Jeff Cuny Trio
2018-05-04 17:30 - 20:15, 2018-04-27 17:15 - 20:30, 2018-04-25 20:00 - 23:59, 2018-04-13 17:30 - 20:15, 2018-04-06 17:30 - 20:15, 2018-03-30 17:30 - 20:15, 2018-03-23 17:30 - 20:15, 2018-03-16 17:30 - 20:15 (America/Detroit)
Jeff is finishing his masters in jazz studies at WSU and is a fine young string bassist. He is also the chief arranger for the band Midtown Sounds and appears around the city with Tbone Paxton and also the Gary Greenfelder Orchestra.

MSU Community Music School-Detroit: Spartan Spectacular 2018
2018-05-02 19:00 - 22:00
MSU Community Music School-Detroit: Spartan Youth Jazz Programs
Spartan Youth Jazz is an after-school program for middle and high school students. It provides high-quality music education from professional Detroit musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs. Classes and rehearsals focus on jazz improvisation, music history, music composition and transcription, combo playing, and big band playing.

Speakeasy Sunday's w/ Holly Hock
2018-04-29 20:30
Burlesque at its finest!
Sunday, April 29
Doors 7:30pm/Show 8:30pm
$20-30
Featuring performances by:
Ms B Larose
Josephine Shaker
Kitten Von Mitten
Céleste Vé Dette
Ruby La Louche
Kitty Hawkk & Eris
Miss Holly Hock
emcee: Lilith Von Tal
https://www.facebook.com/events/1189804571122615
Ticket Link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/speakeasy-sundays-april-edition-tickets-44350219701
http://www.misshollyhock.com/

Planet D Nonet
2018-04-27 21:00
If you have not yet experienced Planet D Nonet, your groove tank is missing out on some serious fuel.
They’re Detroit’s own down and dirty little big band, known nationally for curating some of the best in early jazz traditions and Black-American musical influences from the 20s, 30s and 40s. More “hot” than “sweet,” according to PD9 cofounder and bandleader RJ Spangler, who started the nine piece ensemble with longtime musical partner James O’Donnell in 2007.
PD9 is a pared down version of the traditional big bands of the 1930s, and they frequently feature guest vocalists, adding to the versatility of the band’s show. The number of musicians in the lineup is reminiscent of the earliest big bands, when swing was still evolving into the sound that defined jazz music’s most popular era.
“The band retains the agility of a small group,” says Spangler, “but with the harmonic palette of a larger one.”
Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press calls Planet D Nonet “one of Detroit’s great party bands,” with a “sweeping field of vision that ranges from Swing Era classics to connoisseur works by Duke Ellington, mind-expanding pieces by the visionary Sun Ra and some down-and-dirty joint R&B.”
The group has been nominated and awarded multiple honors over the past decade, including several Detroit Music Awards. Most recently, they were named 2016 DMA for Outstanding Traditional Jazz Artist/Group, and not surprisingly that was not the first time they received that award.
PD9’s latest release, A Salute to Strayhorn, features musical selections associated with the composer, lyricist, arranger and pianist Billy Strayhorn, best known for his celebrated musical collaborations with Duke Ellington.
The cuts are a mix of studio and live recordings, including a performance of “Such Sweet Thunder” captured at Detroit’s NPR station WDET. Vocalist Camille Price brings sultry and seductive stylings to a few cuts including “Imagine my Frustration,” and “I’ve Got it Bad, and That Ain’t Good.” But as in PD9’s club performances, it’s when trumpeter James O’Donnell comes out from behind his instrument that listeners sway a little more languidly as he glides into the crowd favorite “Satin Doll.”
With all the hours that PD9 have put in pounding the musical pavement, it’s hard to imagine that any avowed Ellington/Strayhorn fan hasn’t yet experienced them, whether live or recorded. Luckily, the fall/2016 release provides the perfect opportunity to discover this group known for putting body, soul and spirit into every bit of music they touch.

