#keystone korner

Even the most slapdash of complaints can carry cursory kernels of truth. In the context of free jazz, there’s the reductive, dismissive assumption of binary musical conditions - fast and slow, loud and soft, with players careening seat-of-the-pants between them with logic and structure little more than an afterthought. Superficial exposure to the music that the Sam Rivers Trio improvises on Ricochet could compel such conjecture in a passive, distracted or inattentive listener. Rivers starts the set at a full sprint on soprano saxophone, reeling out rapid fire phrases over Dave Holland’s similarly expeditious pizzicato and the swirling cymbals whirlpool stirred up from Barry Altschul’s drum kit. The music eventually veers into a fingers-abrading solo by the bassist that serves as page-turning segue for the leader’s switch to lyrical piano.

Sean Jones Quartet: To Kill a Brick

The newest Keystone Korner in Baltimore has started to stream some live events from the club. The most recent was a tribute to the music of Woody Shaw and Bobby Hutcherson by the Sean Jones Quartet with Warren Wolf on piano and vibes, Jeff Reed on bass and Eric Kennedy on drums. This is Woody Shaw's To Kill A Brick, which he named after Art Blakey's expression: "Swing hard enough to kill a brick!"

-Michael Cuscuna

Red Garland Trio Recording at Keystone Korner Nears Release

Todd Barkan keeps coming up with amazing, historical recordings from the ‘70s, when he owned and operated and booked the Keystone Korner in San Francisco. As Zev Feldman explains in this background of Garland – Swingin’ On The Korner, they drew 2 full CDs of material from cassettes made on the club’s sound board. What makes this so special in Garland’s reunion with Philly Joe Jones, with whom he made history in the first Miles Davis quintet twenty years earlier.

Photo courtesy Michael ochs Archives

Thanx to OTIS for allowing GJG to present this epochal performance- Otis Rush at his peak.

Part One

Part Two

Freddie Hubbard - The Intrepid Fox