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Tigran Hamasyan’s Manifeste Destiny

Published 3 March, 2026 By John Chacona

Tigran Hamasyan is a man with a foot in each of two worlds, both geographically and temporally.

“Basically, I love telling stories,” Hamasyan told me to begin our interview. “And throughout my discography, there’s this aspect that each song tells a story through music.” It’s the kind of thing you might expect to hear from any musician, but the fact that Hamasyan said this from his home in Yerevan, Armenia, one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, gives his comment the weight of an ancient culture steeped In stories.

It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter . . .

Published 17 February, 2026 By John Chacona

Summer’s sudden arrival in northeast Ohio has everybody emerging from their deep-winter isolation and hitting the streets. Cabin fever is breaking for national and touring jazz artists, too, and they are hitting area stages en masse this week.

With so many worthwhile shows in the next seven days, I’ll offer a kind of consumer’s guide to where to go and who to hear. There’s a wide range of music on offer this week; you really can’t go wrong with any of these shows.

Countdown . . .

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Civil Disobedience Keeps The Flame Of 1960s Resistance Alive

Published 10 February, 2026 By John Chacona

Civil Disobedience band — Civil Disobedience (from left): Bruce Barth, David Ambrosio, Donny McCaslin, Jason Palmer, Victor Lewis (obscured)

Like many older fans, I’ve been waiting for a movement among jazz musicians to respond to the civil unrest and uprisings that have roiled the country for the last six years or so. The time seemed right for a new generation to follow the example of artists such as Archie Shepp, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln and make strong, forthright statements decrying injustice and state-sanctioned violence.

On Friday night at BOP STOP, Civil Disobedience, a quintet assembled by bassist David Ambrosio, will keep the flame of the ’60s alive, not just rhetorically, but musically as well.

Nathan-Paul’s Age of Aquarius Dawns At Edwin’s

Published 27 January, 2026 By John Chacona

Nathan-Paul Davis at RCB&J — Nathan-Paul Davis at Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival

Nathan-Paul Davis makes this statement at the top of his Linktree page:

"I play energy, not notes!" Nathan-Paul calls his music SOUND MEDICINE.

Anyone who has heard Davis play will recognize that he is simply stating facts. No cap. No flex. The energy in a typical Nathan-Paul performance could power a dozen AI server farms for a month.

Thursday night finds the saxophonist in an unusual setting: playing a birthday gig, in this case, his own. The setting, Edwin’s Leadership & Restaurant Institute, is at once familiar, but different.

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In The Heart of CVNP, Happy Days Is Here For Jazz

Published 20 January, 2026 By John Chacona

Jazz is an unmistakably urban phenomenon.

Just saying the word summons images of a New York street teeming with swells in their snap-brim fedoras, cigarette rakishly dangling from their mouths with evening gown-clad women on their arms. A noir film come to life with the soundtrack of half a dozen bands beckoning from the doors of basement clubs. The last place you might expect to find jazz might be a place deep in the woods, maybe in the middle of a national park in the dead of winter.

Yet that is exactly where, on four nights between now and April, top-shelf jazz can be heard thanks to an innovative and welcome partnership between the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival.

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For Don Was And The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “Everything’s On The Table”

Published 13 January, 2026 By John Chacona

When I dropped my preview of last February’s concert by Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, my friend Aric from San Francisco, a former Anthony Braxton student who is among the most astute listeners I know, wrote to admonish me. “Do NOT miss this. I saw em twice last year and was thrilled. Great stuff.”

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John Chacona writes Posts

Tigran Hamasyan’s Manifeste Destiny

It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter . . .

Civil Disobedience Keeps The Flame Of 1960s Resistance Alive

Nathan-Paul’s Age of Aquarius Dawns At Edwin’s

In The Heart of CVNP, Happy Days Is Here For Jazz

For Don Was And The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “Everything’s On The Table”