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Comment by ROBERTA on January 12, 2009 at 1:09pm

Pure Happiness! That's what's happening at the Hazlett Theater
for the free jazz sessions lead by Dr. Harrison. Jazz is the most sophisticated
form of soul . Learn some local jazz history and even get educated on music psycology by the greats. Had a wonderous time last evening and want to thank
the musicians for their great sounds. Keep us grooving!

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on January 11, 2009 at 4:53am

The jazz stories that emerge each month are quite amazing and interesting as is the spontaneous music. We want to bring you inside this spontaneity to exhibit the language and skills involved in making musical magic and history.

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on January 8, 2009 at 1:48am

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- January 7, 2009 Music Review | Christian McBride Part Concert, Part Chat: Two Guys Talking Music By NATE CHINEN Before getting down to business at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on Monday, the bassist Christian McBride laid out the evening’s premise. He was kicking off “Conversations With Christian,” a yearlong series of onstage dialogues, with words and music, at the urging of his wife and his manager. His lifelong sports fanaticism had something to do with this idea, he said. His natural volubility surely played a role, too. (He didn’t need to explain that part.) “So this will be a combination of, like, Bill Cosby, Howard Cosell and Marian McPartland,” he said. You imagine Mr. McBride making the same pitch to Sirius XM Radio, which has agreed to broadcast an edited version of the series. But judging by his first of two sets, Mr. McBride will be leaning more on the precedent of Ms. McPartland, in her celebrated public radio show, “Piano Jazz,” than on either of the other two touchstones. (His ratio of interview to performance also invites comparison to “Spectacle,” Elvis Costello’s new Sundance Channel show.) Mr. McBride’s guest was Chick Corea, a pianist and composer of extraordinary range, with whom he has some history. Early in the discussion they touched on their current tour with the Five Peace Band, jointly led by Mr. Corea and the guitarist John McLaughlin, which is scheduled to arrive at the Rose Theater in April. Their rapport was appealingly loose and collegial, except when Mr. McBride, unlighted cigar in hand, tried to force some sports talk, and Mr. Corea basically refused to play along. Mr. Corea offered more on the subject of his childhood in Chelsea, Mass., where his father was a successful bandleader. His own musical studies began at age 4. “My mother bought an upright piano at a funeral,” he said, adding dryly, “She got a good deal.” At Mr. McBride’s prompting, he also recalled his first recorded composition, “Chick’s Tune.” It would have been useful then to hear a scrap of the song, but instead Mr. McBride suggested “Windows,” one of Mr. Corea’s more accomplished early pieces. Of course it was in “Windows” — and later in “Matrix,” another selection from Mr. Corea’s landmark trio record “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” — that the onstage dialogue was strongest. Both songs underscored the distinctive chemistry between Mr. Corea, an almost teasingly responsive partner, and Mr. McBride, an amiable stalwart. The absence of drums meant that there was plenty of room for resonance, and Mr. McBride took special advantage of it, filling the air with his dark-maple tone. There were more missed opportunities — a fruitful tangent about Latin music yielded no musical illustration, and fusion, a mutual interest, went unspoken — but during an engaging middle stretch, words and music aligned. “Someday My Prince Will Come” followed an invocation of Miles Davis, whom Mr. Corea described seeing at Birdland years before joining that trumpeter’s band. (It was one of the songs played that night, he said.) And “Sophisticated Lady” was offered in tribute to Sarah Vaughan, whom Mr. Corea fondly recalled accompanying. In each case Mr. McBride steered the action breezily, with the air of someone accustomed to the task.