Spike Wilner Opens Mezzrow

NEW YORK CITY --- Spike Wilner steps down the stairs at 163 West 10^th St. and unlocks the door to his new club called Mezzrow in the heart of the World Capital of Jazz - Greenwich Village.

It is hard to imagine anyone opening a jazz club who has more cred than Wilner, who's managed Smalls at 183 West 10^th St. for years (www.smallslive.com).  Smalls has near-religious status in the West Village jazz scene and is a favoured hang among musicians.

Wilner runs the record label Live at Smalls, composes, arranges and gigs all the time. And very soon, he will have a second jazz club to run just across 7^th Avenue from Smalls.

“This is going to be piano oriented - piano duos, trios, no singers, no jam sessions, no drums,” Wilner says of Mezzrow. (www.mezzrow.com).

“There used to be a lot of piano rooms in New York City, Bradley's was a famous piano room, The Knickerbocker, Gino's, the Whipoorwhil, Sophia’s,” Wilner says.

“There were all these elegant bars where you would just go in and there would be a piano and bass player playing all night,” Wilner says. “There's not really any left. The Knickerbocker is still there, but it has changed.” The legendary Johnny O'Neal appears regularly at Mezzrow.

Wilner, who just turned 48, scrambled for two months to get a liquor licence for the new club, negotiate a 10-year lease and complete the renovations. The long, narrow space is a stunning homage to one of his personal heroes - Mezz Mezzrow.

Mezzrow was a Jewish kid from Chicago who fell in love with jazz and African American culture, becoming a professional player - tenor sax and clarinet. He gigged with Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke and others.  Mezzrow also sold marijuana to the Jazz Cats in 1920s Chicago, so much so that weed became known as Mezz. He wrote a memoir that became a classic of jazz literature - Really the Blues. Mezzrow eventually married an African American woman, settled in Harlem and played in New York City clubs. He was an early advocate of racial equality and integration.  Mezzrow also organized some important recording sessions.

A rare, original poster of Mezzrow playing the clarinet hangs on the wall behind the restored Steinway at the back of the club.  The grinning visage of a young Louis Armstrong is the public face of Smalls – gracing CD covers, coasters and T-shirts.  This poster of Mezzrow is headed for the same status at Wilner’s new club.

“I found it online, I bought it from an antique poster shop in Israel,” Wilner says.

Wilner found a piano restorer in Huntington, Long Island, who had a lot of great pianos and good prices.

“It’s not a huge one,” Wilner says.  “It’s not like our Steinway at Smalls, which is a B, which is six-foot-10.  This is about a foot smaller, five-foot-10, but it plays great, really nice.”

Halfway into the room on the right hand side is a beautiful mahogany back bar made in Chicago in 1929.  Wilner found that in Philly, and bought it.

“Isn't it nice?” Wilner says running his hand on the bar. “We attended to every dam detail, like this bar, going to Philly and out to this warehouse.  We just saw all these old, damned bars.”

Mahogany cocktail rails hang from a wall. Wilner bought mahogany chairs from a restaurant that was going out of business, and some high tables - also mahogany.

“Everything is mahogany in this join,” Wilner says.

With exposed brick walls and marble floors.  Elegant.

It cost about $200,000 to create Mezzrow, including the piano, renovations and legal fees.

“Who knows what's going to happen? That's all I can say, no one has any-fucking-idea.  If you build it, they will come as they say, but maybe not,” Wilner says. “I am not thinking about it.”
 

Wilner gave the owner two months rent to take the space off the market while he pursued a liquor licence earlier this year.  He collected hundreds of signatures from residents on nearby blocks who support the club, hired a sound-attenuation engineer and even had a letter of support from Wynton Marsalis. The state liquor authority will only grant a licence if the applicant has the support of the Community Board, and Wilner worked hard to secure it. 

“It was a big job, a huge job, but we got it done, we got our liquor licence passed so I just signed a lease for 10 years,” Wilner says. “It was so much fun building this place.”

Mezzrow opens in July.

