Sitting in the Silver Creek Coffee House, next door to Hinsdale Cellars Wine Bar in “downtown” Silverton, where at 1pm Randy Byrnes will play. It’s warm and sunny, stands are under construction, sound systems set up, the musicians are on their way and so are the fans. At 12 noon things will kick off with the Silverton High School Jazz band out in front of the Palace Theater.
The pros start all over town at 1pm. Check the schedule. There were a couple of changes in the schedule in the program handout here, so you might want to print it from OMN to be sure.
Dan Schulte
Things actually started last night. It was the town’s First Friday. Dan Schulte, Dave Goldblatt and Todd Strait played an inspired set in the Wolf Building. That’s one of many old structures here that have been restored. At the Allison and Israel Jewelry Store, I found Jeremey Winkler wrapping up a set with his Brazilian band Na Mesa. Coincidentally, he sent me some demos of what they’ve been doing. He wrote:
I just got back from my rehearsal, and I’m really excited about the way our band sounds.
Here’s a few cuts. I’m sorry the recording quality isn’t the finest- I have limited resources in terms of studio access. It doesn’t matter too much though, the cuts speak for themselves.
Remember it’s a demo. Here’s “Tico Tico No Fuba”:
Later on, Schulte and Paul Unger held a small bass workshop for some high school students. Unger played several tunes which he and Shulte discussed. All about alternate tunings and how rhythm and pitch are the basics for everything one should play.
I’ll be posting all day from the Festival. OMN’s Jack Berry and Angela Allen will be here to report, Kevin Tomanka, and our newest addition videographer/editor Cary Ray will be here to get some video.
Hey a large percentage of the Jazz talent in Oregon come and play here. It’s major.
1:40pm Pudge’s
Eddie Parente at Puge's. OMN photo by Kevin Tomanka
This is a classic “neighborhood bar.” In a corner, next to the DJ booth, on a little riser near the pool table and video lottery machines stands violinist Eddie Parente in duet with a guitarist John Kaiser.
The sign on the DJ booth is for Coed Naked Sportswear. I get the feeling they don’t have a lot of this kind of music normally.
Eddie has just finished a very sweet swinging solo and is comping behind the guitar who takes over and finishes tastefully. “Body and Soul” follows. This could have been a disaster, but Parente can’t let that happen, and doesn’t. Good musicians take classics and iron them out as though they were an old pair of pants that needed pressing.
He’s not sparing any improvisational adventure, either.
Around the corner Rich Halley’s Outside Music Ensemble are playing outside outside, if you know what I mean. They include: Rich Halley – saxophones, Michael Vlatkovich – trombone, Troy Grugett – saxophones, Jim Knodle – trumpet, Dave Storrs – percussion and Carson Halley – percussion.
They all play percussion at some point. Let’s give a round of applause to the Festival for including this band, the most adventurous of all, by far.
At one point, Troy Grugett played an unusual percussion instrument…the parking meter.
Back on Main Street, at the Read Bench I found The Young Lions being young. Somewhat less assured than some because they’re not really a band, but more some players who know each other. And certainly less adventurous than Halley’s group. Maybe they’re playing it safe for the audience, or maybe they just don’t have a book or years of playing with each other to draw from.
Young Lions, Niswanger & Brett McConnell at Red Bench. OMN photo by Kevin Tomanka
Hailey Niswanger, Tree Palmedo and the others in the band? Their time is coming.
ETC
A “Mister Jazz” is walking around telling people he played with Charlie Parker.
Patty Niswanger, Hailey’s mom carrying around a little groomed dog.
Saw Chance Hayden checking out the Young Lions and Dave Captein wandering.
Our photographer Kevin Tomanka is here. He’ll have a gallery up tomorrow.
Going to see what’s up with Clay Giberson and John Nastos, John Stowell. Gotta check back in on Halley though.
It’s still a gorgeous day.
Wrapping up the first shows
Back in Silver Creek Coffee House.
Went back to check on The Young Lions and they have grown even in the hour and a half since they started their set. Sounded much more assured and enthusiastic. A happy conclusion. Niswanger is in town for a stay and will be at Jimmy Mak’s on Wednesday, May 19 for the 6:30-8p, show.
