Friday, January 27
Longtime D.C. alto saxophonist Antonio Parker is one of the city's busiest, most reliable musicians, a first-call player and a regular leader in his own right (especially at HR-57, where he plays weekly) with perhaps the firmest grasp of the blues of any jazz sax around. He's kept so busy, in fact, that [...]
Thursday, May 26
The great Albert Ayler once placed himself as the Holy Ghost in an avant-spiritual jazz trinity. Coltrane was the Father. The Son? That would be Pharoah Sanders. A tenor saxophonist like the others in the trinity, Sanders was the voice of raw spiritual fervor on Coltrane’s last and most difficult albums, then a [...]
Photo: Prince of Petworth.
"We finally got it open!" Drummer Jimmy "Junebug" Jackson exclaimed to applause when he hit the stage Friday, sitting in on a number during HR-57's soft re-opening.
Once inside, this writer knew it was a mistake not to have brought a camera. The new H Street location of HR-57 is quite different from [...]
Update 8:06 AM: While HR-57's Twitter still says this weekend is a "soft opening," this morning the club's website lists the details of Parker's set (9:00 PM to 1:00 AM tonight and tomorrow, $12 admission), but declares it a grand opening. New location, same muddled communication.
Update 7:05 PM:CapitalBop (which was burned on the same subject [...]
Tonight, Jan. 20
The rise of young Miguel Zenon has brought renewed attention on the jazz strands of Puerto Rico, but the Island of Enchantment has a long, long lineage in the music from Juan Tizol to Tito Puente to David Sanchez. Puente remains the king; if there's a Crown Prince of Puerto Rican jazz, however, [...]
JAN. 15
Every Friday night for the past 11 years, one of DC's best nights — and best bargains — for local jazz has taken place far away from the clubs and other usual suspects. I speak, of course, of Jazz Night in Southwest at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, where the music takes place right in [...]
Nov. 27
Antonio Parker is a smallish-built fellow, with dapper dress and a huge smile. His looks may leave you unprepared for his sound on the saxophone: 100 percent pure brawn. So much muscle is flexed in any one of his solos that his astonishing harmonic sense—trumpeter Kenny Rittenhouse notes how he "devours the changes"—can almost be overlooked. Not [...]