Caroline Davis
2018-04-22 19:00 - 22:00
From Caroline Davis’s “Heart Tonic” (3/23/18) on Sunnyside Records.
For the past four years, saxophonist/composer Caroline Davis has been tied up in matters of the heart. Her focus is multi-tiered, however. There are the metaphorical facets, including her feelings about her recent relocation to New York from her longtime home in Chicago and the emotional rigors of navigating the path of an itinerant musician within the City’s bustling jazz scene. There is also a more physiological aspect, as Davis has actively researched the life giving organ and its properties in dealing with her father’s own heart ailment. All of these forces come to bear on her new recording, Heart Tonic.
Born in Singapore to a Swedish mother and British father, Davis grew up in the United States from the age of six, settling first in Atlanta, then Texas and ending up in Chicago, where she attended Northwestern University and received a Ph.D in Music Cognition. It was in Chicago that Davis became engrained within the local jazz and improvisatory music community, one that is tight knit, diverse and particularly open to each player’s musical inclinations.
Davis’s Chicago experience was instrumental in her development as a player. Regularly hearing local greats, like saxophonist Von Freeman, guitarist Bobby Broom, and pianist Ron Perrillo, playing in wide ranging musical contexts and interdisciplinary collaborations helped to shape her into a well balanced and genre defying artist. Davis was also privy to a range of artists, including one of her biggest influences, the iconoclastic composer/conceptualist Steve Coleman.
Upon her move to New York City in 2013, Davis found herself as an outsider looking in. It was difficult to come from a place where she was established to an entirely different community, especially one as fractious as New York’s. Though, Davis soon showed that she was equal to its demands.
The roller coaster lifestyle of working as a professional musician in New York was challenging. Davis quickly saw that her days would have some career highpoints alongside humbling lows of everyday musician life. Friends like drummer Jay Sawyer helped her overcome her blues by coming along to sessions and gigs, thus helping establishing herself in the scene. Soon, Davis began to play more regularly with a diverse group of musicians, including Matt Mitchell, Greg Saunier, Billy Kaye, and Curt Sydnor.
It was about this time that Davis found out that her father had heart arrhythmia. The news prompted her to do detailed research on the physical aspects of the human heart.
It was with all of this in mind that Davis decided to compose this music, using the heart for its emotional connotation or utilizing ventricular rhythms as metrical devices. Composing helped not only in her emotional transition but also focused her study on biological aspects of the body. Heart Tonic finds Davis employing more standard jazz elements than in the music of her previous work, including formal harmonic changes and shifting meters.
Released by:
Sunnyside Records
Release date:
23 March 2018
The band will be Caroline on saxes, Jay Sawyer on drums, and John Tate on bass.

Michigan Opera Theater at Cliff Bell's!
2018-04-18 19:00 - 22:00
Michigan Opera Theatre is thrilled to return to Cliff Bell’s for an evening of opera and jazz. The evening is in anticipation of MOT’s upcoming production of “The Summer King” which tells the story of Negro Leagues baseball legend Josh Gibson, considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Artists from Michigan Opera Theatre and area musicians will offer an evening of jazz and opera from the 1920s-40s that highlight the soundscape of Josh Gibson’s world and celebrate trailblazing African American artists like Marian Anderson and Florence Price.
$10 cover

WSU Jazz Night
2018-04-15 18:00 - 22:00
Wayne State University’s long history of producing world class musicians is one of the great attributes for the City of Detroit. Hosted by Professor Chris Collins, the WSU Director of Jazz Studies. WSU students ensembles will perform on the stage at Cliff Bell’s, followed by a jam session.

Rod Williams Quartet
2018-04-14 21:30
Pianist/Composer Rod Williams was born in Detroit April 15, 1954 and studied with the great pianist Kenny Cox. In the summer 1981 he was playing with the Sam Sanders’ group “Visions” at the Detroit Jazz Center as an opening act for Air (Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall), Henry Threadgill strongly encouraged him to move to New York and in the fall of 1981, he did so, residing there to this day.
“Pianist-composer Rod Williams’ typically stimulating original “Home Sweet Home” opens his fine 1989 LP “Hanging in the Balance” (Muse). It would certainly be an appropriate piece for the Detroit-born Williams to include when he returns to the Motor City. Williams made his reputation working with a range of left-of-center voices, among them David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Dewey Redman and Lester Bowie. He has also proven to be an alert accompanist for vocalist Cassandra Wilson early in her career. But like most Detroiters, Williams retains an essential versatility, and there’s not much across the post-bop landscape you could throw at him that he can’t handle. His improvisations alternate between a scampering kind of percussive rumble with a smoother, more pianistic touch, and his compositions reveal a personal approach to melody and structure”( Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press June 17, 2015).
He will perform with two generations of Detroit Jazz musicians- Kasan Belgrave, Kayvon Gordon and Marion Hayden. He will also be celebrating his 64th birthday.