Glimpses:
Chance Hayden playing solo at the Creekside Terrace overlooking Silver Creek. A little too crowded to call it idyllic, too pretty to call it anything else. Looked like he was practicing. Some gigs are like that. I’m sure that he was wallpaper for some. Not for me.
OMN photographer Kevin Tomanka was taking pictures all day:
John Stowell, also playing solo at a different location. Several in attendance sitting rapt. His music inspires thought and it’s easy to jump on it and let your mind go to someplace deeper than where you started. That’s what he does. He may not know that, but it is.
John Moak, Dan Schulte and Christopher Woitach at the Creekside Grille packed them in. So much so that it was impossible to sit and listen. What I got to hear was intense and powerful. We should see more of that trio.
Clay Giberson and John Nastos who comprise Duo Chronicles and recently completed their thirty-sixth consecutive week of playing together and putting the result on the internet, performed in a jewelry store. I asked Nastos (OMN’s Webmaster) if he had ever performed in a jewelry store before and he said yes, he played there last year.
This is Nastos at is most emotionally expressive and if you can’t see them live (they seldom perform as a duo) you can see them online.
ETC
Did you know that there is a half-block long mural honoring “Silverton Bobby, the Oregon Wonder Dog.”No kidding. Read all about it. They even made a (silent) film about him.
Another mural honors Don Pettit, a U.S. Astronaut from Silverton. he was on two spaceflights, logged over 176 days in space including living in the Space Station for five and a half months.
See what you find out by going to a Jazz festival?
Late Afternoon
Glen Moore just stopped by my Silver Creek Coffee House location to say hi and did I know if there was green room or hang space. I said I hadn’t seen any. He likes the weather, like everyone else. Told me he’s excavating his back yard and wandered off to talk with Dan Gaynor on the phone.
I will introduce them at the Palace tonight.
Scott Steed, Dan Balmer at Pudge's. OMN Photo by Kevin Tomanka
Pudge’s is packed. Can’t get a seat. Dan Balmer and Scott Steed are playing beautifully. The wine if flowing. Seems like this is the most popular time of the day, so far.
Two women commented on the fact that I’m wearing a sweater. Said I looked hot. I took it as a compliment.
Bobby Torres is leading a very hot jam in the space outdoors that Rich Halley vacated. I keep returning to it. Nastos is playing in that performance, also. Hailey Niswanger and Tree Palmedo were listening, too.
Art Resnick led a straight-ahead trio at the Palace Theater with young players Brian Casey (we’ll have a story on his work in Eric Skye’s band and album shortly), and Jonas Oglesbee, who has been popping up all over town and impressing.
Missed the PSU salsa band led by Farnell Newton. Got to say hello as he was moving quickly on to the next gig.
It’s hard to keep up. There is music in sixteen different locations. I was looking forward to the only Traditional Jazz band Jass Two Plus One but Steve Boden, lead singer and guitarist fell ill and couldn’t make the gig. They added a pianist and pressed on. It was a refreshing sound as the day began to wane.
As I sit here outside the coffee shop, I can hear the guitar of Salem’s Bill Hughes, someone I’m not familiar with. Sweet to hear his music as accompaniment to the folks walking by holding their wine glasses.
Ran into Eddie Parente, he held up this thumb and told me he had ripped a nail and had a bad bandage on during his performance. He got a better one at the break but….. I told him nobody could tell except him. That we don’t hear what he hears. Didn’t make him feel much better, but it’s true.
Heading over to the Palace to see Ben Darwish
From here on out
Ben Darwish at the Palace. OMN Photo by Kevin Tomanka
One of the nice things about a not-all-hipster festival like this one is that folks can discover (relatively) new talent, or at least younger musicians they may not have heard before. Hard to imagine anyone not having heard Ben Darwish, but from the reaction of some who approached him after his set at the Palace Theater, it was obvious they had just found him.
Good thing. His working Jazz band of Ben Darwish on piano, Tim Willcox on sax, Bill Athens on bass, Randy Rollofson on drums were uncompromising.
The Bobby Torres jam, outside on the street near the vendors, drew a lot of musicians as spectators. Although it was billed as a “jam,” it was his usual lineup which included Damian Erskine on bass and vocalist and daughter Julana Torres.
Bassist Dennis Caiazza came out during his break from Bill Beach’s band to hang.
