The New Jazz
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THE NEW There’s never been a better time to listen to jazz in Columbus. It’s played nearly every night EDITED BY ANTHONY Jazz DOMINICAge AND of the week in bars, clubs KRISTEN SCHMIDT and in the city’s vaunted PHOTOS BY TESSA BERG cultural institutions. ILLUSTRATIONS BY We can go out and hear REMIE GEOFFROI Tony Monaco and Bobby Floyd play the keys. See STORIES BY ANTHONY DOMINIC, TRISTAN Byron Stripling direct the EDEN, JOEL OLIPHINT, Columbus Jazz Orchestra. KRISTEN SCHMIDT, MICHELLE SULLIVAN, Play the recordings of EMILY THOMPSON AND local greats like Rusty PETER TONGUETTE Bryant, Hank Marr and Gene Walker. Haven’t caught the groove yet? Let us show you how. 52 COLUMBUS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 DECEMBER 2014 COLUMBUS MONTHLY 53 The relationship between a musician and his or her instrument is—as most Columbus players will tell A TO LISTEN HERE you—beyond words. We asked three of the Colum- Jazz A LOVE bus Jazz Orchestra’s most accomplished instrumen- Six great jazz venues in Columbus talists to take us back to when they first picked up A: AABA FORM their instruments and why, decades later, they are Chances are, you’ve SHORT NORTH still driven to hone their craft. listened to this song BROTHERS DRAKE MEADERY SUPREME form (also known 1 This meadery has slowly evolved from a pro- as 32-bar form) duction facility to include a bar, a food truck hundreds of times, and a robust musical calendar. The intimate whether you realized space lends itself to jazz in particular, with its it or not. Rooted in cabaret seating and, mellow atmosphere. Tin Pan Alley music, Park it: Grab a small table in front. AABA describes a Sip it: The Ohio Gold ($9), with Apple Pie melodic deviation in mead, bourbon, ginger liqueur and a splash the bridge, or the third of ginger beer, is deceptively smooth. line, of a verse (think Post-show munchies: Stay put and order “Heart and Soul” by from house food truck Tokyo Go Go. Larry Clinton or “Sail- brothersdrake.com boat in the Moonlight” Birdshack performs jazz at by Billie Holiday). OLD NORTH Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza. DICK’s DEN 2 This has been the spot for club jazz in Columbus since the 1960s. Dick’s Den is the WORTHINGTON epitome of a classic dive bar with cobbled- NATALIE’s COAL-Fired PizzA AND LIVE MUSIC together space, a dearth of fussy drinks and a 4 Jazz has been part of the mix—along with Americana, country, blues and rock—since this : pool table in the back. Worthington spot opened in 2012. Music and pizza are stars with equal billing at Natalie’s, B BEBOP Swing and big bands Park it: A favorite perch is next to the short where tables are positioned perpendicular to the small stage and every seat in the house weren’t wooing divider wall that runs parallel to the bar. has an equally good view of the glowing pizza oven. The jazz brunch on Sunday is excel- everyone in the 1940s. Sip it: Check out the selection of bottled lent and family-friendly. Saxophonist Charlie craft beer or keep it old-school with whiskey. Park it: Ask for one of the high-top tables along the far wall for the best all-room views. Parker and trumpeter Post-show munchies: The Blue Danube, a Sip it: The amazing bloody mary, with pepper-spiked vodka and, yep, pizza sauce in the mix Dizzy Gillespie were few doors down, keeps the dive vibe going. Post-show munchies: If you do it right, you won’t have room. dicksdencolumbus.com among the first musicians to develop DOWNTOWN ARENA DISTRICT KINg-LINCOLN DISTRICT increasingly fast-tempo De-NOVO PARK STREET TAVERN ZANZIBAR BREWS arrangements with 3 Proprietor Yavonne Sarber opened De- 5 This unassuming bar is the flip side of the 6 By day, it’s a spot for breakfast, lunch and syncopated melodies— Novo in 2011 shortly after closing Vonn rambunctious Park Street nightlife scene. coffeehouse activity. By night, it’s a space music that was decid- Jazz, her popular North Side jazz club, and The only hollering you’re likely to hear during for musical and spoken-word performance, edly undanceable. she brought the music with her. De-Novo’s a Tuesday night jazz jam is encouragement complete with a full bar. Visit the Facebook space has sarber’s signature dramatic for the musicians—and they deserve it. Saxo- page to keep up with bookings. C: COOL JAZZ decorative flourish. musicians typically phonist Pete Mills leads a quartet through a Park it: The sight lines in this narrow space Cool is the flip side perform on Friday and Saturday during din- first set before inviting drop-in musicians