Rod Williams Quartet
2018-04-13 21:00
Pianist/Composer Rod Williams was born in Detroit April 15, 1954 and studied with the great pianist Kenny Cox. In the summer 1981 he was playing with the Sam Sanders’ group “Visions” at the Detroit Jazz Center as an opening act for Air (Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall), Henry Threadgill strongly encouraged him to move to New York and in the fall of 1981, he did so, which is where he currently resides.
“Pianist-composer Rod Williams’ typically stimulating original “Home Sweet Home” opens his fine 1989 LP “Hanging in the Balance” (Muse). It would certainly be an appropriate piece for the Detroit-born Williams to include when he returns to the Motor City. Williams made his reputation working with a range of left-of-center voices, among them David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Dewey Redman and Lester Bowie. He has also proven to be an alert accompanist for vocalist Cassandra Wilson early in her career. But like most Detroiters, Williams retains an essential versatility, and there’s not much across the post-bop landscape you could throw at him that he can’t handle. His improvisations alternate between a scampering kind of percussive rumble with a smoother, more pianistic touch, and his compositions reveal a personal approach to melody and structure”( Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press June 17, 2015).
He will perform with two generations of Detroit Jazz musicians- Kasan Belgrave, Kayvon Gordon and Marion Hayden. He will also be celebrating his 64th birthday.