Sad when 7pm drew close and the music was going to end at most of the venues. There were seventeen bands playing at the same time during the day. The festival is far from over.
Gaynor, King and Moore at the Palace. OMN photo by Kevin Tomanka
The two remaining shows proved to be spectacular, the highlights of the Festival. That’s why they were the two remaining show. At the Palace, Nancy King, Glen Moore once again demonstrated why they are two of the finest musicians in the world, and Dan Gaynor proved why he deserves to play with them.
No matter how many times you may have heard Nancy King, she never fails to amaze, to delight, astound and bring the kind of pleasure only a great artist can provide. She did not disappoint.
She does not perform enough and certainly not enough with Moore, her collaborator of fifty years. He is always inspired by King in a special way. They have seemingly never tired of the exchange of ideas and challenges.
Nancy King. OMN photo by Kevin Tomanka
Dan Gaynor is King’s go-to pianist for many performances these days. She’s been playing with Steve Christofferson for three decades, but Gaynor and King make a great pair.
Painter Diane Russell was busy taking photos for her next paintings. She showed at the Creekside Grille during the festival. Her busy season is upcoming. She’ll be exhibiting at the Waterfront Blues Festival, as usual.
As soon as Nancy King got home Saturday night, she packed and is on her way to New York to play at the Jazz Standard with Fred Hersch once again. They nominated for a Grammy for their performance there.
If anyone deserves a Grammy, it’s Nancy King, Oregon’s greatest natural resource.
Peter Piazza, Gut Feelings
Over at the Elk’s Hall at the same time was Peter Piazza’s Gut Feelings, a large ensemble of leaders built around violins and other strings including Eddie Parente, Danny Seidenberg, Guy Tyler, Renato Caranto, Dan Balmer, Kerry McCoy, Damian Erskine subbing for Al Criado, Carlton Jackson and Bobby Torres.
Pretty good band.
Piazza has created a unique sound. Violins are nothing new in Jazz, nor is a string section, but Piazza does it differently. This isn’t Charlie Parker with strings in which they add a veneer. Piazza’s strings are fully integrated, even driving the band…and with that list of players, it’s a big bus to drive.
It works.
Erskine stopped by the table, all sweaty from the first set, loving the gig. Carlton Jackson said as how with Erskine next to him, he could “go about his business,” without a worry.
And so ended the Silverton Wine and Jazz Festival. Oregon Music News was happy to be a sponsor. We had a lot of coverage, but when you look back at the lineup, dozens of Oregon’s greatest Jazz artists were within three blocks of each other for twelve hours on a Saturday. It was worth it.
Ron Steen at Clyde's Prime Rib (photo by John Nastos)
In the Portland jazz scene, the name Ron Steen is practically synonymous with “Jam Session.” Steen is the leader of the famous Monday-night jam at Produce Row, a Sunday-night jam at Clyde’s Prime Rib, and now a new Thursday-night jam session at the recently-opened Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen. He’s been leading sessions like this for decades and shows no signs relinquishing his role as King of the Jam Session in Portland any time soon.
Early life
Steen grew up in North Portland, in a house just across the street from the Cotton Club on Vancouver Avenue. Although not as famous as New York City’s Cotton Club, Portland’s version was still a big name in the Northwest, attracting acts like Cab Calloway and Sammy Davis Jr. As a teenager, Steen would go to the session on Sunday afternoons, sitting in with other local musicians, learning the tunes, and learning the etiquette of being on the bandstand.
At the time, faces like Bobby Bradford, Cleve Williams, and Evan Porter were the established heavy-hitters on the scene, but young players were showing up at the sessions as well. “Guys like Mel Brown were playing there at the time,” explains Steen. “He was like the first really really good drummer locally that I heard. Mel was playing extremely well. He was about five or six years older than me, but he had the chops that he has right now back when he was 21 or 22. Phenomenal. I had never seen anything like that.”
Steen explains that venues and jam sessions were always opening and closing just as they are today. But, he says, “back then, getting into places wasn’t as hard if you’re underage as it is now.”
