Category: Gigs

LowBlowMusic plans a Ronnie Cuber Tribute concert!

Low Blow Music is continuing its presentation of concerts featuring and promoting the baritone saxophone. On Saturday December 1st they will present 6 hours of music dedicated to different musical milestones of the great Ronnie Cuber who passed away just over a year ago.

There will be four groups, one with music from Ronnie’s early playing on George Benson’s great albums, a latin jazz band dedicated to Ronnie’s long time association with afro-cuban music, a group featuring music that Ronnie Played in his long association with the Mingus Big Band, and finally a performance featuring music from Ronnie’s Three Baritone Saxophone Band.

The event will be live in Brooklyn at the Ornithology Jazz Club. The event will not be live-streamed but some footage will be captured and shared.

If you want to support Low Blow Music in its production of concerts, and get lots of great lesson content, free album downloads, exclusive historical photos and more – check out the membership options: https://www.lowblowmusic.com/membership

 

Chicago Gig Alert! Baritone Saxophone Big Band

Fulton Street Collective presents a performance with THE LOW END Baritone Saxophone Big Band on Wednesday, August 16th at 8pm

Venue
Fulton Street Collective
1821 West Hubbard Street, #suite 307
Chicago, IL 60622 United States

The Low End
Baritone Saxophone Big Band:

Jacob Slocum, Mark Hiebert, Juli Wood, Alex Blomarz, Len’i Glenn-McKinney, Ted Hogarth, Joey Rosin, Roy McGrath, Andy Schlinder, Jimmy Farace, Joe Trahan, Kyle Madsen, Solomon Flores, Rajiv Halim, Tim McNamara, Steve Schnall

Julius Tucker – Piano
Joshua Ramos – Bass
Kieth Brooks – Drums

7:30 Doors
8pm Show
In-Person Only
$15 Suggest Donation

More details
https://fultonstreetcollective.com/event/the-low-end-baritone-saxophone-big-band-at-fulton-street-collective/

The next LowBlow Music event: 6 baritonists under 30!

The next Low Blow Music event is coming up!

Saturday May 20th at Ornithology Jazz Club in Brooklyn, NYC.
Low blowing starts at 6:30pm.

There are so many great young baritone saxophonists, we are pleased to present just a handful of them here. 6 baritonists under 30! It’s going to be a great night.

6:30-7:15 Ben Caranicas & Hunter Pullen
7:45-8:30 Saul Dautch
9-9:45 Courtney Wright
10:15-11 Joey Rosin
11:30-12:15 Bryan Cowan

BIG news for the baritone – Low Blow Music launches!

This is the biggest news I’ve been able to write about I think since launching this site 15 years ago.

Some time last year Gary Smulyan called me to propose a crazy idea to promote the baritone saxophone. Though we have planned and scrapped those plans a few times we are finally at the point where we can announce a new organization devoted to the baritone saxophone. Low Blow Music was formed by Gary Smulyan in conjunction with the council of baritonists – Frank Basile, Claire Daly, Andrew Hadro (myself), Brian Landrus and Jason Marshall – with the purpose of promoting the baritone saxophone.

We’re hoping to make this a world-wide phenomenon, and to kick things off we are celebrating Pepper Adams’ birthday on October 8th, 2022 with a BARITONE MARATHON. 12 hours of baritone and a jam session to boot. In addition to performances from groups led by Gary as well as each of the council of baritonists, we have additional performances from Lauren Sevian, Dave Schumacher, Roger Rosenberg and Carl Maraghi! The day will start at 12pm with Gary Smulyan and end at 12:30pm with an open Jam Session! Click here to see the full line up and schedule.

But perhaps the even more exciting news is that we have launched LowBlowMusic.com – this is a site that offers exclusive baritone content for a very affordable yearly membership of $25. Membership will get you all of the following:

-Access to the live stream of the October 8th event!
-Council of baritonists videos – conversation and mini lessons from Gary Smulyan, Claire Daly, Andrew Hadro, Jason Marshall, and Brian Landrus!
-Rare photos from Gary Smulyan’s career and travels
-Free download of the album “Marcescence” from Andrew Hadro
-Custom altissimo fingering chart from Andrew Hadro
-Rare photos from Claire Daly’s career and travels!
-Free download of the album “Mirage” from Brian Landrus
-Access to unreleased live Frank Basile performance in France
And more to come soon.

You can also support this organization by joining as a Gold Member or becoming a Sponsor of one of the live sets!

I hope to see you at the Ornithology Jazz Club in person, and look forward to sharing all of the forthcoming baritone goodness with you.

Andrew Hadro

Catch Frank Basile on a live stream Friday!

There aren’t too many opportunities to hear music that is being performed live these days. Fortunately for baritonists everywhere Frank Basile will be performing at Small Club in NYC this Friday September 18th and it will be live streamed. We recently wrote about the album that Frank co-led with Sam Dillon and this will serve as the album release celebration. We highly recommend the album, and of course definitely recommend checking out the stream!

Its 4:45pm-6:30pm Eastern Standard, and you’ll need to sign up for an account but its otherwise free at http://smallslive.com

Gary Smulyan & Frank Basile Quintet shows available for stream!

A few weeks ago at Smalls club in the West Village of New York City, I had the extreme pleasure or watching two sets that featured some of the best baritone playing around. Gary Smulyan & Frank Basile are two incredible baritone saxophonists that are directly connected to the Pepper Adams lineage.

Everyone can now watch both evenings (4 sets total) on the online streaming archive from Smalls – called SmallLive. You’ll need to sign up for a membership, but $10 a month is a small price for the incredible amount of live jazz you’ll have access to. This concert alone had a $20 cover per set to see. Also, in these strange times Musicians and Clubs need all the support they can get – Smalls shares revenue from online streaming with the musicians.

Head over to the Smalls Live archive and watch these incredible sets:
https://www.smallslive.com/events/16554-frank-basile-gary-smulyan-quintet-boss-baritones/

Opportunity to see Kenny Berger live

Baritonist, Kenny Berger has let us know about an upcoming gig he has in New York City.

Kenny Berger and New Tricks will be playing Thursday September 5th from 6-8pm at Silvana (300 w. 116th St NY, NY 10026)

Rounding out the band is alto saxophonist David Bixler, Chip Jackson on bass and Chuck Zeuren on drums. If you’re in or around NYC this is a great choice for a nice evening of live jazz.

Vapors of Morphine to go on tour

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Fans of the somewhat underground low-note based band Morphine that included baritone saxophonist Dana Colley have something new to be excited for. The band is going on tour, including a few dates in the US and a number of dates in Europe. Including Saturday October 15th in Brooklyn NY!

This band is the most authentic Morphine cover band possible since it includes 2 of the 3 original members. Check out their tour page for a complete list of shows.