[Tradjazz] thanks to OKOMmers for coming out to 'ear us at the Ear Inn!

[dakuehns at comcast.net]

Jon, 
Not only was it fun night, it was one of those special  nights of jazz that'll not be forgotten. I and Don Greenfield have a lot of listening under out collective belts, and we were blown away by you guys. I was once talking to Herb Gardner trying to put into words something like what happened on Sunday and he said, "You mean when the instruments disappear." I think that says it.
Al Kuehn
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Jon-Erik Kellso" <jonnygig at gmail.com>
> Hi there--
> 
> Hope your holidaze were the merriest yet.
> 
> Thanks to you OKOM-ers who came out to hear us at the Ear Inn Sunday night.
> Meant a lot to have educated ears such as yours at the Ear--that was a fun
> night!
> 
> I'll paste in some info below about this steady Sunday night gig for those
> of you who are interested--
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Just thought I'd share the news of a relatively new (since this past summer)
> steady gig I have Sunday nights in NYC, 8-11 pm
> at the Ear Inn, 326 Spring St.
> way west between Washington and Greenwich streets, Soho area on the isle of
> Manhattan.
> Very cool old joint, goes back to 1817, interesting history.
> Guitarist Matt Munisteri and I are regulars,
> we call the quartet the EarRegulars,
> and we have misc. bass and reeds-or-whatever players with us
> (Scott Robinson, Evan Christopher,  Howard Alden, James Chirillo, Chris
> Flory, Greg Cohen, Joel Forbes and Frank Tate have been among the
> EarRegulars).
> 
> Below is an amusing blog/review someone wrote about last Sunday, pretty
> nice.
> He got some stuff wrong, of course,
> such as --it's not the only place that has hot jazz weekly in NYC,
> Arthur's Tavern still has the Sunday and Monday bands, and Charley O's has
> the Stan Rubin All-Stars on Mondays., etc.....
> Not sure what song he was trying to refer to, either, heh heh...I know we
> played Willie the Weeper that night, and I do not think we played Farewell
> Blues or Weary Blues that night...whatever!
> And Dan Block was on with us all night on reeds,
> and Harry Allen sat in with us for much of the night--it was a blast!
> Hope you are able to swing by and have a taste with us there some time! It's
> a fun hang.
> 
> have a great '08,
> Jon
> 
> Jon-Erik Kellso
> www.kellsojazz.com
>  www.myspace.com/jonerikkellso
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  The Ear-Regulars Live 12/23/07: Marquee-Caliber Jazz at a Ghetto
> Price<http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/the-ear-regulars-live-122307-
> marquee-caliber-jazz-at-a-ghetto-price/>
> http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/
> 
> December 24, 2007 ·
> <http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/the-ear-regulars-live-122307-marqu
> ee-caliber-jazz-at-a-ghetto-price/#respond>
> 
> One of the most exciting developments in the New York music scene in recent
> months is this weekly Sunday 8 PM hot jazz session at the Ear Inn run by
> trumpeter Jon Kellso and guitarist Matt Munisteri. This is the best deal in
> town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a fiver or two
> for Philip the bucket, you can see an ever-rotating cast of star
> international players join the two anchors here and push it as far as it'll
> go. That was Kellso and Munisteri's plan from the start, and it was
> definitely working tonight. The material is traditional jazz (mostly oldtime
> stuff from the 30s or earlier) but the agenda, as Munisteri put it, is to
> see "see how far outside we can take it." By outside, he didn't mean obscure
> it or make it deliberately inaccessible. On the contrary, this crew does
> what all great jazz cats do at the top of their game, hitting a lot of
> peaks, taking the songs to the limit and sometimes beyond.
> 
> The interplay and chemistry between the players is remarkable. They sank
> their teeth into the old 30s hit Farewell to the Blues, upright bassist
> Danton Boller taking a solo, and Munisteri didn't hang him out to dry. When
> Boller slowed down his run, giving the notes room to breathe, Munisteri
> picked up the rhythm, comping and punctuating it and it was clear that
> everybody here is on the same page. Everything sounds better when the band
> is a team and the song is the manager, and this crew knows that.
> Kellso is a bluesman, straight up, no chaser, tonight alternating between
> gregarious dixieland licks, admirably minimal straight-up blues and a coyly
> magisterial Prez solo which Boller followed. The likelihood of hearing a
> Lester Young-inflected horn line played on the bass is pretty rare, but the
> guy did it. And later in the set he followed another Kellso solo, this time
> a boisterous, bouncy dixieland one, without straying from the genre. The
> band was joined this time around by a reed player doubling on clarinet and
> sax, often working in tandem with Kellso, holding down the melody while
> Munisteri or Boller were wailing away.
> Munisteri is a great listener and expects the crowd to do the same: he
> doesn't play very loud, but he doesn't have to. At one point, he took a solo
> that was .... so amazingly authentic and soulful. Munisteri has blazing
> speed and a fondness for whipping chords around, but he's just as likely to
> mold the melody gently and sparsely....
> 
> Considering how good the crowd was here tonight in a rainstorm two days
> before Xmas, with Varick Street closed by police barricades at Charlton
> Street due to debris from the latest Trump monstrosity falling from several
> stories above, it would make sense to get here early to assure yourself a
> seat.
> 
> This series started early last summer and it's picked up enough momentum to
> the point where it could explode. On one level, that would be fantastic,
> considering how good the music is and that the players deserve a bigger
> space. On another level, it's perfect just the way it is. In the meantime,
> the Ear Inn – which has admirably designated itself a cellphone-free zone –
> is the perfect spot, an oasis of decency, good food and fairly reasonably
> priced drink way over on the west side, a mere couple of minutes walk from
> the train. Where they put butcher paper on the tables and supply crayons for
> your personal use.
> 
> Believe it or not, this is the only weekly hot jazz blowing session in New
> York at this time. In a city – or what's left of it - that has springboarded
> the careers of so many thousands of great jazz players, it's about time we
> had one. Bigtime props to Kellso and Munisteri for getting it going.
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