Soul Rebels, Samara Joy to Headline Albany Jazz Festival Saturday

Albany’s annual Riverfront Jazz Festival will feature five ensembles at the Jennings Landing performance space at the Corning Preserve this Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022.

The acts performing include The Soul Rebels, Samara Joy, Black Tie Brass, Charged Particles, and the Teresa Broadwell Quartet.

Headliners The Soul Rebels have been touring internationally for some years. They’ve appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on National Public Radio’s “Tiny Desk Concert” series. The Soul Rebels collaborated with, or opened for, jazz, rock, rhythm & blues and hip-hop acts ranging from Nas to Robert Glasper to Metallica.

“The Soul Rebels started with an idea—to expand upon the pop music they loved on the radio and the New Orleans brass tradition they grew up on,” the group’s website states. “They took that tradition and blended funk and soul with elements of hip hop, jazz and rock, all within a brass-band context.”

The Soul Rebels are the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong,” according to the Village Voice, as quoted on the Rebels’ site.

Still in her early 20s, Samara Joy won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2019. She grew up in The Bronx, in a musical family: Her parents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, led a Philadelphia-based gospel group, and her father toured with gospel artist Andrae Crouch, according to showbizcorner.com.

Information on her newest releases and touring schedule are at samarajoy.com.

Active since 2013, Black Tie Brass are a jazz/funk band from New York City. “Drawing from many genres such as jazz, funk, pop, R&B and hip-hop, they create a fulfilling musical experience for performer and listener,” according to blacktiebrass.com.

Charged Particles released their first album in 1994. Ensemble members Murray Low (keyboards), Aaron Germain (acoustic and electric bass) and Jon Krosnick (drums) focus on a “funky Latin jazz repertoire, blending in elements of classical music, mixing complex orchestration with freewheeling improvisation. The band brings a similar approach to playing their own arrangements of jazz standards, each played with a new twist,” according to charged particles.com.

Based in the Albany, N.Y. region, the Teresa Broadwell Quartet’s leader is a vocalist and jazz violinist with degrees from the Crane School of Music and The College of Saint Rose in Albany, according to teresabroadwell.com.

Broadwell cites Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter among her vocal influences; for jazz violin, the influencers include Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti, Matt Glaser and Stephan Grappelli.

With the Teresa Broadwell Band, Broadwell recently released “Just We: Songs Inspired by Nat King Cole.”

The Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival begins at noon this Saturday and usually ends around 8 p.m. with fireworks. There is no charge for admission.

In the event of rainy weather, the festival will move to the Corning Preserve Boat Launch at Water and Colonie streets.

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The ‘Quarantine’ or ‘Pandemic’ Beard

A few years ago it became pretty clear to me that I had a tendency to let my beard grow when the real cold winter weather started, typically from late December into January, and I mostly kept it going until spring.

It was my “winter” beard.

Now, apparently, this tendency in the “before-time,” as any time before the pandemic started is widely known, has morphed into the “pandemic” or “quarantine” beard.

Think about it: All the guys out there who used to keep their faces shaved, but who no longer feel the pressure to do so. After all, what’s the difference if we no longer see many people face to face? 

Or if the lower half of a man’s face is always covered by a mask in public. (As it should be.)

The whole “winter beard” thing certainly wasn’t unique to me in the before-time, and with COVID the pandemic or quarantine beard must be even more widespread.

Enjoying a Zoom New Year’s Eve “party” recently, just about every guy there had some sort of beard action going on. One or two of the guests had a smaller set of whiskers—similar to mine. Then, another had a thick black beard that outclassed everyone. And, everyone noticed how thick it had grown.

Both the beard’s owner and others attributed it to the pandemic, yes, but then again he had also spent large amounts of time in a sound studio working on a project. So, the whole thing had the feel of a man self-isolating to concentrate on a task rather than weeks of unchecked growth from being in quarantine.

Anyway, as most guys will tell you, keeping fully shaved, or even bearded but groomed, can be a time-consuming pain. It sure is for me.

Probably why I concocted the “winter beard” thing. It’s a sort of vacation from shaving. Or at least shaving much.

To keep things simple these days, I mostly just run a small electric clipper across my face once a week or so.

Oh, I have a good manual razor and an excellent electric shaver. But, the clippers are quicker and I can leave the stubble.

That will be fine in my self-isolation. And, surveys say, many women like the scruffy look. That will come in handy if the pandemic ever ends, and if I ever show my face to a woman—or anybody for that matter—again.

Biden and Bernie

Between the two major current crises—the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge of protests against racism—and other pressing issues such environmental destruction, global warming,  income inequality and uncertainty over health care, it’s likely a lot of us would vote for whomever the Democrats run against Trump in November.

 

Presumptive nominee Joe Biden, the former vice president, might be a bit too moderate for many, but compared to his predecessor, Biden will seem like a very big breath of fresh air. Almost any Democrat would.

 

Regardless, Biden will do well to heed those urging Democrats to move away from neo-liberalism and back to their New Deal roots.