Tenor sax sensation John Tank Returns to roots in downtown Kitchener

KITCHENER — The legendary saxophone sounds of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Lester Young, Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd and Joe Henderson will ring from the stage at The Registry Theatre on Friday night in a unique celebration called Giants of the Tenor Sax.

Kitchener’s own John Tank, a tenor sax player, composer and recording artist based in New York City, returns to anchor an all-star band in this tribute to the instrument that defined the sound of jazz for many fans and played an enormous role in the music’s evolution.

Joining Tank on stage will be Don Thompson on piano, Terry Clarke on drums and Dave Young on bass.

“I would call it kind of a super band,” Tank said. “I thought this was a good combination. Don is harmonically very deep, but Dave Young is in a way his opposite.  He likes simplicity, and swinging is the most important part of the music for him to get the groove happening.”

Young played with the Oscar Peterson Trio for 25 years, and is a member of the Order of Canada. Young is well known to local jazz fans and last played with Tank at show in Waterloo last December.  Thompson is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and winner of three Juno Awards. Clarke won a Juno Award a few years ago for a collection of live recordings.

 “It is almost like going to a jam session with a bunch of charts, and saying: ‘Okay, let’s play a Dexter Gordon tune,’ and then you play a Dexter Gordon tune,” Tank said.

“I didn’t re-arrange them at all.  They are all basically right out of the book, standard lead sheets that I use.  Most of the music is so perfect. There is really not a lot you can add to it,” Tank said.

The lineup includes  Lester Young’s Tickle Toe, Joe Henderson’s Black Narcissus, Benny Golson’s Whisper Not, Hank Mobley’s This I Dig of You, Sonny Rollins’ Airegin, Dexter Gordon’s Fried Bananas, John Coltrane’s Naima (named after Coltrane’s wife), and Spiral, Charles Lloyd’s Forest Flower, Wayne Shorter’s Infant Eyes and Footprints, and Eddie Harris’ Freedom Jazz Dance.

When Golson wrote Whisper No, he was part of a group that included Art Farmer and McCoy Tyner and Curtis Fuller on trombone.

 “It was sort of pre-Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers,” Tank said. “Then Art Blakey took over the Jazz Messengers and Benny Golson played with him in that group.”

The Dexter Gordon tune Fried Bananas is based on a song called This Could Happen to You.

“And I might do another one of his. I might do Cheese Cake,” Tank said.

No celebration of great tenor saxophone music would be complete with Coleman Hawkins’ Body and Soul, which Tank included on the set list.

 “I chose the tunes based on their most famous songs,” Tank said. “Wayne Shorter has so many famous songs, but Footprints is probably the most popular. It is kind of a blues. It is probably his most covered tune.”

“I also picked tunes that I felt would be good for this band to play,” Tank said.

It was 40 years ago this month that Tank moved to New York City to make his living playing jazz. He has lived in the same apartment building on 4^th Street in East Village ever since, and regularly plays at Fat Cat in the West Village and elsewhere.

John Tank Group: Giants of the Tenor Sax.

Where: The Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St.

When: Friday, May 30th.

Showtime: 8 p.m.

Tickets: $25.

Available at Centre in the Square box office, or call 519-578-1570.

Smalls is the best jazz club in New York City

NEW YORK CITY --- If you love live jazz you must make a pilgrimage to a tiny club in the West Village called Smalls.

 It is a few steps from 7th Avenue on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village.  It is the best club in New York City, and that means it may be the best jazz club in the world. (www.smallslive.com).

There is live music here, seven days a week, 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. Simply put, there is no place like it. It is a religious institution in the West Village Jazz Scene, and enormously popular with those who know the music better than anyone else ---  jazz musicians.

The co-owner and manager, Spike Wilner, and his partner Mitch Borden, are all about the music.  The cover is $20 and you can stay all night long.  You will hear Joel Frahm (tenor sax), Peter Bernstein (guitar) and Mark Soskin (piano), among many others.   Roy Hargrove (trumpet), Chris Potter (tenor sax) and Esperanza Spalding played there, and continue to make appearances there, long after they became international stars. Mitch works the door nearly every day when the club opens about 4 p.m. He used to play a violin, sometimes a guitar and lately, a  banjo.