The first session
Ron Steen at Clyde's (photo by John Nastos)
It didn’t take long before Steen was playing all over the city, even leading his own gigs. Despite not having had a drum lesson and having to borrow others’ drums for gigs, Steen managed to become an accomplished enough musician to get the call to become a bandleader at age 19. The call came from Chet’s, a club in downtown Portland, owned by the only black club owner in Portland. “The club owner asked if I could get a band together. As a matter of fact, I think it was just piano and drums. There was a lot of that back then. If you had a trio back in those days, it wouldn’t be piano, bass, and drums. It might be piano, sax, and drums. At that time, basses really weren’t amplified…you’d get more bang for your buck with piano, sax, and drums.”
Steen ended up hiring Lester MacFarlane to play the club’s organ in a duo with the drums. MacFarlane would kick bass on the organ, giving the group a full sound despite just being a duet. “This cat was really into James Brown,” says Steen about MacFarlane. “We would put some funk in there because that was really happening back in the day.”
Often, the duo would be joined by other musicians who would drop by to sit in. “I was letting people sit in — that was my frame of reference,” explained Steen, since he had grown up playing in the jam sessions around town. Unfortunately, having people sit in on the gig quickly backfired.
“The other club owners downtown…reported us to the union. They said it was unfair competition because these guys were paying for three or four pieces and Chet was only paying for two but he was getting an effect because I was letting people sit in, not even realizing that it was technically illegal. The union threatened to picket Chet’s.” Of course, other clubs had musicians sitting in as well but were not getting hassled, leading Steen to believe that the union action was politically driven by the white downtown club owners who were always working to try to oust the only black club owner. “What it really was was just racism. The club owners downtown all got together — they were trying to do whatever they could to get [Chet] out of there. They were just using that as an excuse.”
Steen eventually lost the gig to Danny Wilson, a keyboard player he had hired for the gig. Wilson, being an older player on the scene, convinced Chet that he would be better for the gig and for the club. “Next thing I know, it was his gig and I was out of there,” laughs Steen. “It was a learning experience — I was 19.”
More sessions, more players
After the gig at Chet’s, Steen’s career was off and running. He played with countless musicians, both as a sideman and a leader, including national artists like Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw, as well as local luminaries such as Jim Pepper and Nancy King. He’s almost always had at least one jam session running and his sessions are always the go-to hang for players around town.
Over the years, a number of great players have come through the sessions. Perhaps the best known is Chris Botti, who now tours internationally as a bandleader and has spent time on the road as a sideman with Sting. He first sat in with Steen on a gig down in Corvallis, where Botti’s aunt and uncle asked if their nephew could sit in. Steen agreed to let the youngster sit in, not too excited about the prospects of the player from his appearance. A couple of choruses into It’s You or No One, though, and “he could already play. I was just shocked. There was such a disconnect between the way he looked and what I thought he was going to sound like.”
When Botti moved to Portland, Ron immediately started offering him gigs and connecting him with other musicians — just the result every player hopes for when he or she sits in at the sessions. Of course, only the best get that sort of treatment from Steen, who always has high standards.
“I want people to do their best,” says Steen. “I look at the person sitting in as a guest. I don’t approach it like the old sessions where they try to make people sound bad, calling tunes in weird keys, playing real fast.” However, the likelihood that a musician sitting in at one of the sessions will get a call from Steen for a gig is pretty low unless he or she is a complete professional.
Tom Grant and Phil Baker at Clyde's (photo by John Nastos)
Pink Martini bassist Phil Baker was one of the young players to come through Steen’s jam sessions and get a call afterward for a gig. “Phil was a thoroughly complete musician at [21] — I kid you not…he was ridiculous,” says Steen.
More recently, Steen has been a mentor to Kate Davis, a young bass player who ended up playing a weekly gig at Wilf’s with Steen’s band for two years while she was still in high school. Davis does not take the lessons that she learned on that bandstand lightly. When asked about what she learned while playing with Ron, Davis responded “Ron taught me bandstand etiquette, what not to play, and most importantly, how to treat not only band-mates, but the audience. I try to remember everything I learned from that experience, and I hope to keep them a part of my playing and performing for the rest of my life.”
Since graduating from high school, Davis has moved to Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with some of New York’s top players. Whenever she returns, though, you can count on her being on the bandstand with Ron.
The rhythm section, yeah, we’re ready — what do you guys got?
