Jimmy Cheatham Memorial Jazz Jam Session

Third Annual Memorial Jazz Jam Session
Friday, April 17, 2009
7:00pm – 11:00pm
Best Western Inn on Park, 22 South Carroll Street
Free, Donations accepted

Jimmy Cheatham with wife Jeannie Cheatum

Jimmy Cheatham (1924 – 2007), former University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor in the departments of Music and Afro-American Studies will be honored with a 3rd Annual Memorial Jazz Jam Session. Jimmy Cheatham was the Founder and Director of the Experimental Improvisational Black Music Ensemble (EIBME) and taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1974-1978. The EIBME is still in existence today under the direction of Professor Richard Davis.

The event is free. The public and all musicians, especially former students, are invited to attend and jam in honor of Jimmy Cheaham.  The band includes:

Ron Myers, Piano & Trumpet
Pat Wick, Piano & Keyboards
Bruce Alford, Bass
Rick Flowers, Drums

The Afro-American Studies Department, in cooperation with the African-American Alumni Foundation of the University of Wisconsin, has established the Jimmy Cheathem Black Music Education Fund and donations will be collected at the event. The goal is to raise money for the construction of a 10 million dollar UW African-American Alumni Center on the south side of Madison.

If you can’t make it you can still make a donation to the Jimmy Cheatham Black Music Education Fund (JCBMEF):

Make checks payable to the University of Wisconsin Foundation (UWF), write “Afro-American Studies Dept. – JCBMEF” in the check memo line, and send them to:

University of Wisconsin Foundation
US Bank Lockbox
P.O. Box 78807
Milwaukee, WI 53278-0807

New Breed Jam settles in at Cabana Room

A week ago I posted that the New Breed jam was on the last week of their scheduled eight week run at the Cabana.  That night at the jam Nick announced several times that the New Breed jam happens every Wednesday night at the Cabana and hopefully will continue for a long, long time. It appears the Cabana Room management has extended their stay indefinitely.

Last week of New Breed jam?

This Wednesday night is the last scheduled date of the New Breed Quintet’s eight week run at the Cabana run. According to Nick, the management is reviewing the situation and will be making a decision on whether to keep the jam. Madison jazz fans have been very supportive; open tables are rare . It’s hard to imagine the jam won’t be back, but be there this Wednesday just to make sure.

The return of the New Breed Jazz Jam – Patrick Breiner

Madison folks,

I’ve finally returned after 2 long months troubadoring (it wasn’t a verb before, but it is now) on the East Coast!

Kicking off the new year, the new prez, in a new space is the New Breed!

After a short hiatus we’ve found a new home at Samba’s Cabana Room. Check out Madison Jazz Blog’s review of the space here. We’ll play there every Wednesday for the next 8 weeks – maybe more if you all come show your support for Madison’s best jazz quintet!

It starts tomorrow night:
Wednesday, January 21
9 pm
Samba Brazilian Grill’s Cabana Room
240 West Gilman Street (at State)
FREE!

Don’t forget, this is also a jam session. So if you’re a musician definitely bring your ax.

Hope to see you all very soon.

Best,
Patrick

CD at CD Baby – www.CDBaby.com/VartanMamigonian
Official Website – www.VartanMamigonian.net
Myspace – www.myspace.com/PatrickBreinerMusic

Jazz this week in Madison

It’s cool outside but now that the students are back the Madison jazz scene is starting to heat up. Let’s go to the highlights:

Tonight the Big Mouth Cooperative brings their mix of freewheeling bop and funk to Cafe Montmartre. The Big Mouth Cooperative and the Red Quartet rotate Monday evenings at Cafe Montmartre. A great way to kick off your week.

Wednesday night the New Breed jazz jam begins an 8 week run at the Cabana Room. Bring your instrument, join in the fun, and support the jam. Let’s make 8 weeks turn into 8 years.

Thursday night is a special treat. Bobby McFerrin is at the Overture Center. See Special Events for more information.

Sunday the Vagabond Reeds with special guest Brad Pregeant will open the Madison Jazz Society’s 2009 spring concert series. Check out my previous post for videos and a preview of the concert series.

As always, for more information on other jazz events check out Crazeology’s Jazz Calendar.

Jazz jam reborn at Cabana Room

I can’t help myself. The New Breed gets booted by a sports bar and I have the nerve to compare them to Brett Favre. It’s only for a moment so please humor me. Favre has many Packer fans that continue to follow his play with the Jets. The question is are the New Breed fans just as loyal?

