the Best Jazz club

[putneyswope]

Think Lenny Bruce, like what is the most happening spot for the Rat-pack generation.

 

[YouVantOption]

Think Lenny Bruce, like what is the most happening spot for the Rat-pack generation.

Yoshi's in Jack London Square, Oakland California. Ask any player - they'll tell ya.

here? they all suck pretty bad, sound systems and stages are too tiny, the pianos are rarely tuned. Upstairs is the best, too bad the room is so small they can't bring in out-of-town players too often.

I just saw Christian McBride play in another town in a dinner club, and it cost $20. In Montreal they'd gouge you for 4-5 times that.

Welcome to montreal, the jazz city with jazz two weeks a year.

The club up top of the festival hotel - whatever the hell it is called this year, in Place Desjardins is the 'drop by' club for all the players after midnight, but now it is all strctured and they charge admission and have a house band, which sucks. it was kind of cool to be drinking and see Wynton drop by and take the stage and play with Herbie, at 2 in the morning. Doesn't happen sponteneous like that any more.

 

[protagoras]

/

Welcome to montreal, the jazz city with jazz two weeks a year.

/

I agree with ya YouVantOption.

When it comes to Jazz, Montreal sucks! As a former jazz musician (I toured briefly with the late Peter Kowald in the 80's and before that I used to play with Sayyd Abdul Al-Khabyyr) I'm sad to realize that this city was once a good place to listen to Jazz but the bastards of the FIJM killed everything.

I remember how was the scene in the middle 70's and the 80's.

I saw here : Miles Davis at the PDA. I think it was in 1974. Not the best period because he played tunes on his album On the Corner.

I saw the same year at the same place : Chick Corea and Return to Forever (Excuse me, I was till in the process of learning who is good and who is not in Jazz).

Then I saw Anthony Braxton at the Musée des Beaux-Arts.

I saw very good shows at the former In Concert: Yuseef Lateef, Mcoy Tyner, Joe Henderson.

Then came Le Soleil Levant (with the colourful Doudou Boicel): I made my jazz education down there : Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie (who made then his famous pun : Please buy a drink, because Doudou pays us weekly, very weakly!., the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cecil Taylor, Woody Shaw, Bill Evans, Rashaan Roland Kirk, Art Blakey, Art Pepper, Phil Woods, Joe Pass, Archie Shepp, Dewey Redman, Don Cherry, The World Saxophone Quartet, David Murray, Joe McPhee and so many more.

 

[YouVantOption]

When it comes to Jazz, Montreal sucks!

I'm sad to realize that this city was once a good place to listen to Jazz but the bastards of the FIJM killed everything.

I remember how was the scene in the middle 70's and the 80's.

Then came Le Soleil Levant (with the colourful Doudou Boicel): I made my jazz education down there : Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie (who made then his famous pun : Please buy a drink, because Doudou pays us weekly, very weakly!., the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cecil Taylor, Woody Shaw, Bill Evans, Rashaan Roland Kirk, Art Blakey, Art Pepper, Phil Woods, Joe Pass, Archie Shepp, Dewey Redman, Don Cherry, The World Saxophone Quartet, David Murray, Joe McPhee and so many more.

Damn, yeah. but of course, who was it that started the Jazz (and Blues) festival at PDA? You got it, Doudou. The Rising Sun ... I almost walked into McCoy Tyner when i went to take a leak, he emerged from the biggest cloud of pot smoke I've ever seen. I saw Big Momma Thorton there, so many great players, Art Blakey when Wynton was still playing with him ...

Thanks for provoking the memories. And you are so right, the FIDJM has killed jazz music in this city. Just take a look at the newspapers elsewhere and you will see people touring all year round, here, they are threatened with losing their festival gigs if they play for anyone else or any other time of the year. nice.

 

[Techman]

If you like sushi, you could always drop by Kaizen for Japanese food and jazz. Yes, it's not the usual mix. You'll often find Normand Brathwaite playing there with the band.