You will hear great music and nobody will bug you to buy a minimum number of over-priced drinks.  There are no over-priced drinks.  But there are CDs for sale, live recordings of the best shows at the club.  Smalls Live is one of the best jazz labels in the world. Check out the calendar of shows, the CD catalogue and the live streaming that is available at smallslive.com and  then start making plans for a trip to New York City.

The club is at 183 West 10th Street. In the earlier part of the evening Mitch is usually working the door.  After paying Mitch, you walk down a steep flight of stairs to a small landing, turn left, down another three steps, and you are in The High Temple of Live Jazz.  Show respect for the music and the musicians.  If you talk during the show you will be shushed.

 Behind the stage is a large-framed picture of the famous, smiling face of a young Louis Armstrong --- that picture is the club logo. I love that picture.  Louis' trademark smile beaming over everyone in the club.  The greatest jazz musician who ever lived was accused of being an Uncle Tom for the way he smiled before white audiences.  But Dizzy Gillespie set them straight.  Satchmo hated racists and hated racism, but he was not going to let either suck one minute of joy from his life, Dizzy said.

Smalls is named after a famous club in Harlem that was called Smalls Paradise, which opened in 1925 at the height of prohibition.  It was racially integrated from the beginning with seating for 1,500.  It became one of the top three jazz clubs in Harlem at that time, along with the Cotton Club and Connie's Inn.  When Mitch was opening Smalls in the West Village, he reached back in time for the name.

The ceiling in Smalls is low, the bar runs along most of one wall and the stage has a new Steinway piano.  All of the shows are recorded.  You can stream this amazing music over the Internet. The club shares revenue from music streaming with the musicians who created it.  It is ground-breaking arrangement not only in New York City, but anywhere in the world.  In the picture blow, Stacey Dillard is on tenor saxophone, Josh Evans plays trumpet and Fank Lacey plays trombone.

On a the wall behind the piano bench is a large portrait of Harry Whitaker, the legendary jazz pianist who mentored many in New York.  At one time Harry was the music director for Roberta Flack.   Harry was a regular on and off the stage at Smalls.  The prolific pianist, composer and arranger sat in a back room playing chess by the hour, taking on all comers.  The first recording released by Smalls Live is a solo piano show by Harry.  After the great man died on Nov. 17, 2010 his cat Minnow came to live in the club.  You can see this beautiful cat lounging on a chair, a table or maybe on the piano during a show. In the portrait on the wall, Spike is playing the piano, Minnow is perched on top of it, and Harry is playing the vibes.

The nearby Village Vanguard has more history, and I loved hearing Joe Levano play in that storied venue.  But the Vanguard charged a $25 cover for one set of music and insists that everyone buy at least two over-priced drinks.  It is the same story at The Blue Note, Birdland and Dizzy Gillespie`s Coca Cola Club.  These corporate clubs, famous around the world, do not come close to what Smalls offers every night.

Smalls was started 20 years ago this month by Mitch.  He was ripped-off for thousands of dollars as he was preparing to open the club so there was no liquor licence for years.  Musicians and fans brought their own beer and liquor.  The jam sessions would go all night.  Homeless musicians practiced in a back room, sometimes they even slept there. Back then Mitch sat beside the entrance playing a violin. These days he plays a guitar, but the violins are still around, hanging in a room where the musicians chill before and after gigs.

Bernie Senensky, the legendary Toronto jazz painist, remembers playing with Roy Hargrove for hours and hours one night. They started around 2 a.m. and went to 7:30 a.m.  Another time Bernie was caught in New York City during a major snowstorm. His flight home to Toronto was cancelled, and everything in Manhattan was closed.  Everything that is except for Smalls.  Bernie visits New York City every year, and almost every night he makes it to the basement club.  In the video below, tenor sax sensation Joel Frahm does his thing.  

