This is the two hundred twenty-ninth in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.
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A former football player for the Washington Redskins where he played defensive back, Dick Smith has always loved to sing jazz.
Smith organizes Jazz Night in Southwest, a long-running Friday night concert series.
On his LiveStream from July 5, 2020, Dick Smith contributes personable vocals while joined by pianist Chris Grasso, bassist Tommy Cecil and drummer Lee Pearson.
Smith and his group perform “It Could Happen To You,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “There Will Never Be Another You,” “I Thought About You,” “Just Squeeze Me” and other veteran standards with swing and spirit.
This is the two hundred thirtieth in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.
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A colorful and fluent pianist from England, Dom Pipkin normally plays a variety of music that often falls into the area of New Orleans rhythm and blues but also includes swing and his own original songs.
Pipkin, who considers the Meters, Dr John, Fats Domino and Professor Longhair to be influences, has often played often at Ronnie Scott’s in London, done quite a bit of traveling and has performed regularly in New Orleans during the past 15 years.
On his solo piano LiveStream of Mar. 19, 2021, Dom Pipkin primarily sticks to swinging straight ahead jazz including such standards as “Perdido,” “I Thought About You,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “I’ll Remember April,” “It’s Alright With Me” and even the theme from “The Flintstones.”
This is the two hundred sixth in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.
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Keyboardist John Chin has performed regularly in the New York area since 1998, following studies at Cal State University, the University of North Texas, Rutgers and Juilliard.
Chin has worked with the likes of Benny Golson, Ron Carter, Gregory Tardy, Mark Turner, Dayna Stephens, and Joel Frahm among others, releasing at least five CDs of his own.
For his performance of “Undercover” at NYC’s Smalls Jazz Club, Chin heads a quintet also including Stacy Dillard on soprano, tenor-saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, bassist Spencer Murphy and drummer Lawrence Leathers.
“Undercover” starts out with Chin’s keyboards creating a dreamy meditative mood.
Chin is soon joined by bass and drums who add color before the two horns play the laidback theme, and get to solo; even when it gets particularly passionate during Dillard’s improvisation, the original quiet groove is retained.
After the piano and bass solos, the quintet finishes the satisfying piece by returning to the original dreamlike mood.
This is the one hundred fifty-first in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.
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Drummer Fabio Rojas was born in Valencia, Venezuela, moved to the U.S. to attend Berklee, became a staff member at Berklee, and has since worked with Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, Greg Osby, Bill Pierce, Sean Jones, Regina Carter, Rachel Z, and many others.
In addition to his performances, Rojas also composes music for films and commercials and is an important educator at the Brooklyn Conservatory Of Music.
On his LiveStream of Aug. 4, 2020, Fabio Rojas leads Trio Incognito, a group that also features altoist David Bixler and bassist Gregg August.
The trio performs a set of original music, beginning with the two-part opener which starts out playful (a little reminiscent of Ornette Coleman) before becoming a melancholy ballad with bowed bass.
The other selections feature adventurous but thoughtful improvising by the trio which often seems to think as one, making for a set of intriguing and enjoyable modern jazz.
