Funny Jazz Talk- Live Jazz and Comedy!
Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97214, USA
Have you heard the word? The joint is jumpin’ every 4th Saturday at 10pm. Hosted by cool cats Ross Passeck and James Hartenfeld and featuring some real hip hepsters. Dust off your zoot suits and come dig on some razzin’ stand-up comedy, goofin’ improv and slick storytelling, backed up by a smokin’ hot live jazz band!
Show on the fourth Saturday of every month.
Lineup: TBA
Doors 9:30 /showtime 10:00
More info here.
Ron Steen Jam
The 1905, 830 N Shaver St, Portland, OR 97227, USA
Cover charge optional for participants.
Food & beverage minimums still apply.
George Colligan, Organ
Jack Radsliff, Guitar
Ron Steen, Drums
Tickets available here.Christopher Brown Quartet
The 1905, 830 N Shaver St, Portland, OR 97227, USA
John Nastos, Alto Saxophone
Greg Goebel, Piano
Garrett Baxter, Bass
Christopher Brown, Drums
7pm and 9pm shows: Quartet
Tickets available here.ArtDontSleep, Mississippi Studios, Soul'd Out & KMHD present JAZZ IS DEAD: HERMETO PASCOAL
Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97227, USA
Few musicians have ever reach the stature of Hermeto Pascoal. A true maestro and a cultural icon, he represents the highest level of musical evolution; as a multi-instrumentalist, as a composer and as an arranger.Hermeto is a Brazilian legend. He has worked with the greatest of the greats, such as: Milton Nascimento, Tim Maia, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and countless others. He first gained public attention in 1971 after performing and recording with Miles Davis on the Live/Evil album, of which Miles said, “Hermeto is one of the most important musicians on the planet.” There is good reason (beyond his Gandalf-like appearance) why he is known as "O Bruxo" (the Wizard). Long before Miles, he was performing and collabing with the likes of Edu Lobo and Elis Regina. Later collaborations involved fellow Brazilian musicians Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. From the late 1970s onward, he has mostly led his own groups, playing at many prestigious venues, such as the Montruex Jazz Festival in 1979.
Pascoal often makes music with unconventional objects such as teapots, children's toys, and animals, as well as keyboards, button accordions, melodica, saxophones, guitars, flutes, voices, various brass and folkloric instruments. He uses nature as a basis for his compositions, as in his Música da Lagoa, in which the musicians burble water and play flutes while immersed in a lagoon: a Brazilian television broadcast from 1999 showed him soloing at one point by singing into a cup with his mouth partially submerged in water. Folk music from rural Brazil is another important influence in his work.
Tickets avaiable here.
-PDX Jazz Thursdays at The Hoxton: Christopher Brown Trio
Lovely Rita, 15 NW 4th Ave, Portland, OR 97209, USA
Multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, and educator Christopher Brown is a Portland native who returned home after 17 years between the Marine Corps and the NYC Jazz scene back in 2012. And since then he has not only retired from the military (Army National Guard), but both he and his band have helped to set a very strong precedent for excellence among bands of any genre throughout the state of Oregon, becoming Portland's busiest Jazz group as of January 2017. Currently Christopher leads the Metropolitan Youth Symphony's (MYS) Jazz program, in addition to serving as the drum instructor within Portland State University's Jazz department. And as of January 2023, Christopher has helped to co-create and teach a new course offering within the MBA program at PSU entitled "Business Innovation Through Jazz Improvisation."
Notable performances include work with artists such as: Beyoncé, Branford Marsalis, Delfeyao Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Dave Liebman, John Pattitucci, Gary Bartz, Esperanza Spalding, Paquito D'Rivera, Gerald Clayton, Sean Jones, Ralph Bowen, Vincent Herring, George Colligan, Darrell Grant, Mel Brown, Conrad Herwig, David Sanborn, Don Alias, Geoff Keezer, James Genus, Onaje Allen Gumbs, Stanley Cowell, Vic Juris, Bobby Watson, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Steve Turre, Ronnie Mathews, Antonio Hart, Don Braden, John Lee, Chuck Israels, Aaron Goldberg, Ben Williams, Kamasi Washington, Victor Goines, Lonnie Plaxico, Orrin Evans, Randy Brecker, Charles Fambrough, Javon Jackson, Marquis Hill, Cyrus Chestnut, Terry Gibbs, Buddy DeFranco, Ben Wolfe, and many more.
Outside of music, Christopher serves on the Ambassador Council board for Portland's Habitat for Humanity, as well as a board called TASTE: United for Equity, which is an organization that exists to highlight and financially support businesses and organizations throughout the Portland Metro area that excel within their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And lastly, Christopher owns an ecommerce health and wellness business called Kono Solutions, which exists to help equip musicians with useful strategies and products for responding to the physical and mental stressors often associated with such a lifestyle.
Tickets avaialble here.The Most, The All of It: Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble w/ Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani
The Old Church Concert Hall, 1422 SW 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97201, USA
On Friday, May 19, 2023, at The Old Church, PJCE and Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani team up to curate an evening of music and spoken word that sets the artists free to inspire, to rejuvenate, and to provoke reflection. Mojgani and PJCE will pair Portland-based performing poets and composers to work with the 12-member jazz ensemble in a concert featuring a cross-section of composers representing many corners of the Portland poetry and jazz scenes. The title of the show comes from an essay about jazz by Langston Hughes on jazz who said:
“Jazz is a great big sea. It washes up all kinds of fish and shells and spume and waves with a steady old beat, or off-beat. And Louis must be getting old if he thinks J. J. and Kai—and even Elvis—didn’t come out of the same sea he came out of, too…The sun pulls the moon. The moon pulls the sea. They also pull jazz and me. Beyond Kai to Count to Lonnie to Texas Red, beyond June to Sarah to Billy to Bessie to Ma Rainey. And the Most is the It—the all of it.”
