JANUARY 2011

[click here for next month's activities]

jan 3
tres hongos

jacob wick - trumpet
marc riordan - piano
frank rosaly - drums

jan 10
keefe jackson quartet

keefe jackson - reeds
cameron pfiffner - reeds
josh abrams -bass
dave williams - drums

jan 17
ed ricart (DC)

ed ricart - guitar
devin hoff - bass
tim daisy -drums

jan 24
patrick breiner bass quartet

patrick breiner (WI) - saxophones
anton hatwich - bass
dan thatcher - bass
quin kirchner - drums

jan 31
frank rosaly's green and gold

cameron pfiffner - reeds
nick mazzarella - reeds
tomeka reid - cello
anton hatwich - bass
frank rosaly - drums

here's the preview of the show from peter margasak:
Frank Rosaly and the Lost Sounds of Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons

Tonight at the Skylark, superb local percussionist Frank Rosaly debuts a good-looking quintet called Green and Gold, which he formed to play the music made in the 60s by the duo of reedists Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons. Lasha, best known as a flute player, was born in Forth Worth, Texas, but moved to California in the 50s, alongside fellow free-jazz travelers and former Texans like Ornette Coleman, John Carter, and Bobby Bradford. He died in 2008, and sadly he's been all but forgotten. Last year Dusty Groove reissued his album Insight, a 1966 date recorded live in London.

Simmons, who grew up in the Bay Area, has also been overlooked in jazz histories, but he's a superb post-Coleman alto saxophonist (and one of the few jazz musicians to play the English horn). In addition to working with Lasha, he made some great albums for ESP-Disk and Contemporary. Simmons no longer plays like he did at his peak in the 60s, but in the past few years he's put out a few new albums on the Jazzaway label, run by Norwegian reedist Jon Klette.

Green and Gold features Rosaly, reedists Nick Mazzarella and Cameron Pfiffner (the underrated coleader of the Sabertooth Quartet), cellist Tomeka Reid, and bassist Anton Hatwich. Tonight the group will focus on compositions from the excellent 1963 album The Cry! (Contemporary). Rosaly plans to tackle the music from the other key Prince Lasha/Sonny Simmons album, 1967's Firebirds, down the road.