ALEX HARDING and LUCIAN BAN
2018-04-11 20:00 - 23:00
Detroit born baritone sax extraordinaire ALEX HARDING and Transylvanian expat pianist LUCIAN BAN have been collaborating for almost two decades, founding several groups together, releasing a handful of diverse albums for American and European labels, performing countless concerts and tours all the while documenting an amazing body of music.
“In near-telepathic collusion, Harding and Ban mean what they say” Derek Taylor, ALL ABOUT JAZZ
The pair first release is Somethin’ Holy (2001, CIMP Records) a duet album with “an arresting immediacy” featuring original compositions and Ellington’s Fleurette Africaine showcasing the duo chemistry and musical concept. In reviewing the album for the print edition of AAJazz Terrell Holmes says:
All About Jazz “Ban plays with a fluency and sensibility that recalls Vladimir Horowitz as much as McCoy Tyner while Harding can break your heart with tenderness or shatter you with intensity”
“Alex Harding and Lucian Ban have developed a fruitful partnership over the years. Harding’s bluesy, church-steeped baritone sax is the logical heir to Hamiet Bluiett’s, while Ban’s tast reflective piano playing combines the elegance and technical precision of the European classical tradition with wide-ranging musical interests and a passion for improvisation” “Alex Harding and Lucian Ban have developed a fruitful partnership over the years. Harding’s bluesy, church-steeped baritone sax is the logical heir to Hamiet Bluiett’s, while Ban’s tasteful, reflective piano playing combines the elegance and technical precision of the European classical tradition with wide-ranging musical interests and a passion for improvisation” Jeff Stockton, ALL ABOUT JAZZ
• In 2003 their Quintet featuring drum legend Barry Altschul along with Jorge Sylvester, Chris Dahlgren was voted “BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR” by All About Jazz Magazine New York among shows by Cecil Taylor, Joe Lovano and others.
• In 2004 the quintet release of “Premonition” featuring Damion Reid on drums (of Robert Glasper Trio) Chris Dahlgren, Erik Torrente received 4* in an All Music Guide and glowing reviews in the jazz press.
• 2006 saw the apparition of the all star TUBA PROJECT featuring legendary Bob Stewart on tuba, J.D. Allen on tenor sax and Derrek Phillips on drums. Budd Kopman reviewing the album in AAJ says:
With The Tuba Project, Lucian Ban and Alex Harding have put together a raucous, blu energetic, and at times ecstatic album. Drawing from deep roots in jazz and Afro-American music, these musicians play with a contagious abandon”
• Alex Harding own group BLUTOPIA featuring Lucian Ban, Nasheet Waits, Brad Jones releases in 2006 on the Norwegian label Jazzaway – The Calling , to glowing reviews. JAZZ TIMES talks about ”musical sophistication and emotional depth”
• Alex Harding & Lucian Ban have also recorded with soprano sax master Sam Newsome recording The Romanian-American Jazz Suite (Jazzaway Records, 2009), an album celebrating the amalgamation of Romanian folk songs and American jazz.
ALEX HARDING
Born in Detroit (baritone sax & bass clarinet) has worked and studied with Yusef Lateef at the University of Massachusetts in 1990, toured Europe performing “Porgy and Bess”. Alex joined the Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet in 1993 then began working with people such as: Muhal Richard Abrams, Craig Harris, Lester Bowie, Clark Terry, Joe Bowie (Defunkt), Frank Lacy, Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, Greg Osby, David Murray (big band), Sun Ra Arkestra and the Queen of soul Aretha Franklin at the 2001 “Divas Live” at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
The critics have hailed him as “the new voice on baritone saxophone, the carrier of the great legacy of Harry Carney, Pepper Adams and Hamiet Bluiett”. Alex Harding has released several albums as a leader garnering glowing reviews and appeared as guest on more than 20 albums. www.alexharding.net
LUCIAN BAN Pianist Lucian Ban has “ricocheted among orthodox post bop, free jazz, and inspired hybrids—including his inventive arrangements of the music of Romanian composer George Enesco” on his all star octet album Enesco Reimagined (Sunnyside, 2009) co-lead with bassist John Hébert. In 2013 Ban’s quartet Elevation released the “blustery Mystery (Sunnyside. Ban also has a duo with American violist Mat Maneri, Transylvanian Concert (ECM, 2013), Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader). He has recorded 10 albums as a leader for labels such as Sunnyside, ECM, Jazzaway, etc. His latest album “Songs from Afar” by ELEVATION released by Sunnyside Records Jan 2016 received the 5* review in DOWNBEAT Magazine.
www.lucianban.com
“

Alexis Lombre
2018-04-10 20:00
Alexis Lombre is a young jazz pianist who discovered early that the true essence of music is not just about what you hear but how music makes you feel. Her musical mission is to keep the ‘Soul’ in music alive. The recent release of her debut album, Southside Sounds, does just that, as it is a soulful reflection of her upbringing on Chicago’s Southside. This collection of her original compositions is an attempt to pay homage to the southside’s lively artistic, cultural heritage. Since its release, Southside Sounds has been aired on radio stations across the U.S and is currently charting at #70 on JazzWeek.
Alexis has performed at some of jazz’s major venues in Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Newark, St. Louis and Kansas City. Most recently, she celebrated the release of her debut CD at Chicago’s historic Jazz Showcase. She appeared at the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival performing the National Anthem opening for Jimmy Heath, the Robert Glasper Experiment and the Donald Harrison Quintet. As an experienced bandleader, the Alexis Lombre Quintet was featured most recently at the 2016 Chicago Jazz Festival, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in 2013 and 2015, the Bucktown Arts Festival, the Trinity UCC ‘Jazzapalooza’ Festival and many other festivals around Chicago.
As a sidewoman, she performed at the 2016 Detroit Jazz Festival with the John Douglas Quartet, the 2016 Englewood Jazz Festival in Chicago with the Donald Harrison Quartet and, the 2016 Taste of Chicago with Donnie Trumpet (now Nico Segal) & the Social Experiment. She has also played with other internationally known jazz artists such as Pharez Whitted, Bobby Broom, Ernest Dawkins, Ingrid Jensen, Kendrick Scott, James Carter, Bobby Watson and, currently studies with former Jazz Messenger, legendary pianist, Benny Green at the University of Michigan.

