music
Jazz on Tour
Jazz venues have come and gone over the years in Eugene, but we now seem to be enjoying a downtown jazz resurgence,
thanks in part to the expanded Jazz Station’s more ambitious programming as well as the newish Broadway House concerts (at
a home at 911 Broadway) bringing in attractive touring performers as well as serving the local community. On Friday, June 22,
Broadway House hosts Seattle-based gypsy swing-jazzers Pearl Django. The group has undergone some turnover in the guitar
department, but after 11 albums and 17 years of playing, this outfit still delivers swing in the ever-popular style pioneered in
1930s Paris by legendary guitarist Django Reindhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli.
The Jazz Station hosts Saturday, June 23, the excellent young Canadian-American band Tunnel Six. The members met at
the celebrated Banff International Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music a few years ago, found that something clicked and,
despite holding down careers as bandleaders themselves, decided to periodically reconvene for annual tours (this is the third)
between their regular gigs. Tunnel Six is a true ensemble effort, including New York drummer Tyson Stubelek (pianist Andrew
Oliver’s former Oregon colleague); Toronto saxophonist Ben Dietschi and guitarist Brian Seligman; Seattle trumpeter Chad
McCullough; and Halifax bassist Ron J. Their striking summer 2010 performance at Portland’s Old Church revealed a straight-
ahead contemporary jazz aesthetic with remarkable interplay and solid chemistry. And they’ve only grown since then.
The Jazz Station hosts Friday, June 29, the ebullient New York-based saxman Javon Jackson for two shows. A former
frontman for the legendary jazz finishing school, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Jackson has a reputation for exploring the
fertile territory between jazz, rock, soul and funk. But fear not, traditionalists, for lately Jackson has returned to acoustic jazz.
And he’s bringing a quartet featuring veteran pianist Peter Boe (a long time member of Robert Cray’s band), San Francisco
bassist Scott Steed and Portland drummer Todd Strait.
Of course, as we’ve noted elsewhere, Eugene’s biggest music event, the Oregon Bach Festival, opens next week. Besides
big names like Joshua Bell and Storm Large with Pink Martini, the festival features an unusual arrangement of J.S. Bach’s
magnificent solo keyboard epic for a string ensemble; more surprisingly, it’s being performed Monday, July 2, by our regional
apostles of authenticity, the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Transcriptions were common in Bach’s time, and audiences can
expect PBO to adhere to the tunings and styles of the period. Besides, keyboardists and singers get most of the fun in Bach’s
music, so it’s hard to blame PBO artistic director and Baroque violinist extraordinaire Monica Huggett for craving more Bach
for her instrument. — Brett Campbell
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Post-Rock Sky Storm
This Patch of Sky doesn’t tell, it shows. “We play
music without words to communicate without language,”
bassist Joel Erickson says. The loud, soft and completely
instrumental arrangement of this Eugene band demands
attention.
“I described it to my grandma as classical music with a
heavy rock-band set up,” drummer Nate Trowbridge says.
This Patch of Sky is classical music that sounds like a bolt
in the lightning storm of bands like This Will Destroy You,
Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Mogwai.
Guitars howl, Debussy’s etudes part, synthesizers thunder
and effects pedals shimmer — it’s well-made music, and
people love it.
In less than a month — This Patch of Sky via kickstarter.
com, an online nonprofit for funding creative projects,
was able to record its sophomore effort, released earlier
this month on the German label Oxide Tones.
Recorded before the addition of Austin Zentz (guitar)
and Chris King (synth/piano), Newly Risen, How Brightly
You Shine came out of “conveying hope and love
musically, without expressing it in words,” Day says. “The
thing about post-rock worldwide is that it’s the same in
every language.”
This Patch of Sky plays with Ash Tree, 9 pm Friday,
June 22, at WOW Hall; $7adv., $5 door. — Patrick Newson
EUGENE WEEKLY
JUNE 21, 2012 23