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Diverse
Jazz Quintet from Kansas City
Sunday, March 14
7 PM
$10.
 
 
Diverse is a group made up of like minded musicians who create music with feelings and emotions that connect with many people. They play with a blend of styles and genres to create music that finds wider appeal without sacrificing the integrity of their musicality. The members of Diverse are able to create a contemporary and unique sound while keeping the jazz tradition alive through their Kansas City roots. The group consists of Hermon Mehari (1st Place- 2008 National Trumpet Competition) on trumpet, Ryan Lee on drums, Ben Leifer (Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Participant) on bass, and John Brewer on the piano and Rhodes.

Still in their 20s, the members have collectively performed with a number of renown musicians, including Bobby Watson, Jaleel Shaw, Kenny Loggins, Wycliffe Gordon, Keny Burrell, Hubert Laws, Jon Faddis, T. S. Monk, Mike Moreno, Louis Hayes, James Moody, Robin Eubanks, Randy Brecker, Vincent Herring, Justin DiCioccio, Michael Carvin, Logan Richardson, Linda Randle, and Queen Bey as well many others.

Diverse just released a self-titled album on Origin Records (“Jazz Label of the Year” – Jazz Week) that features Bobby Watson as the producer and as a guest artist on one track. This project with Origin Records was a result of Diverse winning the 2008 Gene Harris Jazz Competition held in Boise, Idaho which consisted of 11 competing groups from around the country.

Don't miss the exciting young jazz quintet from Kansas City, Diverse, live at Nighttown on Sunday, March 14th.

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** New Date 
Mike Baggetta Quartet
Mike Baggetta-guitar, Jason Rigby-Saxophone, Eivind Opsvik- Bass , George Schuller-Drums
Monday Mar 15
7:30PM
$10.
 
Mike Bagetta Quartet's "Olive Tree"
 
Guitarist Mike Baggetta is one of his generations most original jazz improvisors and composers.  He has performed and/or recorded with Tom Harrell, Conrad Herwig, Ralph Bowen, Adam Kolker, George Schuller, Jeff Hirshfield, Ken Filiano, Jamie Baum, Tony Reedus, Steve LaSpina, Bill McHenry, Matt Wilson, Lukas Ligeti, Joe Fonda, Kevin Norton, Bucky Pizzarelli and Ruth Brown among many others.  It has been said that his performances are "totally compelling" (Jazz Journal - UK), "his melodic sense is truly beautiful" (Jazzreview .com) and that "each piece he performs creates new worlds of possibilities" (The Hartford Courant). 

Mike Baggetta recently received an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award for his compositional talent, and the first album of his works for the Mike Baggetta Quartet - "Small Spaces" - has recently been released on the Fresh Sound New Talent label.  His musical studies have been insightfully guided by Ted Dunbar, Vic Juris, Stanley Cowell and Jim Hall.

Hailed as a truly lyrical musician and "New York's rising star of tenor sax," Jason Rigby has performed, toured and recorded as a leader of his own band and has contributed as a sideman to a number of musically creative ventures. He has released two outstanding albums on Fresh Sound New Talent and performs with Cameron Brown, David Binney and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

Norwegian bassist and sound artist Eivind Opsvik contributes to a wealth of imaginative NYC based bands as well as leading his own provocative groups Overseas and Opsvik + Jennings. He has performed and recorded with the likes of Tony Malaby, David Binney, Bill Frisell and Paul Motian.

Veteran jazz drummer George Schuller has worked with a who's who of the international jazz scene including Lee Konitz, Dave Douglas, Mose Allison, Gunther Schuller, Fred Hersch and Joe Lovano among many others.  He has received grants for musical composition from the NEA and the Massachusetts Artist Foundation.  He also leads the band Circle Wide featuring Donny McCaslin and Brad Shepik.
 
Don't miss the NYC based Mike Baggetta Quartet featuring Cleveland native Jason Rigby on sax live at Nighttown on Monday, March 15th.

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St Patrick's Day with The New Barleycorn Wednesday March 17 Shows/Seatings at 5:30 & 8PM $20 Click here for an archive copy of a live performance of New Barleycorn on WCPN 90.3FM's "Around Noon" with host Dee Perry Join us at Nighttown for a rollicking night of fun, food and drink with The New Barleycorn. As only a truly Irish restaurant can do it. Both Alec and John were born and raised in Ireland in counties Dublin and Down where they learned to play music at an early age, they have both performed professionally since their teenage years both enjoying considerable success with their respective careers. John Delaney a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Irish group 'Barleycorn', joined forces with Alec DeGabriele nine years ago to form 'The New Barleycorn', after the other finished a 24 year run ending in 1995.  John plays, 5 string and tenor banjos, mandolin, guitar, whistle and bodhran. He also has played banjo on many other Irish artists' recordings. Alec DeGabriele spent his formative years learning the business of music, theatre and entertaining with his families traveling theatrical show, 'The Shannon Players', which was well known and highly regarded throughout Ireland.  Alec plays guitar and bass and was the band leader with a top Irish Show Band for some years before deciding to come to live in the U.S.A. Don't miss St Patrick's Day at Nighttown!! www.thenewbarleycorn.com

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Greg Bandy Quartet & Friends                     
Featuring: Eve Cornelious-vocals, Chip Crawford-keyboards, Bob Ferrazza-guitar,
 & Special Guests TBA.
Thurs., March 18
8 PM
$20.
 
