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Collective Action: The Third Law Collective Records Saturday

Published 25 April, 2024 By John Chacona

The last year or so has seen an explosion of recordings by Cleveland improvising artists such as Kent Engelhardt and Stephen Enos, Kevin Martinez’s Reclamation Band, Alla Boara, Bobby Selvaggio, TRIAD, a new project by Dominic Farinacci (more about that one soon) and a forthcoming Cleveland Jazz Orchestra anniversary release.

Into this hive of activity by established artists comes an ambitious live recording date Saturday night by a band that is scarcely more than a year old. Youthful overreach? Not when the band is the Third Law, the composers collective that is a veritable all-ages writers room for some of the most interesting large ensemble jazz being made around here.

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Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, Jan. 25-31

Published 25 January, 2024 By John Chacona

Friendly Experiencers,

It seems like a very long time since I counted down the week’s jazz and jazz-adjacent events in this space. Blame the inevitable thinning of events around the holidays, some scheduling anomalies as the new year began and some unforeseen family issues at let’s call this HQ. Still, the welcome thaw that erased some of last week’s snowfall has also started to warm the live music scene as well, and this week’s varied menu of shows, from rigorous improv to instrumental R&B (we don’t use the “smooth” word here) is evidence that better and more musical days are just ahead.

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Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, Dec. 14-21

Published 13 December, 2023 By John Chacona

This is the time of year when the live music scene cools a bit, but gentle readers of let’s call this, let nothing you dismay. A sleighful of holiday shows by some of Northeast Ohio brightest vocalists more than picks up the slack. Even if you feel a little Scrooge-y about seasonal favorites, our quartet of singers are here to offer you a cookie tray of holiday treats both salty and sweet. So dig in, dig?

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Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, Nov. 9-15

Published 9 November, 2023 By John Chacona

Emily Kuhn — *photocredit: Zack Sievers*

The Bay City Rollers didn’t make the Rock Hall this year, but here at Countdown, their most famous lyric line resonates:: “S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, night!” That’s the night when jazz fans in NEO have some difficult decisions to make, but with three great shows in Cleveland and Akron, there are no wrong answers–and we’re here to help.

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Sam Blakeslee Returns To Akron With Charts & ‘Flowers’

Published 17 October, 2023 By John Chacona

photocredit: Desmond White

In the midst of a recording session with his New York big band, Columbus-born, Brooklyn-based trombonist, composer and arranger Sam Blakeslee noticed an interesting dynamic among the players.

“On the first take everyone in the band was like, ‘Who are these people? Why are they playing like this, because it just sounds so different? Why haven’t I heard stuff like this before?’” Blakeslee’s answer: “Because it’s Cleveland.”

“These people,” saxophonists Chris Coles and Nathan-Paul Davis, and the cream of Northeast Ohio’s jazz community, will join Blakeslee on the stage of BLU Jazz+ this weekend for a homecoming so packed with music that it will take two nights to play it all.

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Tag: New York

Collective Action: The Third Law Collective Records Saturday

Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, Jan. 25-31

Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, Dec. 14-21

Countdown: Where To Go & What To Hear In NEO, Nov. 9-15

Sam Blakeslee Returns To Akron With Charts & ‘Flowers’