on aren’t great, but you’ll be able to hear every- to bebop. Sure, ner service (check the Facebook page for stage to jam. thing from any seat in the house. it sounds hip, but upcoming acts). Park it: Jazz jam starts at 8:30 p.m., but the Sip it: For a night show, try a cocktail at the the name actually Park it: The bar area is neither too far from bar doesn’t get busy until 10 or so. Arrive bar or choose from the long list of specialty BOBBY FLOYD refers to a musical or too close to the musicians. early to get prime seating close to the stage. coffee drinks. Age: 59 color palette—think slow tempos, gentle Sip it: A glass of wine or a specialty cocktail Sip it: bourbon—the selection is surprising. Post-show munchies: Skip out a little early Lives in: Pickerington Post-show munchies: Grab late-night fried Post-show munchies: Head to Mikey’s to order jambalaya at Creole Kitchen before melodies and classical Instrument: Piano cheese curds or poutine at Little Palace. Late Night Slice for Spicy-Ass Pepperoni. they close at 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. influences. The style denovobistro.com parkstreettavern.com zanzibarbrews.biz Pictured with: Steinway baby was popularized by grand piano Miles Davis’ seminal Started playing at: 2 years old “Birth of the Cool” Member of the CJO for: 10 years (released in 1957; recorded from 1949 to ’50) and its play- Eugene “Gene” Walker (1938–2014) I tried playing other instruments. I ers, like saxophonist kind of got into playing saxophone, Lee Konitz. COLUMBUS JAZZ FOUNDING FATHER and I tried to play bass when I was Tenor saxophone little. But I was so at home on the : Walker, who attended East High School, was a “classic example of a street player who everybody wanted to play like and piano; I would always go back to it. D DIXIELAND This joyful and often sound like,” says Ohio State University lecturer Jim Rupp. Walker played alongside Aretha Franklin and Neil Diamond, And there are other things in life rambunctious music, and he was a member of an act that opened for The Beatles in 1965. “He was there in old Mets Stadium when it all that I enjoy doing, but I felt like I also known as hot started in the United States,” says Ray Eubanks, founder of the Jazz Arts Group. Late in life, Walker earned a degree couldn’t master those things like I’d jazz, was born in New from Ohio State. Ted McDaniel, director of jazz studies at Ohio State, says Walker was “a walking encyclopedia for mastered the piano. students and always willing to help out in any way that he could.” Walker later taught at Ohio State, too. Orleans in the early 54 COLUMBUS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 DECEMBER 2014 COLUMBUS MONTHLY 55 Rusty Bryant (1929–1991) A TOJazz COLUMBUS JAZZ FOUNDING FATHER Tenor and alto saxophone 20th century. The Bryant (born in West Virginia but raised in Columbus) could play both tenor and alto saxophone with equal proficiency. Original Dixieland “Rusty had that big boss tenor sound, and he could fill a room with that tenor. But when he would switch to alto sax, he Jazz Band popularized sounded like Cannonball [Adderley],” says Jim Rupp, a lecturer at Ohio State. A big break came with “All Nite Long,” a influential polyphonic re-imagination of “Night Train,” which Bryant “energized … by doubling the tempo,” according to the book “Ohio Jazz.” arrangements, in The Dot record of “All Nite Long” sold about 700,000 copies, and a 1954 item in Billboard quotes a disk distributor say- which a single, steady ing the record “has taken hold with operators at greater speed … than any other record in his experience.” melody is flanked by improvisation. UNSPOKEN A TOJazz from one chord to ETIQUETTE another, in style. E: EMBOUCHURE Most wind players H: HALF-TIME will tell you the key to What to know before going If a band begins play- achieving perfect pitch to a jazz show ing in half-time, the is to blow through, rhythm instrumentalists not into, an instrument. Even for those who frequent double their tempo (or This French term concerts, going to a jazz show begin playing the same (rooted in the word for the first time can feel like a arrangement in half as “bouche,” or mouth) completely different experience. much time) while the describes the varying “There’s a lot of spontaneity in the lead melody remains manner in which a at the same, fixed musician uses facial genre in general,” says Kimberlee tempo. This is the muscles, lips, teeth and Hall, the concert and events venue she opened in Goodman, orchestra and produc- opposite of double- tongue to produce the 1988, closed in 2008.