series highlights master musicians from around the US and beyond. Not limited to any genre, the series showcases solo and duo guitarists in the styles of acoustic blues, Appalachian, bluegrass, classical, flamenco, Brazilian and jazz.

ROAM is dedicated to preserving and promoting an appreciation of American roots music and how it reflects the spirit and history of our country. Founded in 1999, ROAM provides teaching artists to K-12 classrooms to enrich not only music and social studies, but also language arts and literacy curriculum through live musical performance and hands-on activities, with long-term residencies and one-time assemblies. Each year, ROAM reaches more than 40,000 students in 36 school districts.

Don't miss the Hot Club of Detroit with special guest Frank Vignolla on Thursday March 26.

http://www.myspace.com/hotclubofdetroit

http://www.zachbrock.com/

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From Austin, Texas
Dan Dyer
Sunday March 29
7PM
$10

Dan Dyer's "Love Chain"

Dan Dyer greets his second decade as a musician with a self-titled album. From this soul-revivalist recording, produced out of an old snake-charmer church turned studio on the East side of Austin, emerges a spooky, diaphanous, and bright release drawn from an ever-deepening soul.

After many years of back-to-back releases and touring, Dyer took a few years to winter from performing - living in St. Louis, raising a family, and writing tunes for commercials. Sensing a need to return to his roots as a musician, in 2006 he started making trips to Austin, his musical birthplace, to seek out some old friends and resume his career. Dyer quickly reconnected with producer David Boyle, whose recently restored studio on the East side functioned as the perfect backdrop to the otherworldly atmosphere he desired.

As Dyer put his story down to lyric, Boyle assembled the cast of musicians who appear on the album. Contributors include Suzanna Choffel on “Play On Little Children,” the Austin-based Mt. Zion Baptist Church choir on “Love Chain,” and John Nelson of Thievery Corporation on “Who I Am”. Throughout the album other Austin mainstays, like Stephen Bruton, Scrappy Judd Newcombe, and George Reiff, also play. The resulting compositions feel rich and complete, layered together to sound like an entirely new style of soul music.

The effort has a strong, underlying cadence that ties the album together, and entices one to discover the many intrinsic subtleties. From the chain-gang inspired “Love Chain” to the gospel-tinged “I Walk On Guilded Splinters”; from the Stewart Copeland-esque syncopations of “Play On Little Children” to the Brazilian-dance hall inspired “Who I Am”, Dyer and Boyle weave a diverse fabric that extends beyond conventional musical boundaries

Coming from humble beginnings in small East Texas town, Dyer found solace early on listening to country icons broadcast on AM radio. Only during college did he discover his love for singing and began honing his skills as a songwriter and musician. His first band, Breedlove, exploded on the Austin music scene in the late 90s with their debut album Reach Out. Next, after a bit of a “New York education,” he collaborated with veteran rock legend Lenny Kravitz, who produced and released Dyer’s first solo album …Of What Lies Beneath on Kravitz’s Reprise imprint label Roxie Records.

For the current release, Dyer finds inspiration from long-time soul artists like Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway. And, after seasons spent in New Orleans and the South, Dyer’s version of “I Walk on Guilded Splinters” pays homage to Dr. John, who created an entirely new on-stage persona for his audiences. “I respect the originality of an artist like Dr. John,” says Dyer. “He created a persona to use as an agent of fearlessness.”

With this third self-titled release a similar change is taking place with Dyer’s voodoo-centric stage persona. There is always music in the haunts of Dyer’s wandering soul, his own melodious character filled with a talent that is impossible to chase away.

Don't miss the Cleveland debut of Dan Dyer at Nighttown on Sunday March 29.

www.dandyer.com

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Stephen Greenman's Klezmer Ensemble
Featuring: Steven Greenman: Violin; Walter Mahovlich: Accordion/clarinet;
Alexander Fedoriouk: Cimbalom; Mark Rubin: String Bass
Sunday, April 5
7 PM
$10.

Stephen Greenmans Klezmer Ensemble plays traditional Jewish and Gypsy music from Eastern Europe. The group features and All-Star Cast of International performers. They are:

Steven Greenman (violin) is recognized internationally as one of the finest practitioners of traditional East European Jewish klezmer violin. As a composer of klezmer music he is producer and lead performer for the recording Stempenyu's Dream which contains his original Jewish and klezmer compositions. A co-founder of the Khevrisa ensemble together with Walter Zev Feldman, Steven is also co-producer and lead performer of the recording Khevrisa-European Klezmer Music on the Smithsonian Folkways label. Steven currently leads the Stempenyu's Dream ensemble, Di Tsvey and the Steven Greenman Klezmer Ensemble. He has taught klezmer music at KlezKamp, KlezKanada, KlezFest London, Internationales Klezmer Festival Fuerth and Klezmer Wochen Weimar and has performed at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland and at Toronto's Ashkenaz-A Festival of New Yiddish Culture. In addition to klezmer music Steven is an accomplished performer of Hungarian nota, Romanian lautari music and urban East European Gypsy music and is a co-founder and performer with the ensemble Harmonia. As a concert performer Steven has been a guest soloist with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, the Canton Symphony and the Akron Symphony performing his own arrangements of traditional East European Gypsy violin music and klezmer music.

