Bear’s Place will fill with the sounds of blues and jazz during the next few weeks.
Jazz Fables Presents, a concert series at the Bear’s Place back room, will welcome jazz groups during their next few Thursday nights, according to a press release.
The Dave Stryker Jazz Organ Trio will play their bluesy, original jazz compositions and Stryker’s arrangements of jazz classics, standards and pop songs at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 3.
Stryker, a recording artist and IU jazz guitar instructor, will play alongside Jared Gold, a New York jazz organist and recording artist on a Hammond B-3 organ and Steve Houghton, IU professor of jazz percussion on the drums.
According to the release, the group will play tracks from Stryker’s recent CD releases, “Messin’ with Mr. T,” a tribute to Stryker’s former soul saxophone master employer Stanley Turrentine, and “Eight Track,” which includes Stryker’s favorite soul and pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s, among others.
Gold is the special guest for this show and, in addition to the performance, will give organ and combo clinics at the Jacobs School of Music while he is in town, according to the release.
The artist has produced many records of his own, the most recent being 2015’s Posi-Tone CD “Cosmopolitan Rhythm.” This will be Gold’s first performance at Bear’s Place, according to the release.
The second show will take place at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 10. This will be the venue’s 25th Annual Holiday Jazz Concert of Üt Haus jazz band.
The members of this group include Jerry Morris, playing French horn and providing vocals; David Miller, playing the trumpet and flugelhorn; Brian Kearney, playing the baritone and tenor saxophones as well as vocals; Matt Shugert, playing tenor & alto saxophones and flute; Robert Stright, playing the vibraphone and percussion; Steve Johnson, playing the bass and Kevin Newcomb, playing drums.
The music in the second show will be a mixture of Christmas carols and holiday pop staples, according to the release.
That includes some unusual jazz songs, such as Miles Davis and Bob Dorough’s “Blue Xmas,” Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea’s arrangement of “Deck the Halls” and Eric Dolphy and Mischa Mengelberg’s “Hypochrismutreefuzz.”
Üt Haus will also play their own anti-holiday commercialism classic “Burn Down the Malls,” during which Kearney will deliver his humorous, updated speech against commercialism.
During the intermission for this show, Bill Weaver, also known as “Vicious” Gus Travers, host of WFHB country music program “The Dark End of the Street,” will act as storyteller reading one of his darkly-humorous holiday stories for the audience.
Tickets for the first Thursday’s show will be $8 for general admission and $5 for students. The second Thursday’s show is $7 for general admission and $5 for students.
Sanya Ali