Greg Bandy with Eddie Henderson
 
Now based in New York City, drummer Greg Bandy is a perennial favorite in the Cleveland area and also enjoys an international reputation.  Bandy has toured with several major jazz artists including Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, and Olu Dara.  Additionally he has lead his own groups extensively.  He has taken his groups far and wide, making appearances throughout North America, Europe, and in such far away destinations as Japan and Ghana, Africa.  A percussionist of distinction Greg takes inspiration from drummers like Art Blakey and Elvin Jones.  In the past 30 years Greg has made toured the world extensively and recorded prolifically.  During that time he has was based in NYC from 1977-97, back in Cleveland from 97-06, and has been in NYC again from 06-to the present.

Rounding out the Quartet for Bandy's Birthday Bash are three outstanding musicians.  Coming in from NYC with Bandy will be vocalist Eve Cornelious and keyboard artist Chip Crawford, who have been collaborating for over 10 years.  Rounding out the group will be old time Bandy friend and Oberlin based guitarist Bob Ferrazza.   Special Guests for this evening are TBA.
 
 
Eve Cornelious
Eve Cornelious has enjoyed a remarkable career, touring Europe, Japan, and Cuba with Roy Hargrove, Jon Hendricks, Chucho Valdez, Mulgrew Miller, Carl Allen, Rodney Whitaker, Mark Whitfield, and Tim Warfield. She has peformed to critical acclaim at festivals around the world, including North Sea, Monterey, Montreaux, Newport, Middleheim, and the JVC Jazz Festival at Lincoln Center. She has recorded with Norman Conners and Ramsey Lewis.
 
Chip Crawford
Chip Crawford began his career at Berklee College of Music in the early 70's and within a year found himself touring and recording with such music legends as the Four Tops and Billy Eckstein. In 1974, Chip formed the group Workshoppe which attracted the attention of Weather Report founder and producer Joe Zawinul.
His association with jazz giants continued through the next two decades, as he worked extensively with Donald Byrd. He has also been a long-standing arranger for Miles Davis' producer Teo Macero.

Bob Ferrazza
Guitarist Bob Ferrazza was born in Cleveland Ohio and has been a professional musician over 20 years. Ferrazza began his studies with legendary guitarist Bill deArango and has since studied with Joe Pass and Pat Martino.  Ferrazza has performed regularly in jazz clubs and concert halls around the world from New York City’s Blue Note and Birdland to The Bottom Line in Japan and countless others in between. Ferrazza has performed with many great jazz musicians including, Joey DeFrancesco, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Jack McDuff, Billy Hart, Fathead Newman, Slide Hampton, Joe Lovano, JJ Johnson and many others.
 
Don't miss the return of drummer Greg Bandy when he celebrates his birthday in his hometown with an All-Star NYC/Cleveland Quartet and very special guests TBA.
 

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Hot Club of Detroit
with Special Guests Anat Cohen & Howard Alden
Friday, March 19
8 PM
$25.
 
Hot Club of Detroit EPK
Hot Club of Detroit's "Night Town" from their album "Night Town" (mp3)
Click here for an archive copy of a live performance of the Hot Club of Detroit on WCPN 90.3FM's "Around Noon" with host Dee Perry
 

Back in 1930s Paris, the Hot Club de France kept music fans jumping and dance floors filled to their intricate and lively brand of gypsy jazz.  In 21st century Detroit, the fans are jumpin' and the dance floors are filled, this time to the sound of the Hot Club of Detroit, an electrifying and visionary ensemble that takes the traditions pioneered by Django Reinhardt and company and spins them in a way that's both reverent and refreshingly contemporary.
 
As guitarist and group leader Evan Perri explains, "We want to spread the music and keep the gypsy spirit alive. But we're from Detroit. Our influences come from stuff we grew up listening to here in Detroit.  We just want to make music that's true to the spirit of Django but that's also true to ourselves."
 
The first recorded document of that philosophy is "Hot Club of Detroit", a 13-song collection and brimming with the energy and focus of a band honed to truly hot form. The repertoire is also a testament to their breadth and stylistic facility.

The Hot Club of Detroit released their second CD "Night Town"  in 2008.  This CD  features the  composition "Night Town" by Evan Perri.  The composition and album title were inspired by the Hot Club's past successful engagements at Nighttown.
 