Walt Mahovlich (accordion/clarinet) got his start at the age of 19 playing Croatian and Macedonian weddings with traditional village musicians and began playing klezmer music in 1973. He has played frequent concert tours throughout Europe and North America. A featured artist at the Smithsonian's 1976 Festival of American Folklife, he has performed at Smotra Foklora in Zagreb, Croatia as well as in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Currently, Walt leads the East Euopean folk groups Harmonia and Turli Tava.

Alexander Fedoriouk (Cimbalom) began playing the cimbalom at the age of 7 in his home-town of Kolomyia, Ukraine. Growing up in the Carpathian mountains, he played at weddings in mountain villages in Ukraine and Moldavia. He studied music at the Kolomyia Music School, Chernivsty Musical College and received his Bachelor's degree in music from The Kiev State Conservatory. He has performed as a soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra Youth, Pittsburgh Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Johnstown Symphony, The Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Cleveland State University Symphony Orchestra, The Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, The Duquesne University Tamburitzans and Cheres. He has recorded with Nigel Pulsford of Bush, legendary jazz flautist Herbie Mann and performed in Carnegie Hall with John Cale of the Velvet Underground.

Mark Rubin (bass/tuba) was born to musician parents who met on the University of Arizona marching band and nurtured their son's connection to Judaism and his eclectic musical tastes. A life long musician, the multi-talented Rubin is reknown as one of the America's most versatile sidemen, adept at a variety of musical style and traditions. He was the founder of the seminal American Alt-Folk pioneers The Bad Livers as well as an in-demand sideman on the Texas honky tonk and ethnic dancehall scene. He has also produced music for two major motion pictures, writes regularly for publication, hosted a popular late night radio program in Austin for nearly a decade and has produced dozens of American folk music CD's. Mark is an experienced Klezmer bass and tuba player having played with a virtual who's-who of the modern Jewish music scene.

Don't miss Stephen Greenman's All-Star Klezmer Ensemble playin traditional Jewish and Gypsy Music from Eastern Europe Live at Nighttown on Sunday, April 5th.

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Hungry First Monday
Starting Monday April 6

Nighttown will donate $5 from every meal.

Beginning on Monday, April 6, Nighttown restaurant will donate $5 from every meal served at the restaurant on the first Monday of each month to Harvest for Hunger and the Cleveland Foodbank. This “Hungry First Monday” promotion will continue throughout the year on the first Monday of every month.

“We are going through extraordinary times and those who have should help out those who have not. Giving up a little of our profit just seems like the right thing to do,” said Brendan Ring, owner of Nighttown, who estimated that the 9 month “Hungry First Monday” promotion could net as much as $15,000 “if people come out in droves”. When asked where this idea came from, he said, “I recently read an article in the New York Times that said ‘working-class people who suddenly lose jobs or homes often find themselves at sea, unsure how to navigate the system or ashamed to seek help. We must all step up to the plate,” said Ring, who became an American citizen last summer.

Nighttown’s business neighbors are also chipping in. The Cedar Fairmount Merchants have decided to join Nighttown in donating to the Cleveland Food Bank. As of this press release, the following businesses will donate $1.00 for every sale over $10.00 on the first Monday or first Tuesday of each month. (some are closed on Mondays): Appletree Books, Abstract Hair Design, C.L. Barber Salon and Hang It Up Archival Framing. Other shops are expected to soon join in.

“As the need for food continues to increase in our area, a promotion like this is a wonderful, grass-roots effort to get the community involved." said Anne Goodman, Executive Director of Cleveland Foodbank. "Hunger is a serious and urgent problem in our community. Thankfully, kindness and compassion are hallmarks of Greater Clevelanders.”

All Hungry Monday donations will go to Harvest for Hunger, an annual, 21-county food and funds drive that takes place each March and is organized by the Cleveland Foodbank. The Foodbank provides food and critical nonfood products to local nonprofit agencies which serve hungry individuals across northeast Ohio. For more information, visit www.clevelandfoodbank.org.

Join us on Monday April 6 and subsequent first Mondays of each month through the end of the year for "Hungry First Monday" at Nighttown.

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** denotes recent additions or changes to the schedule

** Sun March 22 Sammy DeLeon/Jackie Warren Latin Jazz Sextet 7 PM $10.
Latin Jazz at it's best featuring Timbale master Sammy DeLeon, and the dynamic piano of Jackie WarrenW/: Joe Miller-trumpet, Nelson Orta-percussion, & Elmer Orocho-bass.

Thurs, March 26 Hot Club of Detroit with special guest Frank Vignola 8 PM $20.
Gypsy Django Reinhardt inspired jazz with Mack Avenue recording
http://www.hotclubofdetroit.com/
The Making of "Night Town"

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

This Week At The Iridium Jazz Club

Events at Nighttown: Hot Club with Frank Vignola, Cleveland Film Fest

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