Southeastern Music Academy
2018-04-08 17:00 - 19:00
The Southeastern Music Academy has an outstanding music faculty – successful performers with strong academic credentials that perform regularly with professional groups. This is a student jam session. http://southeasternmusicacademy.org/sma-performance-opportunities-cliff-bells/

Sky Covington's Billie Holiday Review
2018-04-07 21:30
“Happy Birthday Billie…
Billie Holiday Revue
Starring Sky Covington ft.Club Crescendo
In honor of Billie Holiday’s birthday this April, vocalist Sky Covington will present a
career-spanning tribute at Cliff Bells. This concert will include Lady Day’s music from her Columbia, Commodore, Verve and Decca catalogue
Classic comositions such as What a Little Moonlight Can Do, You Don’t Know What
Love Is, Strange Fruit, Body and Soul, Don’t Explain, Loverman, Good Morning Heartache, and her signature song God Bless the Child will be performed.
Eleanor Fagan McKay, whom the world remembers best as Billie Holiday
and whom Lester Young nicknamed, “Lady Day,” was born April 7, 1915.
“Certainly no singer has been more mythologized and more misunderstood
than Billie Holiday, who helped to create much of the mystique herself.”
-Booklist
“On July 17, 1959 Billie Holiday, a musical legend still popular today,
died an untimely death at the age of 44. Her emotive voice, innovative
techniques and touching songs will forever be remembered and enjoyed.”
-Billieholiday.com
“I’m always making a comeback, but nobody ever tells me where I’ve
been” -Billie Holiday
Join us while we celebrate one of the most daring and infectious
stylists of modern times, Sky Covington singing Billie Holiday.
A native-Detroit singer/songwriter, Sky is a multi-award winning
musician, whose many distinguished honors include nominations and wins
in multiple categories of the Detroit Music Awards and Detroit Black
Music Awards. She has opened for and toured with other Detroit
notables such as Straight Ahead, Pieces of a Dream, The Original
Vandellas and Kenny “Moodymann” Dixon Jr.

The Philippe LeJeune Trio
2018-04-05 20:00
French pianist Philippe LeJeune is a perfect example of the mixture of jazz and blues which was especially an important strain in the jazz tradition. The young pianist attended a 1968 concert in Reims, France, by master boogie-woogie and blues pianist Memphis Slim, and immediately put an end to his classical efforts and began teaching himself the blues, scouring local record shops for LP’s by boogie woogie greats. In 1980 he was invited by Memphis Slim who had been a parisian citizen since 1962 to cut an album titled « Dialog In Boogie » as a piano duet. The French blues and boogie woogie pianist is one of those rare European pianist who is able to take part in the grand tradition of American jazz mixing swing, a sense of melody and the blues. His playing is always a brilliant assortment of sobriety and expressiveness. He plays blues and boogie-woogie with a light, almost delicate touch, and weaves subtle, varied right-hand figures around the solid left-hand boogie-woogie beat. His repertoire ranges from classic barrelhouse boogie woogie piano to Duke Ellington and Horace Silver tunes as well those of Milt Jackson and George Gershwin. LeJeune explores an impressive variety of blues styles and grooves, leaving listeners with a happy feeling.
Philippe LeJeune has released six CD’s in the United States, among them a live recording in trio at the Blue Moon in Houston, Texas. He also makes numerous appearances in various American jazz and blues clubs and festivals : Detroit Jazz Festival, Toledo Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival, Monterey Bay Blues Fest, Cincinnati Blues Festival. His performance at the 2005 Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival (Detroit) was recorded live to be edited into P.B.S. television specials and DVD. Living in Toulouse, France, LeJeune has performed for many years throughout Europe in the Jazz festivals and clubs circuit (France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic …) and in Africa (Tunisia, Sénégal).
As an educator and clinician he has taught piano workshops in music schools, and has lead seminars at jazz and blues festivals throughout France and USA. He is also artistic director for ‘Jazz Au Mercure’, a jazz concert serie in Toulouse. Philippe LeJeune’s name was introduced into the famous New Grove Dictionary of Jazz in 2001.
Philippe LeJeune is doing his part to continue a legacy by blending classic jazz, gospel, blues and boogie woogie, with his own stylings. He explores an impressive variety of blues styles and grooves, leaving listeners with a happy fealing.

