Jazz Notes: Piano Week showcases Hersch, McNeely

Piano Week continues at Dazzle with the keyboard combination of Ellyn Rucker and Vlad Girshevich tonight, Jim McNeely joining Eric Gunnison and the rest of the Convergence sextet on Friday and Saturday and the piano duo of Art Lande and Fred Hersch on Sunday and Monday.

            Born in Cincinnati 55-years ago, Hersch moved to Boston in 1975 to study at the New England Conservatory. Two years later, the pianist with a sensitive touch was in New York working, over the years, with trumpeter Art Farmer, bassist Sam Jones and saxophonists Joe Henderson, Stan Getz and Jane Ira Bloom. By the mid-1980s, Hersch was recording under his own name creating beautiful sounds that include a series of solo discs in the mid-1990s which explore the music of Billy Strayhorn, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Thelonious Monk, as well as expansive and off-the-beaten-path creations such as Leaves of Grass.

            Later this month, Hersch, who has been deeply involved in AIDS services and education, appears at the Village Vanguard and celebrates the release of his latest disc Whirl. Though frequently compared to Bill Evans, Hersch is anything but a clone. He is, instead, a beautiful player who will be onstage with another sensitive pianist, area-based Art Lande, whose music captivated me the first time I heard his 1976 Rubisa Patrol album on ECM. The duo is at Dazzle, 930 Lincoln, on Sunday at 6 and 8 p.m. and on Monday at 7 p.m. ($20, 303-839-5100).

            Along with Hersch, the other visitor to town this week is pianist McNeely. Born in Chicago, McNeely migrated to New York in 1975, two years before Hersch arrived in the Apple. In New York, McNeely joined the famed Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra at the Village Vanguard. Additionally, the pianist spent the first half of the 1980s with Stan Getz and the first half of the 1990s with Phil Woods.

            McNeely reconnected with the current version of the Jones/Lewis big band (the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra) in 1996 as both a pianist and the ensemble’s composer-in-residence. At Dazzle, McNeely provides a second piano for the group Convergence that already features a potent keyboardist in Gunnison. The McNeely-Gunnison piano combo is sure to set off some sparks. The rest of Convergence consists of trumpeter Greg Gisbert, who created his own sparks with the quintet led by drummer Dana Hall at Dazzle this past week, trombonist Mark Patterson, saxophonist John Gunther, bassist Mark Simon and drummer Paul Romaine. The augmented sextet plays Friday and Saturday at 7 and 9 p.m. ($20/$15 for students at the 9 p.m. shows).      

            Before Hersch and McNeely get to town, Dazzle’s “Piano Week” also offers the Rucker/Girshevich duo tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. ($10). Also, the club on Lincoln has the Expansion Quartet with pianist Carmen Sandim, drummer Josh Moore, bassist Jean-Luc Davis and trumpeter Jeffrey Isom on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ($6) and singer Ayo Awosika’s Farewell Concert on Wednesday. The classical-trained, jazz and roots vocalist, who grew up in Northern Virginia, performs at 7 p.m.

            On Sunday, the annual City Park Jazz event gets rolling with saxophonist Jon Romero y Amanecer at the City Park Pavilion on Ferril Lake. The music at the free series of weekly concerts starts at 6 p.m.

Also keep in mind that the upcoming JazzFest Denver is in a new location this year. The festival that runs June 12-13 is in the City Hall Events Center, 1144 Broadway, with headliners the East-West Trumpet Summit (featuring Thomas Marriott and Ray Vega) and singer Karrin Allyson on June 12 and saxophonist Bobby Watson and Trio da Paz with Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta and Duduko da Fonesca on June 13. Advance tickets for the festival are available at a savings of $5 per ticket through Sunday ($50/$95 for two days, $25/$50 for students, jazzfestdenver.org or 303-674-9313).

            And, on a final note: Denver-based singer Rene Marie is one of the headliners at this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival that also features Brad Mehldau, Kurt Elling , Brian Blade, Henry Threadgill, the Either/Orchestra and Nicole Mitchell. Before that Labor Day weekend festival rolls around, Marie will be conducting a series of killer, vocal workshops in Denver. The first SLAM workshop is June 18-20, followed by one July 9-11 and another on July 16-18. The cost for each three-day workshop that includes light meals is $250 (303-520-6705). Marie is something special and the workshops provide an opportunity to tap into her talent and experience.

Norman Provizer writes a Jazz Notes column on Thursdays at kuvo.org. Provizer, who’s also a political science professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver, was a regular contributor to the Rocky Mountain News.