Nobu & Sachiko's Visit to New York
(April 20 - May 11, 2005)
Jazz Clubs in New York 2005.April　

以前は、頻繁にニューヨークへジャズを聞きに行っていたＮＯＢＵ さんですが、久しぶりにニューヨークへ行き、ジャズクラブ巡りをして、ジャズクラブをリポートしました。
Sachiko's親友（悪友？）がニューヨーク在住となり、彼女のお蔭でニューヨークはもっと近くに感じられる様になり、ニューヨークはより親しみのある街となりました。
ニューヨークでジャズを最大限に楽しもうと思うのであれば、６月末のJVC Jazz Festivaiの時に行くのが、ベストの時期です。
しかし、このNOBUさんのリポートの様にニューヨークはいつでもジャズが楽しめる街です。
インターネットの普及で、沢山のジャズクラブのスケジュールを事前にチェックして、短い期間でも、ある程度の予定が効率的に立てられる様になって、とても便利になりました。
では、NOBUさんのニューヨーク・ジャズクラブ・リポートをお楽しみ下さい。
少しでもニューヨークでジャズを聞いている、雰囲気＆気持ちが皆様に伝われば幸いです。
是非、皆様もニューヨークへジャズを聞きに行きましょう！！

◆April 21 (Thu.)
Richard Rogers Theatre
Musical "Moving Out"
This show was organized entirely by sole dancing on live Billy Joel hit songs. As there was no dialogue, it was quite hard to follow the story of the show. The songs were somewhat drasticlly arranged to be in line with the flow of the show so that they did not sound satisfactory to the ears of Billy Joel fans. This show was boring but might be interesting to those who have good eyes for and interest in dancing performances.
♪Dizzy's Club Coca Cola
Don Friedman (p)/ Martin Wind (b) This club is a newcomer to NYC with a very cozy atmosphere and a nice view of the Central Park and the 59th Street through the big window behind the stage. Don Friedman performed in a form of duo with bass at after hour session. He played lyrically which matched the "round midnight" moods.

◆April 22 (Fri.)
♪Village Vanguard
Carol Sloane (vo)/ Norman Simmons (p)/ Paul Bollenbeck (g)/ Steve Laspina (b)/ Tim Horner (dr) It's amazing for jazz funs like us to see this legendary jazz club is still alive and providing jazz fans from all over the world with the jazz of high quality. Carol Sloane did a performance pleasantly with her groovy quartet this night.
◆April 23 (Sat.)
♪Zinc Bar
Brazilian Bossa Jazz Night featuring Mariani (vo) This casual bar provides enjoyable nightly music with $5 cover and a drink minimum. This night music is a "hot" rock influenced Brazilian music. This kind of music would be quite a disappointment for the people like us who expect to hear "cool" bossa nova or jazz which its title "Brazilian Bossa Jazz Night" implies.

◆April 24 (Sun.)
♪North Square Lounge
Roseanna Vitro (vo)/ Joe Cohn (g)/ Dean Johnson (b) The lounge is a part of Washington Square Hotel and provides weekly Sunday Jazz Branch. The female singer did an intimate and relaxed live performance accompanied by guitar and bass for this Sunday branch session.
♪Smalls
Planet Jazz This club came back as a "neat" jazz bar after a "long?" time closure. Now it has been entirely renovated and has a full bar. Now, two drinks minimum is the must in addition to the music charge of around $10 to $15. It is very hard to believe that this is the same place as it used to be. This jam session program was a little disappointment as the jazz guitarist Peter Bernstein did not appear although the name was in the schedule.

◆April 25 (Mon.)
♪Bar 55
Ken Hatfield (g)/ Hans Glawischnig (b)/ Jeff Hirshfield (dr) This bar is still a nice and cozy place to drop in and enjoy nice music at reasonable prices. It was our regret that the guitarist Mike Stern who gigs regularly here was out of town during our stay. The performer at this night was a guitarist who played with nylon strings. He played jazz in a classical method like Laurindo Almeida and Charlie Byrd. His play was "cool" and better than we had expected.

♪Arturo's
This Italian restaurant serves nice dishes with live jazz performances. It is located near Zinc Bar. Japanese female jazz pianist Kaya plays at this restaurant regularly for early hour session on some weekdays. We missed to see her as we visited late. This time, a jazz trio led by big black pianist was doing a session.