beta collective
2018-03-25 19:00 - 22:00
:beta collective:​
A powerhouse group of the Midwest’s top improvisers, Dan Bruce’s :beta collective is a modern jazz ensemble that performs original compositions and highly personalized arrangements of jazz standards. The members’ ​unique musical identities combine to form a powerful and unmistakable group sound. The ensemble is known for its compositional breadth and interactive and highly energetic performances.
The new album, Earthshine, garnered a four star review from All About Jazz. Critic Troy Dostert writes, “…a generous, accessible sound with an exploratory edge, Bruce brings a finely-polished technique that is at the same time subtly discontent, searching for new expressions and willing to take some chances along the way.”
-Dan Bruce-
By embracing the influence of his heroes from the jazz tradition and retaining his own musical personality, guitarist Dan Bruce has developed a unique and impressive musical voice. A recent transplant to Ohio after spending a decade as an important member of Chicago’s vibrant jazz scene, he is active throughout the United States as a performer, recording artist, composer and educator.
Bruce’s first album, A Single Thread, received praise from both fans and critics. Martin Gladu of allaboutjazz.com wrote, “A Single Thread combines his learned guitar work, which is at times reminiscent of Ben Monder, with substantive yet airy, contemporary sounding compositions”, and Chuck Vecoli of jazzreview.com called it “A brilliant first effort”. Bruce’s much-anticipated second album, Earthshine, came out this October on the Ears and Eyes label. He has performed on more than twenty-five albums as a sideman, and he has worked with a number of eminent musicians including Seamus Blake, Ali Jackson, Dan Wall, Lynn Seaton, Marvin Stamm, The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Daniel Lippel, and Rose Colella.
Bruce’s groups have been featured in The Chi-Town Jazz Festival, The Chicago Composers Collective series at the Green Mill, The Chicago Cultural Center Chamber Music Series, The Jazz Institute of Chicago NextGen Jazz Series, South by Southwest, the Toledo Jazz Festival, The Akron Jazz Festival, The Ohio City Summer Festival and a special live radio broadcast on WDCB FM Chicago.
“…a skilled, seasoned player, one capable of filling the space left by an accompanying harmonic instrument with aplomb and finesse.”
-Martin Gladu, allaboutjazz.com
“Daniel Bruce is without a doubt one of the finest of today’s young jazz guitarists. He plays with great creativity, soul and intelligence.”
-William Piburn, Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine
www.danbrucemusic.com

WSU Student Jam
2018-03-25 15:00 - 18:00
Wayne State University’s long history of producing world class musicians is one of the great attributes for the City of Detroit. Hosted by Professor Chris Collins, the WSU Director of Jazz Studies. WSU students will perform on the stage at Cliff Bell’s.

Dominic Bierenga’s Moving Mind Orchestra
2018-03-22 20:00
The music of the Moving Mind Orchestra is by turns exuberant, raw, melancholy, and whimsical, but always intensely entrenched in the present. Founded and led by saxophonist Dominic Bierenga, the Orchestra draws from a repertoire arranged or composed exclusively by band members, ranging from Eric Dolphy to the Beatles, and hip-hop beats to gutbucket swing. They are sure to regale you with a great time and a memorable experience.”
The personnel will be:
Donovan Boxey, alto saxophone
Dominic Bierenga, tenor saxophone
Jason Didia, baritone saxophone
John Douglas and Allen Dennard, trumpets
John Raleeh, trombone
Henry Pakela, bass trombone
Ruben Shell, guitar
Zen Zadravec, piano
Rocco Popielarski, bass
Andy Wade, drums

Jon Taylor Trio
2018-03-21 20:00
Jon Taylor is a Detroit-based drummer, improviser, composer, and educator. A tireless collaborator, he co-leads a number of original projects around town. He has performed alongside such luminaries of creative music as Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Liebman, Karl Berger, and Michael Formanek, and is a founding member of Polyfold, a musical arts collective. His compositions have been described as “A balance between form and freedom” and “music for the head and heart” (All About Jazz). His trio, featuring master bassist Jaribu Shahid and pianist Michael Malis, explores the stunning breadth of American music with original compositions influenced by everything from the tight-knit arrangements of Ahmad Jamal to the polyrhythmic trances of Steve Coleman to the spontaneous power of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Jon earned a BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies from the University of Michigan, where he studied improvisation with Geri Allen and Ed Sarath, composition with Andrew Bishop and Evan Chambers, and performance with Sean Dobbins, Ellen Rowe, and Michael Gould.