Tickets available here.
Soul'd Out Presents Brian Jackson w/ greaterkind
The Jack London Revue, 529 SW 4th Ave, Portland, OR 97204, USA
BRIAN JACKSON
One- half of the legendary duo Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson, Brian began his career at an early age, having recordednine albums by his 27th birthday. He is widely thought of as one of the forefathers of neo-soul and modern hip hop, prompting New Yorker Magazine in a 2022article to call him“a musical pioneer.” His latest albums include a collaboration with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, in 2021 and the 2022 release, This Is Brian Jackson(BBE Music), which has met critical acclaim, earning spots in Mojo magazine’s “Highest Rated Albums of 2022“listand the New York Times’ February 2022 playlist. Defying categorization, Brian works with artists as diverse as Ron Carter, Roy Ayers, Gregory Porter, Alabama 3, Digable Planets, Bobbi Humphrey and many others. Brian’s catalogue has been a source of sample material for decades, among them artists such as Tupac, Common and Kendrick Lamar.Brian sees himself as a student of what he calls "The Tradition,” a timeless set of mostly unspoken guidelines passed on for generations by West African griots. He continually makes the choice to put his music at the service of social and/or political messages, focusing on what brings us together rather than what separates us. His ultimate creative goal is to inspire younger artists to do the same.Brian holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Long Island University and has held professorships at both Long Island University and York College. He regularly offers masterclasses stateside and abroad.In May 2022, Brian was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Awards, in London, England.
"A musical pioneer.” -Sheldon Pearce, The NewYorker
greaterkind was formed in Portland, OR in by friends on a mission to spread love and inclusivity through the medium of music. Channeling elements of jazz fusion and funk with undertones of R&B, gospel and hip hop, greaterkind sets out to do something new. A product of playing together in numerous live situations, greaterkind’s music is rooted in improvisation which brings a different and special energy to each show. Space and creation is key to process. Since their conception, greaterkind has enjoyed the opportunity to back internationally acclaimed artists such as The Hamiltones, Judith Hill and Brian Jackson. The band includes Charlie Brown (keyboards), Ian Michael Lindsay (bass/vocals), Cory Limuaco (drums), and Peter Knudsen (guitar/vocals). *In the absence of Peter for the evening, Young talent Torrance Edwards Jr. will be filling in on guitar. *
Tickets Available here.Soul'd Out Presents FUTURENOT
The Jack London Revue, 529 SW 4th Ave, Portland, OR 97204, USA
FUTURENOT is the culmination of work that Jason Cressey (True Loves, Monophonics) and Peter Daniel (45th St Brass) began 10 years ago. The two met performing together in Seattle and quickly started collaborating on original music. As their respective careers developed, they have continued to find themselves performing together, making time to stay friends and write music. The title of their debut album “Greatest Hits” (Color Red Records) is more than just a tongue-in-cheek joke about a first release; it is a reference to how they drew from that material to create this collection. “The Pacific Northwest has engendered a slew of pioneering musicians from Hendrix, Heart and Pearl Jam to Nirvana, Queensryche and Soundgarden. Greatest Hits (Color Red), by Futurenot, hits all the bases.” (Goldmine Magazine) Band members have performed both together and separately with Macklemore, Odesza, Father John Misty, Monophonics, Durand Jones & the Indications, Stanton Moore, Ghost Note and many more.
Tickets avaialble here.JEAN-MICHEL BLAIS aubades Quartet PDX JAZZ SPRING CONCERT
The Old Church Concert Hall, 1422 SW 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97201, USA
Jean-Michel Blais is a pianist-composer-performer based in Montreal.
In September 2021, Blais released aubades, on which for the first time, he wrote for chamber orchestra, thus moving from a simple pianist to an assumed composer. Thus was born aubades, an album named after the Middle Ages notion of romantic music written for dawn and daybreak, performed by troubadours under the windows of others. With this new record, Jean-Michel Blais has created 11 aubades for 12 musicians, all of which celebrate rebirth, a season in bloom and the expectation of a new day to come.
“Music has this ability to create a time and space and a place where people are able to heal themselves. This album bears a lot of joy and hope. I think I was writing my own medication and self-therapy, writing the joy that I needed at that particular time. I can’t wait to share it with people.”
aubades marks the Montreal-born musician’s transition from pianist to composer, as he writes for an ensemble for the first time in his career. Written during the pandemic and following a breakup, Blais has used his distinctive musical voice to create a defiantly uplifting record with glistening instrumental textures and warm major tonalities.
Tickets available here.
Madison McFerrin
Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St, Portland, OR 97214, USA
Throughout her fruitful independent career, Madison McFerrin has earned accolades from NYT, NPR, FADER, and Pitchfork, who named her a Rising Artist in 2018. Her genre-bending style led to Questlove dubbing her early sound “soul-appella.” In addition to a stirring performance on the renowned COLORS Studio, Madison has also performed at Central Park SummerStage and BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, and shared stages with the likes of De La Soul, Gallant, and The Roots. Off the stage, Madison’s music has been featured in episodes of Broad City and Random Acts of Flyness. Working at the intersection of artistry and community building, Madison co-curated the BRIC Jazz Festival in 2021, and in 2022, aligned her MAD LOVE initiative with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy to provide some much needed space for healing from the collective trauma of the pandemic. Last fall, she mesmerized crowds with sold out shows in London and Paris during her EU tour and made her debut at the Corona Capital Festival after releasing, "Stay Away (From Me)," which she performed live on The Colbert Show's #LATESHOWMEMUSIC series. Ahead of releasing new music in 2023, she has blown away sold out crowds in NYC and LA
Tickets available here.