Music’s In the Air, Lotsa Live Shows Everywhere| Norman Provizer’s Jazz Notes

After high school, a young bass player from Philadelphia, who was born in 1972, packed his bags and headed to New York to study at Julliard. While there is never a shortage of jazz bass players in the Big Apple, it didn’t take very long for the youngster from the City of Brotherly Love to catch fire in the jazz capital of the world after he arrived there in 1989. It seemed like before you could say Philly cheese steak, the young player, who goes by the name of Christian McBride, was everywhere on the scene.

Saxophonist Bobby Watson quickly grabbed him for his band, as did Benny Golson, trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Freddie Hubbard and pianist Benny Green. The year after he landed in New York for Julliard, you could already find McBride in the jazz-record bins performing on albums from trumpeter Wallace Roney, pianist Kenny Kirkland, trumpeter Hargrove, saxophonist Donald Harrison and Joey DeFrancesco. The following year, you could appearances on discs from saxophonists Don Braden, James Clay, Houston Person, Antonio Hart, Gary Bartz and Denver’s own Javon Jackson, along with pianists Green, James Williams and Stephen Scott and trumpeter Hubbard. Given all of that, it’s little wonder that McBride has appeared as a sideman on more than 325 discs.

On top of that, McBride, who might be called the Ray Brown of modern times, began recording as a leader in 1995. In a variety of contexts, the bassist has continually displayed enormous talent and an amazingly engaging sound through his current release on Mack Avenue, Trio – Live at the Village Vanguard.

Beyond his playing, that stretch all kinds of boundaries, McBride has played the role of artistic director (including a stint at Jazz Aspen Snowmass’ summer program), creative director for jazz (at the Los Angeles Philharmonic where he succeeded Denver’s Dianne Reeves) and community involvement to go along with his five Grammy awards. And on Thursday, you can catch the master bassist in a little different format when he takes the stage at the Newman Center at the University of Denver, 2344 E. Iliff, at 7:30 p.m. with fellow bassist Edgar Meyer (303-871-7720).

Meyer is an eclectic bass soul, a strong player in the classical as well as the progressive bluegrass field. He and McBride first connected in Aspen and began touring as a duo that covers it all in terms of music – from a bass perspective, of course.

Speaking of duos, pianist Bill Charlap is no stranger to that context. On the one hand, he has recorded outings with singers Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga and Sandy Stewart (who happens to be his mother). On the other, the pianist first recording back in 1994 was a duo with bassist Sean Smith.  Born in New York in 1966, Charlap is among the most effective, mainstream pianists on the scene working, early on, with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Benny Carter, Stanley Clarke and singer Bennett. In the mid-1990s, he began a long musical relationship with Phil Woods in the saxophonist’s quartet and also began releasing albums under is own name. A little later in the ‘90s, he formed his own trio with Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums. And on Sunday, Charlap’s trio with drummer Washington and bassist Smith will be at Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, for sets at 6 and 8 p.m. (303-839-5100). Though the pianist’s current CD is The Silver Lining – The Songs of Jerome Kern with Bennett, the singer isn’t on this tour. But you can live with that, Charlap is enough with his trio.

Also this week, Dazzle has rising-star jazz violinist Zach Brock and his Triptych Trio (with Matt Ulery on bass and Jon Deitmyer on drums) on stage on Thursday at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Brock has worked with folks from bassist Stanley Clarke to Snarky Puppy to saxophonist Dave Liebman. In the 2013 DownBeat “Critics Poll” Brock topped the rising-star list and since then he has been among the top five established violinists in every DownBeat survey.

On Saturday at 7 and 9 p.m., Dazzle has pianist Neil Bridge and his large aggregation with singer Karen Lee and “Papi” Ray Pacheco on congas. Additionally at Dazzle, bassist Ken Walker’s sextet is on stage on Friday at 7 and 9 p.m., while the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts offers young sounds on Monday and Wednesday at 6 and 8 p.m. In between on Tuesday, singer Myra Warren does Sarah Vaughan with the Eric Gunnison Trio at 7 p.m.  And among the players at Nocturne, 1330 27^th St., this week, saxophonist Wil Swindler has a quartet on Friday at 7 p.m. followed by guitarist Paul Musso at 11 p.m. (303-295-3333).

To end on a Happy Birthday note, drummer J. Thomas Tilton (or Tom for short) has an “Aquarian Birthday Celebration” on Sunday at La Cour, 1643 S. Broadway, starting at 7 p.m. Tilton frequently played with pianist Joe Bonner who passed away in 2014 and was on Bonner’s knockout album Impressions of Copenhagen. At La Cour, he has Jack Dunlevie on piano, Hunter Roberts on bass and whoever else might show up with instrument in hand (303-777-5000).

Comments and submissions: normanprovizer@aol.com