Syracuse Ska Forum

I already posted this on one of the syracuse hxc boards, but if you haven't already seen it...

As of this friday my trio will be taking over the weekly Jazz Jam at the Coffee Pavilion in Hanover Square. It runs 9-12 every friday, come on out and listen (and if you play jazz/funk/latin/fusion/bop shit, bring your instrument, or use the house drums, keys, or my bass if appropriate). There's no cover, and you may find that you dig it.

And don't mistake this for some lame "let's all dress up and play shitty renditions of Benny Goodman songs" show, everybody I know who plays jazz in the area puts their heart and soul into what they play. You're never gonna find someone at this session who is doing it to be fashionable, is what I'm saying. We definitely turn the balls to eleven and put as much feeling into it as most of the hxc locals, even if there's no moshing (feel free to f*ck start some).

Most of the people who come down are between 16 and 20, but are killer players. There's a lot of untapped jazz talent around here. The regular piano player is in California studying with Dave Brubeck right now, but our fill in won't disappoint.

So yo come on down, we play anything and everything.

More commonly in Rochester, we get pseudointellectuals who want to be the next John Zorn or Ornette Coleman, but delight in breaking the rules for the sake of breaking them, instead of developing the musical grounding necessary to purposefully push the boundaries.

In contrast, a bad rendition of "And the Angels Sing" would be a welcome change.

Free jazz is not an excuse to stop practicing!

< /rant>

i am very much into jazz. too bad i can't play jazz. i played sax for about 9 years, but once i hit college it kinda dwindled off. i'll agree with you that the syracuse jazz scene is smokin. a lot really talented young kids in this town. its unfortunate that syracuse in general sucks, because once they get old enough i guarantee they're all hit the road. syracuse does not have too many great adult players, so we don't have the greatest jazz scene. i've swung by coffee pavillion on fridays and its great, but there are not too many other opportunities to see other jazz accept for the occasional festival. by the way jazz fest and jazz in the square were absolutely great this year. the late night jazz jams at jazz central after jazz in the square were really great. i guess i'm just kinda spoiled cause wehn i lived in burlington vt you could find live jazz pretty much any night of the week in addition to the high quality jazz concerts that came through town on regualar occasions. but i'll have to say that syracuse has the best jazz radio station EVER. i listen to jazz 88 pretty much all day at work. waaay better than tk99 or hot 107.9. only radio station to even come close in quality is 93Q!

go go gergie signing off.

ps. django reinhart and the duke ellington orchestra played together in syracuse in 49 i think, or whenever django did his only us tour.

Oh man, Jazz Jam Showcase at the Coffee Pavilion rocks dude. I've seen you down there once or twice, Spencer. Your trio taking over sounds cool. As soon as I have my license I'll be down there every week I can get down there, they people who show up there are AMAZING.

Man, I can't WAIT to go catch Dave Brubeck at the Civic Center in September. That's gonna be freakin' sweet.

I hate you

Very cool. I'll try to make a point to come check it out sometime.

I'm curious Spencer, have you heard any of the better ska-jazz outfits yet? Bands like NY Ska-Jazz Ensemble, Eastern Standard Time, The Articles, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, St Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review, etc. etc.??? I'd be curious what you think of any of them.

The Articles played Syracuse a few times and it was always killer ska-jazz improv. I have some recordings if you're ever curious ...

as for ska jazz, or reggae jazz - i would definately recommend earnest ranglin and monty alexander. check out "below the bassline" or "rocksteady". absolutely amazing reggae jazz. earnest ranglin is one of the innovators in ska music. he actually composed "my boy lollipop" which was performed by millie smalls and was the first big ska hit in the US

go go gergie signing off.

Dude I would LOVE to hear that shit.



If you do not already have tickets, don't bother buying them. Something like $50 for the lowest priced seats. I saw him at SPAC for Freihofer's Jazz fest. Both his set and Mccoy Tyner's set were kind of static. Neither of them are really tearing it up in their old age. But on the other hand, he's dave brubeck, he is the singlemost reason (and I'm excluding Bela Bartok's influence on this one) that I can play math rock. So I don't know. The sax player was f*ck sick for brubeck, as were the horns for Mccoy Tyner (Ravi Coltrane and THE MAN- Terell Stafford).

back in february our high school jazz band went up to the crane school of music for a few days to perform and to see the pat metheny group. They are a cool jazz group with a really unique sound. Pat Metheny is probably one of the greatest guitar players i have ever heard. they play some really cool stuff.

http://www.patmethenygroup.com

we'll judging by my avatar......

No effing way dude. I'm totally and completely jealous. Honestly.

I must say though, Rosie and I went to see Maynard Ferguson with my Dad last spring.. I think it was at Fabius-Pompey High School, and that was pretty sweet. I think Jon of MG was there too, right Jon?

I wish I coulda been around back in the 30s for greats like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong and Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Now, THAT would be awesome.

No dude, I don't have my tickets yet. I mean, they're expensive, but it IS Dave Brubeck, and even if he isn't doing so well, it still is Dave Brubeck. It'd be cool to be able to say to my kids and/or nieces and nephews some day that I saw him, assuming that they're into jazz, which they will be if they spend ANY time with me what-so-ever.

Darling, would you like to come with me? I'll pick you up and drive us back here if you want. Or if you get a bus one way, I'll drive you home.

Let me know, I'm totally up for it. And I totally owe you one.

If you think that there aren't many good jazz musicians in this city you are SORELY mistaken. You just have to find them. Syracuse Suds Factory has jazz EVERY WEDNESDAY with great musicians playing all the time. I play there once a month with a great big band. Plus there are many other places and shows, you just have to find them. There are 2 big bands, and many many many groups around town that play jazz. I played jazz fest with the Evan Knight Band this year in front of 22,000 people! If that doesn't say something about the scene I don't know what does. I learned jazz before I learned ska. Oh and honestly, I never got into the ska-jazz mix. For whatever reason I've found most bands that try and mix the 2 have NO IDEA how to play jazz whatsoever, especially on the solo/improv perspective. They claim they are playing jazz and they're really not. You guys might laugh at this, but believe it or not, the best jazz musicians I've ever heard play ska are the guys in Hepcat. If you listen to the way they solo, you can tell they are jazz trained 1st, not ska trained 1st. Does this make sense to anyone else?

More commonly in Rochester, we get pseudointellectuals who want to be the next John Zorn or Ornette Coleman, but delight in breaking the rules for the sake of breaking them, instead of developing the musical grounding necessary to purposefully push the boundaries.
< /rant>[/quote]

OH MY GOD...that was very profound...didn't i hear you have a cult following in South America?