Although HR-57 advertised last night's screening/score performance of Elevator to the Gallows as featuring the Thad Wilson Big Band, the evening actually found Wilson leading a quintet, featuring 19-year-old Elijah Jamal Balbed on tenor sax and D.C. veterans John Ozment (piano), Michael Bowie (bass), and Jimmy "Junebug" Jackson (drums). More appropriate, since the film was [...]

Oct. 9
SaltmanKnowles has a single ambition: Melody. Bassist Mark Saltman and pianist William Knowles, both Howard music graduates and veterans of the D.C. scene, started the quintet specifically to combat the riffs and noodling they kept hearing; they want music that's about lyrical tunes and memorable hooks. Their lush compositions make great ammunition for that cause, [...]

Thad Wilson's Ugetzu Big Band, the Monday-night fixture at Bohemian Caverns, is this weekend celebrating the release of their new CD Movin' On. (Disclosure: I authored the liner notes, gratis, for the disc.) Tonight they appear at the weekly Jazz Night festivities at Westminster Presbyterian Church in SW. It's a low-key neighborhood gig, but it's [...]