This means embracing at least some of the “Bernie” agenda.

Mr. Vice President, won’t you join me in being “about 85 percent” Bernie?

 

Why “85 percent?”

 

It’s less about the issues—I mostly agree with Bernie on those—than about the positioning, public relations and, yes, marketing.

 

I’m hardly the first to say this, but Bernie Sanders isn’t really a socialist in the Marxist sense, but a social democrat. While someone with my background knows what Bernie and his allies mean when they use the term “democratic socialist,” a lot of people don’t. And that’s the problem.

 

Many critics and opponents of Bernie Sanders are using that to convince voters Bernie is a “communist” who wants to bring about a Soviet-style or Maoist regime in the United States. They’ll liken Bernie’s agenda to regimes in North Korea or Venezuela, though those really have little to do with his philosophy.

 

Think more Denmark, Finland or Norway. And more FDR than Lenin, Mao or Castro.

 

And that’s his marketing problem, and the main reason many older Democrats didn’t want him getting the nomination.

They want to win, and the chances of Bernie winning the national election, while better now than three months ago, would have remained…chancy.

 

It’s not just the “socialist” terminology: Let’s hear Bernie (and Biden) join inequality fighter Robert Reich in acknowledging that free markets and capitalism work, but only when properly regulated—and the wealthy and corporations properly taxed and deprived of their current stranglehold on government.

 

Agreed, it’s not just Sen. Sanders who has PR problems. Along with the senior moments, gaffes and sex allegations, Biden has said or done a number of things progressives and liberals wouldn’t like. Just ask Kamala Harris and some of the other Democrats who previously ran against Biden.

 

And, as far as anyone can tell, Biden is more a neoliberal than anything else, and it’s that philosophy that has led the Democrats too far astray from their New Deal roots. And it’s a New Deal—call it “Green” or whatever else—that is needed now.

 

Let’s acknowledge that those asking for more details on what the Green New Deal will include before they can support it have a point. However, this is an unprecedented and necessary time to make change.

 

Coronavirus and pandemics in general—this could be an ongoing problem for decades to come—will demand increased research and international cooperation and aggressive action. So will the other issues: Global warming; environmental destruction; racial justice; conflict resolution among and inside many nations; income inequality; wider availability of quality health care; and employment based on an economy retooled to reflect new realities.

 

The truths of these times: There is great tragedy, anger, uncertainty and risk. And also great opportunity.

 

Lineup announced for 2019 Jazz Festival

The City of Albany’s Riverfront Jazz Festival brings different subgenres of jazz, and many different moods, to the Corning Preserve.

 

Albany, N.Y.—The Bad Plus will headline the City of Albany’s signature jazz event, its annual Riverfront Jazz Festival, on Saturday, Sept. 7.

 

First formed about 20 years ago, The Bad Plus focuses on an intense collaborative relationship among its three members, Reid Anderson (bass), Orrin Evans (piano) and Dave King (drums). The ensemble “has constantly searched for rules to break and boundaries to cross, bridging genres and techniques,” according to its website.

 

The latest album from The Bad Plus is “Never Stop II.” The trio is scheduled to start playing at about 6:30 p.m. at the festival, the usual home of which is the Jennings Landing performance space at the Corning Preserve.

Albany Jazz Festival musician saxophone player

Great musicians, some known and others just being discovered, have been a hallmark of the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival. Thanks to sponsors, admission is free.

 

Jazz Fest kicks off unusually early this year, at noon. First to go on are Charlie Apicella & Iron City. Leader Apicella is an Eastman Guitars Featured Artist, a Guild Guitars Sponsored Artist and a ZT Amplifiers Official Artist.

 

Taking the stage at about 1:30 will be the Skip Parsons Riverboat Jazz Band. Founded back in 1956, the ensemble is well known to the Capital Region’s jazz scene.

 

Coming in next at about 3 will be Black Tie Brass, described as a “horn-driven jazz/funk band” from New York City. “We combine the presence of a New Orleans brass band with the sound of a funk band to create a musically invigorating experience,” states Black Tie’s press copy.

 

Taking the stage at 4:30 p.m. and preceding the headliners will be the Dizzy Gillespie All Stars. The group’s tunes center on the music of the 1940s and 1950s, and one should expect to hear Gillespie standards such as “Birks’ Works,” “Groovin’ High,” “Salt Peanuts” and “A Night in Tunisia” among others.

 

Once again, the music begins at noon at Jennings Landing in the Corning Preserve. The 2019 Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival is a production of the City of Albany’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

 

Youthful jazz ensemble

Albany JazzFest ’16: A Reminder of Why We Love JazzFest

Hooray for this year’s City of Albany Jazz Festival!

 

Or, as it used to be called, the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival. For those new to the festival, it has been on the riverfront at the Corning Preserve for most of its 15-year history.

 

But weather, of course, doesn’t always cooperate with festivals. One year it had to be moved into the Palace Theater—and it was a good show, though it felt a little strange to us festival veterans, being inside.