Besides getting great players to sit in, Steen consistently hires some of Portland’s finest rhythm section players — guys who know the jazz songbook backwards and forwards. “You’re not going to call a tune that they don’t know. Phil Goldberg — you’re not going to stump him. You’re not going to stump George Mitchell, Steve Christofferson, Tony Pacini. The bass players — you’re not going to stump Phil Baker, Dennis Caiazza, Dave Captein, Scott Steed or Ed Bennett. The rhythm section, yeah, we’re ready — what do you guys got?” he challenges.
Today’s sessions
Today, you can find Steen leading three weekly jam sessions around town. At his longest-running session at Produce Row, there’s always a packed house on Monday nights. Since jazz musicians don’t often have gigs on Monday nights, great local players like Dave Captein and Dick Berk are often found sitting in, even if they aren’t in the house band. Also, ex-Portlanders always know to find their way back to Produce Row when they are in town for Ron Steen’s sessions. John Wiitala or Dan Faehnle may walk through the door at any moment.
Tom Grant, Phil Baker, Dan Faehnle (photo by John Nastos)
The session at Clyde’s Prime Rib, although it hasn’t been going on as long, is now a strong session as well. Although Clyde’s is a blues club during the week, the Sunday-night sessions are generally straight-ahead jazz, more often than not with a vocalist fronting the group and getting the crowd engaged. Clyde’s has developed an extremely loyal following on Sunday nights — people who show up nearly every week of the year to cheer on musicians.
And, just recently, Steen announced that he’ll be hosting an “invitational” jam session at the new NE Portland venue Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen on Fremont on Thursday nights. This month, Phil Goldberg will hold down the piano chair for that session, with Dennis Caiazza and Ed Bennett trading weeks on bass duty there. With that lineup and Steen calling the shots, it’s sure to become another great session.
To keep up with all of Ron Steen’s gigs around town, visit his website where he posts all of the jam sessions, including the lineups for the house rhythm sections.
It occurred to me that I miss the kind of little chatty, gossipy newsy pieces I used to put in my old blog. From time to time, I’m going to put up The Music and the Hang. I’m pretty lucky to have this gig.
Saturday night in Portland.
Things started at Jimmy Mak’s where the Quadraphones were supposed to play first, and the Medler Septet second, except a couple of the players in the Medlers’ band had other gigs to go to. Farnell Newton had one at ‘the Mambo Room. No sweat, except for a mom who came up to Mary Sue Tobin between sets and was a little disappointed that her underage kid, who was required to leave at 9pm, had to miss the Quads.
Lucky for the kid Medler had brought them up onstage during his set for a tune. It helps that Ben Medler’s wife Michelle is a Quad herself. They played that incredibly lovely Phillip Glass piece that they do, and then stayed onstage for the set finale, a hot version of Caravan. There were fine solos by Mieke Bruggerman on baritone sax and Newton.
Bass player anomaly of the evening #1: Dennis Caiazza played electric bass on a tune or two.
Between sets, I kidded the always well-dressed Tobin on the fact that she wore jeans to a gig at the Mission last week, when she played with David Ornette Cherry. She scoffed, laughing and saying that, hey…she was wearing a jacket and heels.
I asked if she was going to go to the Brasserie to see Chris Mosley’s first gig during his return visit to Portland. She said of course she was. At the same time, a woman came up to her and asked if she could take a picture of the top Tobin was wearing…something with delicate chains (not in the S&M sense, however). The woman said it fit a short story she was writing. After getting enough light, she took a picture of Tobin’s top, no face. Very funny.
Tobin allowed as how the outfit was a gift from her mom and that, earlier in the day, when she went shopping for an outfit to wear at the gig tonight, she thought…why should I spend all this money when I have an outfit that my mom gave me which is just as good as anything I’m finding.
And here it was immortalized in a picture AND story.
Jimmy’s was standing room only for the first show. Farnell said he had a gig to play at the Mambo Room, said he wished they had two trumpets because it was Latin music and he’d like another one to play off of. He talked about having played golf with saxophonist Michael Phillips earlier in the week and then suggested that the Quads wear golf attire and get their picture taken on the golf course for their next album.
I’m not so sure about that.