The Spike Wilner Trio performs regularly at Smalls. Spike is on piano, just like his mentor Harry Whitaker.  Paul Gill is on bass.  Yotam Silberstein is on guitar.  This is straight ahead jazz, adults only, no tricks.  This is what Smalls is all about.  Timeless and transcendent music that drifts up the stairs, into the West Village night and around the world. 

  

Sunday Afternoon Jazz a Big Hit in Waterloo.

Thanks to everyone who came to see The John Tank Quartet in The Jazz Room on Sunday afternoon. The show succeeded on all levels and I could not be happier with the turnout and the music. We are going to do this again in the New Year.  More world-class jazz on a lazy afternoon with winter winds howling down King Street. Big Ups to the musicians --- John Tank on tenor sax, Dave Young on bass, Bernie Senensky on piano and Ted Warren on drums. 

The music was varied and flawless. The quartet started playing at 3:30 p.m. and stopped just before 7 p.m., with two short breaks in between.

"This was the best jazz show I have ever seen," Brent Needham said to me during the second break. It was Brent's first time to The Jazz Room, and I am sure he will be back soon.
From the first song to the last there was rapt silence in the room punctuated with intense bouts of applause and hoots of joy.  The audience was awesome. Period.
"I have never watched people listen so closely to the music," Ziggy Wiens said.

The set list was custom-made for lovers of straight-ahead jazz.

The first set: "Tune Up" by Sonny Rollins, "Emotion" by Harry Whitaker, "New Irk, New Work" by John Tank, "Blues for EJ" by Bernie Senensky, "Windows" by Chick Corea, "Moon in Sand" by Alec Wilder, and "Voyage" by Kenny Barron.

There are strong, emotional connections between this music and John. Harry Whitaker was a friend and mentor to many New York City jazz musicians, including John. Harry's musical spirit pervades the best jazz club in NYC to this day --- Smalls in the West Village.  There is a large portrait of Whitaker behind the piano bench where he often played before his death. His cat Minnow lives in Smalls. When Harry was not at the piano he was often in the backroom playing chess, taking on all comers. The first CD issued under the Live at Smalls label was Harry playing solo piano. Great stuff.  The John Tank Quartet brought a little of that into our lives on Sunday with a beautiful rendition of "Emotion."

The second set: "In a Mellow Tone" by Duke Ellington, "Now's Another Time" by John Tank, "Have You Heard This Song Before" by John Tank, "Come to me" by Bernie Senensky, "I Loves You Porgry" by George Gershwin and "Take the Coltrane" by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.

Coltrane has special place in John's musical heart. When John was growing up on Duke Street in downtown Kitchener, Ontario in the 1950s there was no jazz around.  John found a record store specializing in jazz on a shopping trip to Buffalo, New York with his parents. The store manager suggested two 45s --- Cannonball Adderley's "Jack of Soul" and John Coltrane's "Cousin Mary." After listening to Coltrane that was pretty much it.  John started playing the saxophone and eventually studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston from 1964 to 1969.  While driving taxi in Boston to help cover expenses John was pistol whipped and robbed one night  But he stayed and he learned. He moved into a tenement on 4th Street in the East Village of New York City in 1974.  He still lives in the same building.

The third set: "Lament for all the Young Lions," by John Tank and "Steppin' Up" by John Tank.

Sunday, Dec. 8 was the anniversary of John's Lennon's assassination.  The quartet played the lament in Lennon's memory.  It was a  sad and beautiful tribute to the great man.  John originally wrote it for the young jazz musicians who struggle to find paying gigs and tours in a world that is largely deaf to the music's magic. But inside The Jazz Room on Sunday the magic of jazz worked on every one --- from the little girl who sat on her mother's lap at the foot of the stage to John's 95-year-old mother Olive.

"I never miss a show," Olive said on her way out.

John Tank is back in Kitchener in the spring of 2014 as part of the Jazz at the Registry series.