◆April 26 (Tue.)
♪Cornelia Street Cafe
Dave Allen (g)/ Donny McCaslin (sax)/ Carlo Derosa (b)/ Mark Ferber (dr) This cafe located at "Cornelia Street" has a space for live music in its basement. These two places are essentially treated differently. It seems the cafe on the ground level serves good foods but you only can have light meals in the basement. Dave Allen named this show as a party to celebrate the release of his new CD. He was featured in the April issue of the free "All About Jazz" information paper as a promising jazz guitarist. He created a unique soft tone with his guitar.
◆April 27 (Wed.)
Palace Theatre
Musical "All Shook Up" - Matinee
This recent musical was entirely based on Elvis Presley's hit songs. The story of this love comedy was so happy and simple that every generation of audience can enjoy.

◆April 29 (Fri.)
♪Swing 46
This restaurant took over "The Red Blazer Too" premises about several years ago. The concept remains the same, i.e. both provide dancing floor and live old time swing jazz. It seems the band of the night was not a regular. It featured a female singer and played nostalgic music of the swing time era.

◆April 30 (Sat.)
♪Jazz Standard
Dena DeRose (vo/p)/ Martin Wind (b)/ Matt Wilson (dr) This subterranean spacious club is a comfortable place to enjoy live music. It also serves tasty foods including reputed BBQs. Sachiko's uggestion is smoked Kentucky BBQ. Dena is a recent "talk of the town" in NYC. She already released some CDs, the recent issue of which was featured in many of CD stores in Manhattan. She was compared to Shirley Horn and her performance in fact proved it. Dena herself looked somehow modest but the show was quite "hot" with the support of the "dynamic" back up musicians.

◆May 1 (Sun.)
♪Philip Marie
Satoshi Inoue (g)/ Toru Dodo (key) This American style cafe located in the West Village serves great foods at reasonable prices. The cafe offers Sunday Live Jazz Branch. Japanese jazz guitarist Satoshi Inoue invites his friend and does duo performances on every Sundays. This time the guest was Japanese keyboard player Toru Dodo. They played in an intimate mood and a relaxed manner to produce nice music.
♪Smoke
Sasha Dobson (vo) w/bass This club located at upper west (106th Street) has a good atmosphere and offers a series of good jazz programs. Frank (owner?) said only bar menu is available now but kitchen will be opening shortly. On Sundays, the club presents Jazz Vocalist Series in early hours (from 6pm to 8:30pm) by Carolyn Leonhart or other vocalist. We expected Carolyn but she was not booked for the night. The vocalist of the night was Sasha Dobson who sang standards with the accompaniment of base only. It wasn't that bad.

◆May 2 (Mon.)
♪Garage
The Howard Williams Jazz Orchestra with the vocal styling of Vicki Doney This restaurant located near Christopher Street is a hide out for those who want to enjoy nice cuisine with quality live jazz played by local musicians. The big band jazz was on the stage this night. This orchestra consisted of a variety of generations of musicians and guest female vocalist performed the jazz standards with orthodox arrangements. They recorded this night live session.

◆May 3 (Tue.)
♪Birdland
John Pizzarelli (vo/g)/ Ray Kennedy (p)/ Martin Pizzarelli (b)/ Tony Tedesco (dr) This club is one of the best in NYC. But its music charge at the bar counter was hiked up to $30 from $10. The $30 includes free drinks but it is still so expensive that it makes itself very inaccessible. John Pizzarelli is a real entertainer. The way he sings songs and plays his unique seven string guitar was marvelous. The $40 music charge was the highest amongst the covers we paid for jazz clubs in NYC this time. But it was worthwhile!

◆May 5 (Thu.)
♪Iridium
The Yellow Jackets Bob Mintzer (sax)/ Russel Ferante (key)/ Jimmy Haslip (b)/ Marcus Baylor (dr) This club relocated from upper west near Lincoln Center to the recent site in mid-town (the 51st Street). It properly inherited the atmosphere of the former club. Its new location is more accessible and convenient for visitors. This well-known reputed fusion group did a nice performnce that did not betray the audiences' expectations. But the show of 45 minutes was quite frustrating.
♪Joe's Pub
Mingus Orchestra This pub is a spacious place located in East Village to enjoy music at comfortable atmosphere. It lists up various kinds of music in its schedule including Japanese music like Akiko Yano and Nitta Oyako. Mingus Orchestra is a unique combination of musical instruments. In addition to regular instruments like bass, drums, guitar, it also includes bass clarinet, bassoon, tuba and the others. This 11 (?) piece band is an official project supported by Mingus' widow who made MC at the beginning and end of the sets. The performances were based on unique scores invented by late great Charles Mingus, which was quite interesting. It seems that Mingus Big Band that performs at Iridium regularly on Tuesday is another official project and is in the form of regular jazz big band.

