News & Gossip: Jax Junks Jazz as Someday Lounge Adds Jazz Happy Hour
Another jazz club expired, or will in a few weeks. Jax Bar in downtown Portland had a couple of years of music, although it never really felt like a jazz club and had the worst, most out-of-tune piano in town.
It was the home to Mitzi Zilka's weekly Jazz Singer's Showcase, and it's a shame that's going to have to go monthly now. At least she has found a new home for it at Tony Starlight's Supper Club every first Wednesday of the month, starting in March.
Mitzi will feature her own self, Brian Dorsey and Nancy Curtin on Friday, February 22 at the Riverplace Hotel for a special Jazz Singers Revue.
With Blue Monk, LV's and now Jax going down, we're down to one real jazz club, Jimmy Mak's, and if you've noticed they're booking more and more R&B and Soul on the weekends. There has to be somebody in this town besides Jimmy Makarounis with smarts enough to run a jazz club…maybe a combo jazz and blues and soul club. Use it or lose it.
The final show at Jax will feature Pere Soto, the great Spanish guitarist who is in town for a series of performances with saxophonist David Valdez. Soto will be doing a special Lawrence Williams Project gig on March 15, and then that's that for Jax.
Those of you who want to think and drink at the same time will be happy to know that Dusty York's trio is playing every Friday night from 5:00 to 7:00pm at Someday Lounge.... the club's new Jazz Happy Hour.
Somebody I know (not me) went to both Someday and then to Wilf's last Friday and found Dusty's dad Michael playing there. Told me he/she/it/them likes Dusty a lot better. Now, now...
Diatic Records, the label Dusty runs, has just released a wonderful new album by Don Cherry's son David Ornette Cherry, Organic Roots.
Organist Louis Pain reports that the Tribute To Memphis Soul show at Jimmy Mak's was a big success, sold out even. So successful that they're thinking of separate admissions for the two sets next time. It sold out in advance and people had to be turned away.
Re: Portland Jazz Festival: Much negative grumbling about the ticket prices and other things I'm not going to go into here.
The Valentine's Day Vagabond Opera and Portland Cello Project show at the Wonder Ballroom was spectacular, although I did hear a couple of "Eww's" expressed by germ-frightened women when they saw the kissing booth. The evening would have had a better ending if I had not done a face-plant onto a sidewalk at the end of the night. I'm still spending a lot of time applying bandages and wincing.
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