Hog Town Hard on Jazz Cats

TORONTO --- Canada's biggest city is a hard go for jazz musicians.

No wonder the tenor-sax virtuoso John Tank loves playing The Jazz Room in downtown Waterloo.

John picked me up early this morning and we chatted on our way to an interview with Rando Johnston at CKWR --- a community radio station on King Street East in Kitchener.  John is doing his rounds of  the local media in advance of a gig on Sunday afternoon at The Jazz Room  Normally one of the most positive and serene individuals I know, John was in a foul mood.  The problem --- his Tuesday night gig at The Rex on Queen Street in Toronto.

John teamed up with two of the best for the gig at The Rex --- Bernie Senensky on organ and Ted Warren on drums.  After hearing all these cats several times I can tell you they are among the very best jazz musicians playing anywhere in Canada today.  That's all they do. Gig. Compose. Record. Repeat.

They played at The Rex for a percentage of the door.  But if anyone complained about the $10 cover, the doorman let them in for free. Huh?

"We don't care about the music, we came for some drinks and something to eat."
"Oh, okay, no problem, go on in."

At the end of the night John was paid $80 for the gig.  He had to buy his own food and drinks.  After gassing up the car and driving back to Kitchener, John figures he made about $40 for the night.  That's a shameful way to treat musicians.  Since 1974 John's lived in the East Village in New York City and made his living as a jazz musician in the World Capital of Jazz.

He has chops. John's played and recorded with Charles Mingus. He plays regularly at Fat Cat in the West Village. He has been a sideman in bands led by Sam Rivers, Paul Jeffery, George Coleman, Joe Morello, John Blair, Jack Walrath and Calvin Hill. He studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston in the Sixties. He has four CDs out and more on the way.

John is in Kitchener-Waterloo now to visit with his 94-year-old mother Olive. To help pay for the trip John had three gigs in Toronto --- The Pilot Tavern, The Orbit Room and The Rex.

We know how the Rex turned out. The Pilot was slightly better as it pays each musician $100, but the cats have to buy their own food and drinks, and pay for their own parking. For the gig at the Orbit Room only four people showed up.  John figures the three Toronto gigs netted him about $240.

Wow.  This is the same city that wants to become the Music Capital of Canada. The crack-smoking Mayor of Toronto was visiting Austin, Texas recently to promote the twinning of Toronto and Austin. What a sad joke.  Sorry Toronto, but you are no Austin.  No amount of marketing and branding is going to change the facts.  So good luck.  So how does The Jazz Room in Waterloo compare to John's experience in Toronto?

With the help of some friends I organized a gig for John at The Jazz Room. The John Tank Quartet will be paid $1,200.  That is $300 for each musician.  That is guaranteed. That is the way first-call jazz musicians should be treated.  Music fans get world-class jazz for $20 a ticket.  Everybody listens to the music. The musicians on stage love that kind of respect and play their hearts out.

Joining John for the Sunday gig --- Dave Young on bass, Bernie Senensky on piano and Ted Warren on drums. Young played bass for Oscar Peterson for 25 years. Senensky is among the very best jazz pianists in the country. Ted Warren is the artistic director of the Grand River Jazz Society.  Doors open at 3 p.m. Music starts at 3:30 p.m. and goes to 7 p.m.

Ted Quinlan, a brilliant jazz guitarist who heads the program at Humber College, played The Jazz Room a few times. After one gig, Quinlan said: "The best jazz club in Toronto is in Waterloo."

John Tank knows exactly what he meant.

John Tank Plays a Rare Hometown Gig

WATERLOO, Ontario --- In 1974 a young man from Kitchener, Ont. walked into the East Village of New York City and found a place to live on 4th St., between Second and Third Ave., in one of the tenements that line the streets of this storied neighbourhood.

John Tank and his tenor saxophone were home.

