JAZZ REHAB at the Monkey House Jan 28th
First off, I’m writing this post to let you know why you should go and see the group known as Jazz Rehab at the Monkey House. The group consists of :
Andy Allen – alto Sax
Peter Krag – Keys
Ian Kovac – Bass
Matt Guilbert – Guitar
and
Peter Negroponte – Drums
They play mostly original compositions by the members with a few covers here and there (i.e. Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight). The best part about this group, and the reason I’m posting about it is….the shit is good! Really good.
Secondly, I’ll tell you why I think you should go and see Jazz rehab.
The thing about getting to see good “jazz” these days is that you are either going to be paying upwards of $40 or $50 to see nationally touring acts during Jazz Fest or you’re going to the bean on Thursday night and paying $3.
It’s true, Burlington has felt somewhat of a lift in musical spirits in the past few years, but not all of it has been in the indie rock/freak folks/noise pop/ alt county worlds. A more subtle growth (even more subtle with the loss of exciting musicians like Nick Cassarino, Connor Elms, Brian MacNamara, among others) has been the growth of the communities “Jazz” scene…i apologize for puting jazz in ” ” but for some reason it seems nescesary to distinguish between what you see at Leunigs and what you hear at the bean. Maybe we should start refering to playing standards as “classic Jazz”. Anyway…
A big factor in the city’s Jazz growth is the beefing up of the Jazz program at UVM. While UVM’s program isn’t the strongest of Jazz Programs in the world, it is allowing a course of musical study in a city that in past years hasn’t offered that up as an opportunity. While many of the area’s highschools as well as the Burlington City Arts are offering opportunities for even younger musicians, the program at UVM is offering people from out of state an opportunity to come to a great community like Burlington and still study and experiance Jazz.
A second factor in this growth is the fact that there are many of the areas elder more established jazz musicians that are inviting those of the younger generation to share and create with them. Namely Anthony Santor and Shane Hardiman who hold down the Thursday nights at the Bean. Not only is it a boost to the younger players that are looking for experiances on which to build themselves, but it offers fresh ideas to the older players, allowing a fresh pallet on which to build themselves anew.
All of these things: a growing jazz program, students that are hungary to grow and explore, and established musicians that are willing to share in that exploration are helping to nuture that growth.
So enough discourse on the Burlington Jazz scene…why isn’t it growing faster? Why aren’t more folks involved?
The reason that all of those other genres that I’ve mentioned have been growing as much as they have is because people are going out to see the shows. Shows are being hosted at other venues than the traditional bar venues and people area acting as 3rd party promoters (ie Tick Tick and Bear Cub Productions), and there have been other groups from out of town brought to town to perform at these shows. So, all that jazz needs now is some die hard hipsters to start putting on shows for them and them a ton of die hard scenesters to start going out to those shows….
….well in the mean time, go see Jazz Rehab at the Monkey. This Wednesday Jan 28th 2009, and hopefully every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month after that.
WORD.
ANGIOPLASTY MEDIA 