Holly Hock's Speakeasy Sunday
2018-03-18 20:30
Doors at 7:30, show time 8:30 pm, Holly Hock, Speakeasy Sundays, Burlesque, General Admission $15 / Reserved $20 / VIP $25
Ticket Link:
Doors 7:30pm/Show 8:30pm
Featuring performances by:
Heather Marie
Leena Allure
Magenta Demure
Margot Lugosi
Miss Holly Hock
Live Music By:
The Aston Neighborhood Pleasure Club
Ticket Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/speakeasy-sundays-w-aston-neighborhood-pleasure-club-tickets-43329600000
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/212950916115976

Yoron Israel "Project Trio - New Dreams"
2018-03-16 21:00 - 23:30
Yoron Israel will be returning to his hometown Chicago for engagements throughout the Midwest, on March 15 – 24, 2018. He will be performing with “Project Trio – New Dreams”, featuring Yoron (www.yoronisrael.com), along with pianist Kevin Harris (www.kevinharrisproject.com) and bassist Will Slater.
The “Project Trio – New Dreams” tour will be documented on an upcoming recording and music video. Additionally, select performances will feature musical collaborations with some of the most talented artists residing in the Chicago area, including guitarists Bobby Broom or Fareed Haque, trumpeter Orbert Davis, vocalists Dee Alexander or Michon Young and saxophonist Edward Peterson.

Check out his music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnURdkqYr78&feature=youtu.be&t=235

CARL CAFAGNA & NORTH STAR JAZZ
2018-03-15 20:00
CARL CAFAGNA & North Star Jazz blend East Coast Sophistication with Midwestern Grit, and take listeners on a thrilling and varied instrumental music adventure. The Majestic 3-horn front line (trumpet and 2 saxophones) and breathtaking compositions and arrangements are highlights.
Band Leader Carl Cafagna, Berklee trained, runs a tight ship, which includes many of the hottest hands in Detroit, Michigan and Ohio. Scott Gwinnell, piano, James Hughes, saxophones, Jordan Schug, bass, Scott Kretzer, drums, Dr. Scott Cowan, trumpet, and Cafagna on saxes and flute. A jazz odyssey not to be missed!
*North Star Jazz was one of the very first bands to be hired at the re-opened Cliff Bell’s, in 2006, and are delighted to return!

Tamir Hendelman Trio
2018-03-11 20:00
Award-winning jazz pianist-composer Tamir Hendelman has been leading his own trio and performing with the Jeff Hamilton Trio and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra since 2000-2001. He is known for his imaginative and sensitive playing and arranging on recordings by Natalie Cole, Barbra Streisand and Roberta Gambarini as well as Graham Dechter, Richard Galliano and Claudio Roditi.
As a youth, he moved from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles, winning Yamaha’s national keyboard competition, performing in Japan and the Kennedy Center, attending Tanglewood in 1998 and receiving a Bachelor of Music Composition from the Eastman School of Music in 1993.
When Tamir premiered John Clayton’s version of Oscar Peterson’s Canadiana Suite in 2001, Mr. Peterson wrote: “It was a satisfying but strange feeling… to hear a new young voice make some exhilarating and thoughtful solos in the spaces I used to occupy in those pieces…”
Tamir’s latest CD, Destinations reached #1 in the US jazz charts. The album takes listeners along on a voyage of musical discovery, from originals to Jobim, Keith Jarrett and Maurice Ravel. “Destinations to me is about the journey of being a jazz musician.”
With Sean Dobbins (drums) and Paul Keller (bass)

Southeastern Music Academy Jam Sessions
2018-03-11 17:00 - 19:00
Southeastern Music Academy Jam Sessions- Top area drummer Sean Dobbins runs a student jam session.