John still lives in the same building.  He wrote a song called Two O'Clock Sun about the light that came into his main floor apartment once a day for 15 minutes.  It is on one of his five CDs.  For 39 years John's made his living as a jazz musician in New York City.  He played the Village Gate in Greenwich Village with Charles Mingus --- one of the most famous jazz clubs in the history of the music with one of the giants of 20th Century jazz.  He opened for Sonny Rollins in Toronto. These days John plays regularly at Fat Cat in the West Village.  Not bad for someone who grew up on Duke Street in downtown Kitchener in the 1950s and 1960s.

John was inspired by a local music teacher named Mike Bergauer. After two years of lessons Bergauer sent John to Paul Brodie in Toronto for more advanced schooling.  John drove into Toronto once a week for lessons with Brodie.  At the time, Brodie was the most recorded classical sax player in the world.  Brodie was so impressed with John's playing, he helped John get into the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston. In 1969 John returned to Kitchener and played gigs in London, Stratford and Toronto.  But he was way too ambitious, restless and talented for the small jazz scene in Ontario.

In 1974 John organized a farewell show in Kitchener.  It was at the Lancaster Hotel.  After the gig John headed for New York City.  He went there with no Green Card, and lived illegally there for 15 years. After coming forward during an amnesty he was given status as a legal resident.  That's was the price and John happily paid it. He was living in New York City and making his living as a jazz musician.  He returns to Kitchener once, sometimes twice a year, to play for hometown fans and supporters.

 The remarkable story behind this incredible musician continues.  

This Sunday, The John Tank Quartet plays The Jazz Room in downtown Waterloo.  Doors open at 3 p.m. Music until 7 p.m. Joining John for this hometown gig are some of the best jazz musicians playing today.

Dave Yonung on bass.  Young was the bass player for Oscar Peterson for 25 years.  Bernie Senensky on piano.  Bernie recorded 15 CDs as band leader, many more as a sideman and earned multiple-Juno nominations along the way.  Ted Warren on drums.  Warren is the artistic director of the Grand River Jazz Festival.  This will be one of the best jazz shows in Southern Ontario for all of 2013.  Tickets are $20 at Words Worth Books in Waterloo.  Also at Encore Records and Far Out Flicks in Kitchener.

  

John Tank Quartet Plays The Jazz Room

What promises to be one of the best jazz shows in Southern Ontario this year takes place on Sunday, Dec. 8 in The Jazz Room in downtown Waterloo.

The John Tank Quartet is coming to town. Tank is an incredible jazz musician based in the East Village in New York City.  He played and recorded with Charles Mingus.  Check out the Mingus recordings of "Me, Myself and Eye," and "Something Like a Bird."  That is John Tank on the tenor saxophone. Tank played as sideman in bands led by Sam Rivers, Calvin Hill, Jack Walrath, George Coleman, Joe Morello, John Blair and Paul Jeffrey, among others. Not bad for someone who was born and raised on Duke Street in downtown Kitchener.

Tank wanted to be a jazz musician so badly in New York City he moved there in 1974 and never left.  He lived there illegally for 15 years before coming forward during an amnesty and getting a Green Card. Based in a tenement on 4th Street in the East Village, he has played all over New York City and toured Canada, England, Holland, France, Switzerland, Spain and Germany. Tank recorded five CDs, the last is called Live at the Registry Theatre, one of the most memorable jazz shows ever held in that beloved venue in downtown Kitchener, just blocks from Tank's childhood home.

For the show on Sunday, Dec. 8, Tank will be joined by Canadian jazz royalty.  Dave Young will be on bass.  Young played bass for Oscar Peterson for 25 years. Bernie Senensky will be on piano.  Bernie has recorded 15 CDs as band leader, garnered multiple-Juno nominations and play jam sessions that lasted all night with Roy Hargrove at Smalls in Greenwich Village.  Bernie is among the very best jazz pianists playing today.  Keeping time for The John Tank Quartet will be Ted Warren, the artistic director of the Grand River Jazz Society and a first-call pro.

Tickets for this show are only $20.  You can buy tickets at Words Worth Books in Waterloo.  Also at Encore Records and Far Out Flicks in Kitchener.  Tickets will also be available at the door.