Currently The Hot Club of Detroit is touring in support of their brand new Mack Avenue CD "It's About that Time", which will heat the streets on April 27 of this year.  Nighttown fans will get a special sneak preview of this material and will have the opportunity to buy the CD at Nighttown before it hits the stores.
 

Anat Cohen
"In many ways she’s an ideal: well prepared, passionately literate in music far outside her local circle, an improviser with gusto. She understands how dance rhythms leaven and quicken jazz. Her piece “La Casa del Llano,” moving between five-beat and two-beat bounces, was tight with energy. And she has a full, even, unsqueaking tone, especially on the clarinet, an instrument that could use another distinctive voice in jazz."
- Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

Idiomatically conversant with modern and traditional jazz, classical music, Brazilian choro, Argentine tango, and an expansive timeline of Afro-Cuban styles, Anat Cohen has established herself as one of the primary voices of her generation on both the tenor saxophone and clarinet since arriving in New York in 1998.
                                                      
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Anat grew up with musical siblings; her older brother, Yuval, is himself a saxophonist of note, and her younger brother, Avishai, is one of New York’s busiest trumpeters.

In 1996, Anat headed to Boston to matriculate at Berklee College of Music.  During her Berklee years, Anat visited New York during breaks between semesters, making a beeline for Smalls to soak up the hybrid of grooves, world music and mainstream jazz that people like Jason Lindner and Omer Avital—a high school bandmate of her older brother—were then evolving. 
  
Once in NYC, Anat worked with a variety of ensembles.  Anat plays with New York Samba Jazz, a modernist quintet led by Brazilian drum master Duduka Da Fonseca, and with her brothers as “The Three Cohens”. She has long held the lead tenor saxophone chair in Sherrie Maricle’s Diva Jazz Orchestra, the top-shelf all-woman big band, with which she has toured the world. Since 2004, she has played the music of Louis Armstrong with David Ostwald’s “Gully Low Jazz Band”. She has explored the music of Bix Beiderbecke, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and their Pan-American contemporaries. Anat currently leads a young quartet with guitarist Gilad Hekselman, bassist Eduardo Perez, and drummer Ferenc Nemeth. Her playing and studying of a wide range of musical styles has culminated in her finding her own distinctive musical voice.
 

Howard Alden
"He may be the best of his generation," writes Owen Cordle in JazzTimes. George Kanzler of the Newark Star Ledger proclaims that he is "the most impressive and creative member of a new generation of jazz guitarists." And Chip Deffaa of the New York Post observes that he is "...one of the very finest young guitarists working today."

It seems that the only thing regarding Howard Alden on which the critics have debate is whether the remarkable jazz guitarist is one of the best or simply the best.

Howard Alden has been a Concord Jazz recording artist since the late '80s where his prolific recorded output as leader, co-leader, and versatile sideman, has captured an artist of consistently astonishing virtuosity and originality.
 
As a result of his associating with - and inspiration from - George Van Eps, Alden has been playing the seven-string guitar  since 1992. The seven string guitar imparts a greater range and harmonic richness to Alden's already colorful tonal palette, as evidenced on three remarkable follow-up albums with Van Eps, his critically acclaimed duo recordings with saxophonist/clarinetist Ken Peplowski, and the stunning interplay between Alden and special guest Frank Wess on Your Story - The Music of Bill Evans . Alden also teamed up with fellow guitarists Jimmy Bruno and Frank Vignola to record a three guitar outing entitled The Concord Jazz Guitar Collective , which was quickly called by some critics "an instant classic!"

Howard can be heard on the soundtrack to the 1999 Woody Allen movie "Sweet and Lowdown", starring Sean Penn, who was also nominated for an Academy Award for his role as a legendary jazz guitarist in the '30s. Howard not only played all the guitar solos, but also coached Mr. Penn on playing the guitar for his role in the film. In 2004 Howard was the guitarist(and musical director) chosen for an all-star line-up commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, touring 50 cities of the United States in addition to their appearance at the Newport Festival. The 2005-2006 season saw Howard adding his acoustic guitar voice to violinist Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing on his national concert tour.

Don't miss the Hot Club of Detroit with very special guests Anat Cohen and Howard Alden, when they debut material from their new CD "It's About that Time" and more live at Nighttown on Friday, March 19th.

Nighttown Reservation and Seating Policy We only take reservations by calling Nighttown at 216-795-0550.  All seats are General Admission.  All seating is based on the time that you arrive for the show and based on how many people are in your party and where we have tables of that size.  If you are not at Nighttown by 10 minutes before the show, your reservation may be given away to others waiting for a seat.  We don't use any ticketing agency and as a result the ticket price you see is all we charge, saving our customers excessive fees.  All tickets are to be paid in cash.