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Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola
Celebrates Ilene Glick Barkan’s Birthday
Featuring:
Christian McBride Band
(Christian McBride Website)
Christian McBride, acoustic and electric bass
Geoffrey Keezer, piano and keyboard
Ron Blake, tenor and soprano saxophone
Terreon Gully, drums
And
Dominick Farinacci Quintet
(Dominick Farinacci Website)
Dominick Farinacci, trumpet and flugelhorn
Yasushi Nakamura, bass
Adam Birnbaum, piano
Carmen Intorre, drums
Mathias Kunzli, percussion
At
Frederick P. Rose Hall
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola
Broadway at 60th Street
NY, NY
212.258.9595
(Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola Website)
Todd Barkan, Programming Director
Scott Thompson, Press
Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower
December 17, 2008
Every December at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Ilene Glick Barkan, wife of Artistic Administrator and renowned record producer, Todd Barkan, celebrates her birthday with friends, relatives, and the Club’s jazz fans. This year, Ilene and friends were serenaded by the Christian McBride Band and the Dominick Farinacci Quintet. Christian McBride brought along Geoffrey Keezer on piano, Ron Blake on tenor saxophone, and Terreon Gully on drums. I caught the second set, which began with McBride’s slow acoustic bass introduction, with almost silent fingering. Suddenly, Blake’s sax, Gully’s drums, and Keezer’s keyboard blasted through the Club in fast surreal atonality. The second piece was even more surreal, and the next piece, by Wayne Shorter, “Over Shadowed Hill Way”, blended the instruments, including McBride’s electric bass, toward careening tonal wildness.
The set became increasingly frenetic, with the fans loving the event’s electricity. Blake took his soprano sax, soaring over McBride’s electric bass, and Keezer created some energetic accompaniment. As each piece seamlessly followed, the electronic edge sharpened. Soon McBride took the lead, and then Gully, in a long percussive riff in unison with Blake’s driven theme. “Sitting on a Cloud”, a moody, melancholy piece, had McBride taking out his acoustic bass bow. This piece exemplified McBride’s versatility. Blake was on tenor sax, and the piece added American folk motifs, with eerie keyboard effects. In fact, at this point, Keezer was on piano and keyboard, one hand on each. The full band was now in a musical conversation, and the set ended on a great note.
For the “After Hours” set, the Dominick Farinacci Quintet brought out Dominick Farinacci on trumpet and flugelhorn, Yasushi Nakamura on bass, Adam Birnbaum on piano, Carmen Intorre on drums, and Mathias Kunzli on percussion. This was a large group for a late night set, and much of the audience remained, as well as Ilene’s birthday guests. The first song, Cole Porter’s “It’s All Right with Me”, was led by Farinacci on a smooth trumpet solo. Victor Young’s “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You” was equally smooth and melodic, and Farinacci is becoming known for his classy talent. The remaining works that I heard of this late set were infused with Farinacci’s flugelhorn, in a soft swing, with easy drums, earthy bass, exotic percussion, and bluesy piano. Check the Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola Website for future dates and artists.
Christian McBride, bass, Geoffrey Keezer, piano,
Ron Blake, tenor sax, Terreon Gully, drums
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Christian McBride, bass, Geoffrey Keezer, piano,
Ron Blake, tenor sax, Terreon Gully, drums
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Todd Barkan, Ilene Glick, and Stevie Holland
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Gary William Friedman and Stevie Holland
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Dominick Farinacci Quintet
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Dominick Farinacci Quintet
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Todd Barkan with Sheila Anderson, WBGO Radio
Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
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