◆May 6 (Fri.)
♪American Museum of Natural History - Rose Center
Houston Person (sax) Quartet Every first Friday, the museum holds a jazz concert at the Sphere at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. This center is a hall of vast space with meteorite exhibition and provides a very special environment to enjoy jazz concerts. Visitors to the museum can enjoy the live music in their own fashion. You can buy beverages and refreshments if you want. The audiences varied from little kids to the aged. Houston Person is quite a big name in NYC with many CD recordings with renowned jazz players. He played well-known jazz standards in a swingy style.
♪Cleopatra's Needle
Joel Forrestor (p) Quartet This restaurant is located at upper west (the 92nd Street) and is named after a certain monument at the Central Park. It serves nice foods with nightly live jazz music. Sometimes Japanese musicians play (Toru Dodo is a regular pianist to host jam sessions on every Tuesdays or on every Sundays). It seems the live performances here are essentially jam sessions. The quartet this night had additional horn players. They played quite "hot".
♪107 West
Joe Giglio (g)/ Randy Johnston (g) This cafe at the upper west (the 107th Street) serves good southern American foods. This is just a cafe, not at all a place to expect nightly live jazz music. Every Friday, Joe performs at this cafe in duo with his guest jazz guitarist. The sound is very small but the fans take seats near the musicians to enjoy the music. This night Joe invited Randy Johnston and did a warm sort of collaboration.

◆May 7 (Sat.)
♪B. B. King Blues Club & Grill
Saturday Branch Buffet - Motown Soul Revue Carlton J. Smith (vo) & Friends This is a very huge blues club located at the 42nd Street with two (big and medium sized) live music spaces. The smaller room is basically a restaurant but the bigger one can be converted to a dance hall. This branch was at the bigger space. It was almost full and most of the audiences were of the black people. The show was quite an outstanding entertainment. Every song performed had big applause but most of them are not familiar to the ears of Japanese like us. The guest female vocalist "Antonique" has a potential to be a big name.
♪Arthur's Tavern
Eri Yamamoto (p) Trio This Casual bar located near Christopher Street provides jazz music by local musicians nightly. No music charge, no minimum. This is a nice bar to drop in. Sometimes, Japanese musicians appear. Eri Yamamoto played standards and her own compositions with her trio in early show.
♪Stonewall Bistro
This is a newly opened bistro that serves good foods at reasonable prices. It has a grand piano at the entrance and provides live music nightly. This night, a white middle aged guy played piano and sang songs. He had a volume of sheet music and picked up various songs to sing and play.
♪Bar 55
K. J. Denhert (vo/g) The send time visit. K. J. a black female singer and guitarist did very unique performances. She named her music as "urban fork and jazz". Her music has been influenced by elements of various music and was quite interesting to listen to.

◆May 8 (Sun)
♪Danny's Skylight
Blossom Dearie (vo/p) Trio This cabaret is located at the 46th Street Restaurant Row. This is a small place situated in the back room of a Thai restaurant. It has Blossom Dearie show on every weekend. Blossom sang songs and played piano accompanied by bass and drums. She still had the fresh cute voice and did the show in a very elegant but relaxed mood.
♪Smoke
Chiris Washburne & The Syotos Chembo Corniel (perc)/ Barry Olsen (p)/ Bernie Minoso (b)/ Chris Washburne (tb)/ John Walsh (tp)/ Vince Chenco (dr) The third time visit. On Sundays, the club presents Latin Jazz Session as a regular late show following the early show "Jazz Vocalist Series". The session was a happy kind of Latin Jazz and was quite appropriate to spend Sunday nights at upper west.

Note
The other places we checked were:
Blue Note, Sweet Rhythm, Fat Cat, Cotton Club, Showman's Cafe, Lenox Lounge, The Apollo Theatre The Cutting Room, Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, Le Jazz Au Bar, The Kitano, Cafe Mozart, Via Brazil, CBGB

　　　　

　　　　

　　　　　　

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2005.07.18更新