 

Youthful jazz ensemble

Lucky Chops performs at the 2016 City of Albany Jazz Festival. One of the group’s less energetic moments.

 

More recently, and too often for my taste, it has ended up under the overpass behind the Albany boat launch. This year, the festival was supposed to take place in Washington Park because of construction in the Corning Preserve. That sounded like a nice change of pace: A completely different venue.

 

That was not to be. It was a minor tragedy this year that the event was, again, moved under the boat launch overpass due to a forecast of rain. The rain did show up, hours after the end of the festival.

 

In fairness to the organizers, early in the day the forecast called for rain by late afternoon, and forecasters didn’t push the rain back until later in the day. Still, under an overpass is an undignified place for a jazz festival.

 

But enough about weather and siting issues. How was the concert?

 

In a word, good.

 

Keeping with tradition, the first few acts were from the Albany area.

 

Cliff Brucker and Full Circle played a strong set of straight-ahead jazz. Don’t hesitate to hear them live, or find their music online.

 

Next was Jazz Caravan, fronted by Roger Noyes on guitar, with Tony Berman on bass guitar and James Ketterer on drums. Mostly oriented toward West Coast jazz, with a number of well-performed standards, Jazz Caravan also played some fine original compositions.

 

Find out more at jazzcaravanband.com.

traditional jazz, covers, standards but some originals as well

Roger Noyes of the Capital Region trio Jazz Caravan performs at the City of Albany Jazz Festival. The group covered some jazz standards, but also brought some original compositions into the mix.

 

The rest of the acts were New York City-based. That’s just for your information. It doesn’t matter that much: Over the years, Albany JazzFest has brought in artists from many places, including New York and other big cities, some known particularly for jazz such as Chicago and New Orleans.

 

The original headliner, New Orleans jazz great Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of a jazz dynasty, had to bow out due to illness. More on the ensemble that stepped in for him at the last minute below.

 

Next on Saturday afternoon was K.J. Denhert. Denhert and her group revved up the show with what could be termed popular jazz mixed with some folk-oriented music, and even a reggae original, “Choose Your Weapon.”

 

Denhert said she and members of her band, NY Unit, play regularly at 55 Bar on Christopher Street in the West Village. They’re worth seeing, wherever they perform. More at kjdenhert.com.

 

After Denhert, the usual stage-change quiet set in, with its boring wait (or, well, a good time to get up and get some food and drink), but that proved a perfect prelude to the eye- (and ear-) popping brass act, Lucky Chops. And boy these kids—and that’s accurate, this is a youthful group—can ro… um, swing, to use the proper jazz term.

 

They don’t just play their instruments (trombone, saxophones, trumpet, tuba) but jump, dance, gesticulate, laugh, shout, grimace, pose and just about everything else but stand still. The only one sitting, simply by necessity, was the group’s strong but possibly underappreciated drummer.

 

The members of Lucky Chops probably take their workouts as seriously as their rehearsals. Gimmick or not, all the physical activity really gets an audience going.

 

One quibble: Lucky Chops played rousing, technically excellent, spirited versions of…mostly pop tunes. The early 1980s R&B hit “Funkytown” stands out in my memory. Nothing wrong with jazz versions of pop tunes. Still, I would like to have heard rousing, technically excellent, spirited versions of some jazz selections.

 

They got the audience up, cheering, clapping and dancing, finally, in that area in front of the stage I like to call the “jazz mosh pit.” We don’t really mosh, but it’s fun to have a lot of people with me dancing or just keeping time, thrilled to watch the band play and take pictures. It also doesn’t hurt to have more young people there, jazzed about…jazz.

 

Another group worth catching again, especially if you’re feeling energetic. More info at luckychops.com.

 

After what seemed like an interminable reset break, Nicholas Payton and his band took the stage. The group, subbing at the last minute for ailing original headliner Ellis Marsalis, put on a fine set.

 

The Payton group’s jazz was in quite a different vein from that of Lucky Chops. By that, I don’t mean they played sedate music, in contrast to the extreme youthful energy of the Lucky Chops. Nicholas Payton were swinging too, very much so, just more like a traditional jazz ensemble.

 

Payton, a multi-instrumentalist better known for his work on trumpet, was on piano for this outing. Payton has also written, sometimes with considerable controversy, on music, race and politics.

 

What brought me joy was seeing that a lot of the people who rushed to the stage for Lucky Chops came back for Payton and friends, showing similar enthusiasm—even if it wasn’t as loud.

 

All told, a show the city of Albany, and the region, can look back upon with pride. Let’s hope we have many more in the future.

 

jazz, folk-jazz, 55 Bar, Greenwich Village, New York City

K.J. Denhert performs at the City of Albany Jazz Festival on Sept. 10, 2016.

payton2

Nicholas Payton (left) plays piano at the 2016 City of Albany Jazz Festival. Payton and his band were last-minute replacements for scheduled headliner Ellis Marsalis, who could not perform due to illness.