By Bret Saunders, Special to The Denver Post
Colorado music lovers know that the internationally respected guitarist Bill Frisell grew up in Denver, and attended the artist-friendly East High School. Now 68, Frisell’s latest project, Harmony, appears at the Boulder Theater on March 3.
The quartet, which features the brilliant-beyond-categorization vocalist Petra Haden (daughter of bassist and jazz legend Charlie Haden,) cellist Hank Roberts and bassist-guitarist Luke Bergman, released a dreamlike, self-titled album on Blue Note Records last year. “Harmony” provides an appropriately spacey setting for Frisell’s otherworldly guitar and Haden’s vocals. It’s a lovely collection that this able quartet should be able to replicate easily onstage in Boulder. Tickets range from $25-30 and can be had at bouldertheater.com.
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Joanne Brackeen is a towering figure in the history of jazz piano. Admired for her astonishing technique, she released an excellent run of albums in the beleaguered 1970s, a time when jazz was allegedly dead (it wasn’t.) Earlier in her career, Brackeen also shared the stage with mentors whose names are now part of the music’s lore: Art Blakey, Stan Getz and Joe Henderson stand out among the giants.
She hasn’t released a new album under her own name in nearly two decades, but Brackeen is back at Dazzle for two shows on March 16. Crowned a NEA Jazz Master in 2018, Brackeen’s powers as an artist are undiminished. Get tickets ($15-35) at dazzledenver.com.
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For multiple years, veteran guitarist Earl Klugh has presented a “Weekend of Jazz” at The Broadmoor Hotel and Resort in Colorado Springs. Smooth Jazz aficionados swear by it, and the event returns March 27-28.
Klugh will bring trumpeter Chris Botti and saxophonist Boney James to the Broadmoor stage, and there are ticket packages, VIP Artist Experiences, accommodations and more at broadmoor.com.
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Now well into his 80s, every new release from saxophonist and bandleader Charles Lloyd is something precious. There’s a new, extended live set out on his latest label (and he’s recorded for pretty much all of them by now), Blue Note.
“8: Kindred Spirits (Live From the Lobero)” was recorded two years ago, and what’s most notable is how vital Lloyd sounds throughout. It’s something of a “greatest hits” collection, with new interpretations of his best-known compositions, like “Forest Flower” and a searching take of “Dream Weaver,” in which he always was, and still is, at his most Coltrane-esque.
Lloyd’s most dedicated followers will want to contrast his boundless energy on the Lobero set with the recently released “Swiss Radio Days (TCB The Montreux Jazz Label)” collection, recorded at Montreux in 1967, and be in silent awe of how his magnificent tone, invention and devotion have remained the same for 50 plus years. How does he do it?
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And more jazz: Trumpeter Brad Goode, a forward-thinking artist and educator, appears at the Broomfield Auditorium on March 4. … Acclaimed violinst Regina Carter plays for two nights at Dazzle, March 4 and 5. … Bassist Thundercat, impossible to pigeonhole but definitely involved in facets of jazz, plays the Ogden Theatre on March 12. … The Special EFX All Stars take to the Soiled Dove Underground stage on March 12. … Yellowjackets descend on Dazzle March 14, the same night the Amend and Claxton Quartet appear at Nocturne.