JAZZER SIZED-UP SHOWCASE
----with--------
Jazz Saxaphonist and Recording Artist : Tom Tallitsch [6pm]
...www.tomtallitsch.com
New Tricks Jazz [7pm]
www.newtricksjazz.com
Beninghove's Hangmen [8pm] http://beninghoveshangmen.
with special performances by The
JC Slam http://www.facebook.com/je
PSI Certified ...... Slammer approved! Birthed from the mental wombs of Jersey City Poets, was JC Slam! Offering the community a "Poetic Cornucopia" geared toward personal and environmental empowerment.
JC Slam is a certified member of Poetry Slam, Inc. (PSI). Producing an event that offers diversity in a competition with National implications. We pride ourselves in the willingness to combine forces with all branches of art and education to better equip our communities and keep them rounded.
---start times are sharp---
about the bands :
TOM TALLITSCH [6pm]
www.tomtallitsch.com
"Cleveland, Ohio native Tom Tallitsch currently lives in Hamilton, NJ. A saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, composer and jazz radio host, he is the founding director of the Central NJ Homeschool Bands, works as a piano tutor to students with autism at The Princeton Child Development Institute, and was a member of the artist faculty at Mercer County Community College from 1999-2006. Previous teaching positions include The Westminster Conservatory, the Philadelphia Clef Club, the Creative Music Studios and The Groove Academy. Tallitsch is the organizer of the non-profit arts organization “Living Arts Outreach, Inc.” This recording features Tallitsch working with Philadelphia area artists including John Stenger on piano, guitarist Victor Baker, bassist Paul Gehman and Justin Leigh on drums. All eight tracks were composed by Tallitsch.
As a composer Tallitsch’s compositions grow and slowly evolve rather than take the more traditional head-solo-head arrangement. This is more a reflection of the intuitive leanings of the ensemble as a whole than any outside construed influence. Leigh’s brilliant drum work drives each of the tracks forward on to new vistas, but in different ways. Sometimes he allows things to grow organically, as on “Swirl,” and sometimes he’s more in the front,” as on “Conscious Contact.” What he never is, however, is uninvolved. Intuitively tied into the musicians around him, his brilliant technique is a wonderful foil to the long lines Tallitsch has a tendency to unfurl.
As a saxophonist Tallitsch is all about building solos, taking the listener on a journey. An obvious student of the jazz art form, Tallitsch knows how to take the harmonic possibilities his compositions include and craft soloistic lines that move forward towards greater and greater emotional highs. With such an incredibly empathetic group of musicians around him, the results are almost always wonderful.
The accompanying ensemble makes the most of Tallitsch’s music. Stenger’s piano, many times call upon to play swirling and quickly repeated ostinato-ish figurations, as on “Propellerhead” and “Red Giant,” among others, is sensitive almost to a fault. Careful to remain an accompanist, his comping choices sometimes lack a bit of bite, but you can’t fault his abilities as his solos throughout the disc are exquisite. Gehman’s bass work reacts more than connects, but there is so much introspective playing going on around him you can’t fault him. In the growing canon of recorded work by Tallitsch Perspective offers another fine example of the work by this continually growing and developing artist."
NEW TRICKS JAZZ [7pm]
www.newtricksjazz.com
In case you needed to be reminded appearances—
and preconceptions—are often deceiving.
Take the latest disc by the NYC-area quartet
New Tricks—two horns, bass, and drums. One
might think the contents are going to be post-
Ornette Coleman “out” jazz. Wrong—this foursome
forgoes the presence of a chordal instrument
(like piano or guitar) not to “depart” from a
conventional semblance of harmony but to emphasize
harmony. So Alternate Side superficially
evokes the classic Ornette Coleman Quartet(s) of
the 1950s, the style is surging, hard-swinging
hard bop a la Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, and
Art Blakey, with wee touches of free jazz (as
defined by Don Cherry, Dave Douglas, and Ornette).
The sparse, mournful “Vicenza Days” gives
the horn-gents a chance to shine, but not in any
pyrotechnical manner. Ted Chubb is both brassy
(no pun intended) and elegiac, his crisp, fervent
tone somewhat evoking Booker Little. Mike
Lee’s tenor is velvety yet tart, with blues as the
soft/hard center. Both lads play soulfully, and
while the ambiance is glum it never becomes
oppressive, dull, or dirge-like. Lee’s vocalized
and slightly raspy tone on “Back To Work” flirts
briefly with flurries of free, but he swings mightily
over tumultuous (but not “free”/”out”) bass
and drums. Shawn Baltazor’s rumbles and crackles
with authority and with restraint. “New Dog”
has a wry, blues-tinged swagger (almost Ornettelike,
in fact), and Chubb gets to sear here with
his temperate and punchy, bob-and-weave approach.
New Tricks’ tunes—all originals—have an
immediate, dynamic, and tuneful drive. This
band is big on ensemble work, lots of interplay,
give-and-take. The tracks are fairly lengthy (nine
tunes in almost 70 minutes) but there’s very little
rambling. Alternate Side recalls Blakey’s Free
For All and Hubbard’s High Blues Pressure—
not avant-garde but aware of and valuing its
volatile energy, which gets worked into an edgybut-
accessible hard bop context. Sharp stuff,
BENINGHOVE'S HANGMEN [8pm]
http://beninghoveshangmen.
Rick Parker - tbone
Kellen Harrison - bass
Dane Johnson - gtr
Eyal Maoz - gtr
Shawn Baltazor - drums
Bryan Beninghove -sax/compositions
“Creeptastic grinder jazz for the masses”.
When the music was first conceived for Beninghoveʼs Hangmen, it began with the desire to create music that sounded like “Tom Waits meets Nightmare Before Christmas”. As the music developed, it began to sound more like a couple of chainsaws were invited to a burlesque show.
The brainchild of saxophonist Bryan Beninghove, the Hangmen assembles some of NYCʼs most unique dynamic talents. The band features Rick Parker on trombone (Ambient Assault), Eyal Maoz (Edom - Tzadik Records) and Dane Johnson (Foglizard) on guitars, Kellen Harrison on bass, and Shawn Baltazor (Supernatural Percussion) on drums.
Originally from the Baltimore area, Beninghove is a tireless bandleader, performing in a variety of different musical environments. In 2009, his “Organ Trio” album of grits and gravy B3 repertoire earned a Village Voice jazz top pick honor. He currently plays melodica and saxes in the French band Manouche Bag every Thursday night in Jersey City, leads the R&B group Soul Connection NYC, and has played extensively as a sideman in hip hop, death metal, big band swing, jump blues, and classical settings.
Beninghoveʼs Hangmen is the inevitable repercussion of this vast musical experience. A tango may be followed up by a surf tune, a waltz ensues, and then comes the Turkish punk jam. The band twists and turns more than a Tarantino film played backwards.
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