Take 5! Free jazz at the Smithsonian with Corey Wallace

 

Corey Wallace on his trombone in the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum last week/Patricia Leslie

 

On the third Thursday of every month between 5 and 8 p.m. through May, free jazz emanates from the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum where beer, wine, and hors d'oeuvres may be purchased to add to merriment while listening, dancing, or painting. The Smithsonian sets up a temporary studio for artists who register for Take 5!

 

 

Members of Corey Wallace's DUBtet are Allyn Johnson, piano; Max Murray, bass; C.V. Dashiell III, drums; and Brent Birckhead, reeds/Patricia Leslie

 

"Please, dance with me, Henry"/Patricia Leslie

 Plenty of tables, chairs and dance space jazz up the courtyard on free jazz nights.

One of the best works the DUBtet played was Wallace's Rush Hour Traffic which brilliantly captured the stop-and-go sounds of vehicles on the road. Said Wallace: "We all hate it so I had to write a song about it."/Patricia Leslie

 

The center of this design promoting the monthly jazz fest at the Smithsonian is a reproduction of Robert Indiana's The Figure Five (1963), hanging on the gallery's third floor. It is based on Charles Demuth's I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928), one of 12 featured stamps in a modern art series issued this month by the U.S. Postal Service/Patricia Leslie

 

 

What's this? A spider crawling on the keyboards? Nope, the hand of Allyn Johnson spinning the tunes with the Corey Wallace DUBtet at the Smithsonian/Patricia Leslie

 

 

Coming up in the Take 5! free jazz concerts:

What: The Music of Pepper Adams

When: April 18, 5 - 8 p.m.

What: The Dave Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet

When: April 22. Discussion at 5 p.m. and concert at 6:30 p.m.

What: Night & Day Quintet

When: May 16, 5 - 8 p.m.

Where: All at the Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F Streets, NW

How much: No charge!

Metro stations: Gallery Place/Chinatown or walk 10 minutes from Metro Center

For more information: 202-633-1000

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian Settles and Dewey Redman jazz at the Smithsonian

The Brian Settles Quartet at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/Patricia Leslie

It's free terrific jazz on tap at the "Take Five!" series at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the performance by the Brian Settles Quartet last week fit the bill. 

Settles, a tenor saxophonist, is a native Washingtonian who graduated from the Duke Ellington School of Fine Arts, has degrees from The New School University and Howard University, and has played with Curtis Fuller, Shirley Horn, Mickey Roker, and Butch Warren, among others.

The program was totally Dewey Redman, a composer who played clarinet, alto sax, and tenor sax over six decades before he died in 2006, six days after his performance at the Charlie Parker Festival in New York City, his last show.

Redman's son, Joshua Redman, also a tenor saxophonist, may be better known than his dad after Joshua won the Thelonious Monk sax competition 21 years ago. 

Some of Dewey Redman's compositions on the Smithsonian program were "Boody,"  "Dewey's Tune,"  "For Eldon," '"Imani," "Joie de Vivre," "Look for the Black Star," and "Sunlanding."

While mulling the problems of the world, it was rather nice to sit and listen to sexy sax sounds which took one listener away to a South Pacific island where peaceful thoughts were rudely interrupted by ominous drums, forewarning of potential conflict between the contemporary and the dark ages.  Or that’s the way a mind traveled. 

Next up was a hint of Days of Wine and Roses and rumblings of all things past.  Here came a bird to light upon a leaf and nearby lurked a lusty predator which inched closer and closer.  The tension built, and SWOOP, the bird was gone.  Just like that.  It was not all a sad ending, according to the music, since one of the parties smiled broadly, or at least, those were the effects.  

The group then played a “bluesy” number (“Boody”) which carried a listener to other places while sitting in the open (but enclosed) courtyard.  Have you seen the photos of what Kogod used to be?

Musicians who joined Settles at the Smithsonian were Thad Wilson, trumpet; Tarus Mateen, bass; and Terence Arnett, drums. 

The Brian Settles Quartet at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/Patricia Leslie

Plenty of room, tables, chairs, refreshments, and good times accompanied the performance in the Kogod Courtyard.

Coming up:

What:  Holiday Jazz at Take 5!

When:  5 - 7 p.m., December 20, 2012

Where:  Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F Streets, NW, Washington, D.C.

How much:  No charge

For more information:  202-633-1000

Metro stations:  Gallery Place/Chinatown or walk from Metro Center

 

 

 

patricialesli@gmail.com