Both Caiazza and JD, the King of Jimmy Mak’s, were pro-Saints but it sounded like they had their money (should they be betting gentlemen) on Indy. I bitched about how they stole my team from me in Baltimore, even though it’s been like 25 years ago.
The Quads took the stage with Leah Hinchcliff and Ward Griffiths. If it weren’t for the Quads and the odd Rob Scheps Big Band gig, I wouldn’t know where to go hear Griffiths, and I love to go hear Ward Griffiths.
On to the Candlelight
I slipped out into the rain and went to the Candlelight to hear some of Lloyd Jones’ set. Too bad that PSU has bought the building and the club is going to have to either move or die. I hope they stay downtown. There certainly isn’t a lack of empty spots to fill…For Lease signs on every corner, seems like.
Jones was funky and bluesy and everything you’d expect or want from him. The room was impossibly crowded, of course, but that’s part of the charm. Making a note to see Gretchen Mitchell there on Tuesday.
Caught the end of the Bobby Torres set at Brasserie Montmartre.
Bass player anomaly of the evening #2: Phil Baker playing electric bass. I know he plays it, but it’s infrequent. He said it was his first time playing at the club since it reopened and that he hadn’t played the club in the last three or four years of its previous existence.
Guitarist, Chance Hayden, who helps book the room, has a new band with Devin Phillips, Scott Steed and a trombonist (John Moak or Ben Medler, or TBA) which will play traditional New Orleans Jazz. They’ll be having their debut on March 4th at Wilf’s. The band isn’t quite set for that gig yet. Stay tuned. They don’t have a name yet. If you have a suggestion sent it to Chance’s Facebook page.
Scott Steed is one of those virtuosos who is known internationally but never plays around town (except for the odd Ron Steen Jam gig). Will be very exciting to hear him in this (or any) band.
Chris Mosely’s band was hanging out before their 11:30 show. He had Russ Kleiner on drums and Sam Howard on bass. Howard walked in in a fully tailored three-piece suit and tie, prompting admiringly snarky comments from his bandmates (and me). He said he had just come from a Valentine’s Day party that Ben Darwish had also attended. He thought Darwish had gone to play with Farnell Newton at the Mambo Club.
He also said that he was not playing at the party, just attending, so it was ok for him to eat the food. His new album is coming out soon. We’ll give you the first listen on OMN next week.
Mosley seemed to be genuinely happy to be back in Portland, not that he’s moving back, just glad to be reunited with his old bandmates and friends.
His beautiful sound was intact (nobody thought it wouldn’t be). What surprised everyone was that he started with a Kenny Burrell tune “Chittlins Con Carne,” a straight ahead minor blues which he attacked with obvious pleasure. Later, he told me it was the first jazz tune he had ever learned. He had apparently put some thought into what he would play first on his first gig back in town.
The subtlety and sublimeness of the moment was interrupted by a boar at the table next to me who had been roaring about his gambling exploits and showing off to a couple of women. After he got abusive, he and his friends got the bum’s rush. I found out later that the two women he was with had been discovered having sex in a stall in the ladies room.
Nuff said, but I’m still laughing.
Mosley continued. What have his months away taught us? How rich and unique and expressive his sound is. And how much we miss it. All three were joyful and playful, the reunion brought out the best in each of them, and that’s a lot of best.
Bass player anomaly of the evening #3: Sam Howard playing upright bass. Ok, maybe not so much anomaly. Maybe more I haven’t seen him play acoustic for awhile.
They were joined by singer Lindsey Stormo and (sit down) did “Nature Boy.”
Of course the band did some Mosley originals, filling the room with thought. Thought? Yes, you know, when the music is so good that you go somewhere else and it inspires thinking.
Not that I’ve ever had an original thought, but it’s nice revisiting other people’s.
Andrew Oliver sat in on piano for a fast bop finale. He had been drinking some sort of exotic beer. I guess if you’re at the Bra, PBR is just not the thing to do. Between sets the band gathered around the bar. Was a lot of laughing about the two women in the ladies room.
Mary Sue Tobin showed up and joined the band on soprano sax.
About 1:20am I decided it was about time to hit it. I like to walk out of a club while the music is playing and let it do a natural fade in my ears. I hope the Bra continues their late night shows.
Nice music. Nice hang. Dan Faehnle tonight. Oh boy.
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