The answer is a no-brainer. The only special thing about the Concourse is it’s acoustics; the New Breed is the attraction. Considering the large crowd at the Cabana Room Wednesday night, playing at the Concourse may have actually limited the audience for the New Breed. The jam was a smashing success: the turnout was large, the room works well for jazz, and it was announced the jam will resume every Wednesday at the Cabana starting the second week of January.

Dave Cooper laments loss of Concourse jam

Dave Cooper sent in the following post before last night’s jam in the Cabana Room at Samba’s. His spirits should be higher this morning; the jam was a hit. I will post more on the jam soon.

As many of you know, the New Breed Jazz Quintet has held a jam session at the Concourse Hotel Bar every Wednesday evening for the past seven years. Wednesday, November 19th, the hotel management told the group that they were going to close the doors for a month for renovation and when it re-opens in January, it will be a sports bar with no live music. …Yes, no live music on any night of the week and yet another sports bar… It confounds me that the management would think this is a wise strategy. It seems to me that sports bars generally cater to local folks gathering together to be in a space of like-minded fans. (Generally drinking cheap beer and shouting at tv’s.) The Concourse is trying to be one of Madison’s premier hotels and cater to a national, if not international clientele. It would seem to me that those type of travelers would much rather go downstairs from their $150+ rooms to a more sophisticated room and have a glass of wine or scotch. If they really wanted to see a game they could very conveniently walk around the corner to State Street and have their pick of sports bars. Besides, I just don’t see the typical Madison sports-bar-goer wanting to watch a game in a hotel bar when there is State Street right there.

Special Jazz Events Next Week

Looking ahead to this coming week reminds me of New Orleans – so much good music, so little time.

Before Katrina I went to New Orleans every other year for  jazzfest. Fortunately there was a work related conference the same weekend for which my travel expenses were covered.  This was my day: conference in the morning, jazzfest in the afternoon, dinner, to the clubs for more jazz, and crawl out of bed early the next morning to do it all over again. It was physically exhausting but worth it. There was so much to take in and I wanted to experience it all.

A funny thing happened after coming home from one of those trips. For some reason it dawned on me that Madison has a fantastic music scene too; I just need to take advantage of it. Like many people I push myself on vacations to make sure I don’t miss a thing, but back home let loads of great stuff pass by. After that epiphany I vowed to start hearing some of the great music right here in Madison. I waited for the smoking ban and then began attending jazz events regularly.

Unlike my New Orleans trips I pace myself; I go out about once a week. This next week I’m going to push myself a little harder. In addition to all the usual good jazz, there are 3 special events:

No Jam Tonight – Now What?

So there’s no jazz jam session tonight – what to do?

My first pick, and sorry this isn’t jazz but it should be a blast, is Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, 7:30 at the Barrymore. Good old fashioned house rocking soul-funk. This band has been on a roll and will be one of the best dance concerts of the year. If you don’t know much about them there is an excellent primer on Madison Music Review.

Two other solid choices are the Red Quartet, 8 pm at the Mercury Lounge. I’ve mentioned them here before, but I haven’t seen their show yet because it conflicted with the Concourse jam. I’ll see them tonight if all works out. At 7:30 the UW Jazz Bands are playing a free concert at Music Hall. It’s always fun seeing the up and coming talent, and this performance will be special because it’s at Music Hall, one of the nicer concert venues in Madison.

By the way, the UW Big Band Jazz Ensemble plays again in the Union Rathskellar from 5-6 on Friday evening.

New Breed To Play at Samba’s

Yesterday Dave Stoler made the announcement in the Isthmus Music Hype section and today I found it buried deep beneath rock and punk promotions. Hey Dave, how are the jazzers going to find out? We want to know;  we want to be there. Luckily I found it, copied it and pasted it below:

To those who attended the New Breed jazz jam session at The Concourse, the band is scheduled to perform at Samba Brazilian Grill on Wednesday, December 17th from 9-11:30pm in the Cabana Room on the ground level. There will be a $3 cover charge for listeners, and those sitting in will be allowed to come in free of charge (provided they have their instrument (or drumsticks) with them). We look forward to seeing both familiar and new faces at this special performance, please spread the word.

The ad leaves me confused. It is not called a jam session, yet there will be people sitting in. Is an invitation needed to sit in? It calls it a special performance which suggests it may not be be repeated. Is this a trial run, are they still working on other possibilities for the long term? It doesn’t mention Patrick won’t be there. Last I heard he he has gigs in New York and will not be back until mid-January. Maybe Dave will stop by to clear some of this up.

Addendum: Dave declined to comment. I guess we’ll just have to go and find out for ourselves.