a quick trip to music heaven
Scooter & I have been the cheap-date music queens the past two nights. We had taken a break from our Thursday night jazz haunt, Sacred Grounds Coffeehouse, but returned a few days ago. SG is held in the reception hall of a very progressive UCC church in Scottsdale. They bring in local and national jazz artists, charge people $5 a head to get in, and provide two hours of musical bliss, if you like good-old-fashioned, standards-and-originals, trio/quartet/small group kind of jazz. The show is a two-hour outreach program for the church, but it's entirely secular. The pastor (who usually sits in the back of the hall, notebook computer in his lap, working on his next book) usually says a few words about their Sunday morning experiential arts worship service (which also features jazz), but mostly people come to soak up the jazz. Oh, and the coffee's pretty good, too.
Last night we went to a tiny folk venue that's managed to survive for 18 years in the annex of a Quaker meeting. It's a building that's about 2/3 the size of our apartment. It's open Thursday-Sunday nights, is volunteer run, and features two jams a week, as well as two nights of local acts, as well as the occasional folk/world/etc. musician passing through. It's $3 a head to get in, and the treats and drinks are about a buck.
Last night there was an exceptionally good duo that played Celtic/Gypsy/Greek/Arabic music on guitar, violin and various ethnic instruments, and a local New-Agey sort of singer-songwriter with a soft, hypnotic voice. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Scooter & I have imagined ourselves performing at this microscopic venue, although I think we'll try the jams first. The fire code occupancy limit of the place says 49, but they'd have to be hanging from the rafters to get that many people in there. The stage is about the size of a dinner table, but the closeness of the quarters really does promote a "living room" atmosphere, and makes the all-acoustic rule doable.
Music places that are cheap, have new acts every week, and are non-smoking. That's my idea of heaven (or at least part of it.)
posted by lizmo @ 11:09 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Especially for jazz, you really owe it to yourself to visit NYC at some point. Walking down the steps at the Village Vanguard, the same steps Richie Beirach walked down the first time he met Bill Evans (who was recording two of his best albums there). Same stairs Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, John Scofield, Miles, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, etc. use to get in and out.
Of course there's other clubs in NYC to hit, I went to three in two nights, but the Vanguard is the absolute must. Don't even worry about who's playing there, if they've been booked, they're going to be awesome.
It's not cheap: when I went it was a $30 cover and a $20 drink minimum (that's about two Scotches), per set. Luckily, it was a weeknight and the crowd was small, so they let us stay for the second set with no cover. They might have made us buy a couple more drinks to stay, I don't remember. So if it was $70 (for four hours), I think Frank Wess and the Joy of Sax trumps Pat Benatar at the Ameristar Casino (similarly priced tickets)...
I didn't know you had been to NYC. But yes, the Vanguard would be a primary stop.
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