The Front Range has been graced with a series of high-profile jazz names recently, and while the likes of Chick Corea and John Scofield have already passed through, there’s a lot of high-caliber talent slated in May.
Here are some picks that we can’t allow to slip by:
Legends of Jazz Tour, May 10, Dazzle Restaurant and Supper Club: Imagine my surprise to discover that not only is trombonist Julian Priester still alive, he’s joined up with a group of contemporaries to draw from their 200-plus years of collective experience. Priester played alongside Dinah Washington, Clifford Brown and Sun Ra, and recorded the dense and electric “Love, Love” for ECM 35 years ago — an unheralded, slow- burning fusion monster.
Also on hand: saxophonist Hadley Caliman, pianist Larry Vuckovich, bassist John Heard and drummer Eddie Marshall. Between the five of them, they’ve been present in some of the most essential bands in the formation of modern jazz.
5 and 7 p.m., $25.
Estes Park Jazz Festival and Art Walk, May 16-17, Performance Park Ampitheater: One of Colorado’s best spring jazz celebrations, and they still manage to make it so that you can hear the music for free. It’s worth the scenic drive for Denver bassist Ken Walker’s sextet; singer Angela Hagenbach; and tenor saxophonist Don Braden, who got his start working for perfectionists like Betty Carter and Wynton Marsalis.
estesparkcvb.com
5 Points Jazz Festival, May 16, Along Welton Street in Five Points: A hopping oasis in the West for Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington in the ’40s, the city of Denver re-creates the excitement again with performances from the Denver Jazz Quartet, Lamont School of Music Jazz Band, Sheryl Renee and the Neil Bridge 7+, which has just released the CD “Yes, I Am Still Here,” a good-natured celebration of classic jazz with arrangements by pianist Bridge. And saxophonist/academic Fred Hess will present a lecture on the “History and Composition of Jazz.”
denvergov.org/5pointsjazz
Otis Taylor/Ron Miles/Jason Moran, May 21-22, Dazzle: When I ran into Colorado’s guitar-banjo blues whiz Taylor last summer, he was buzzing about a completed recording date with trumpeter Miles and pianist Moran. I have no idea how this meeting of the minds will sound, but I’m certain it won’t be disappointing. Taylor is a decorated blues veteran, trumpeter Miles sounds brilliant and polished on everything he touches and Moran is simply one of the most resourceful and inventive pianists in the world. If you want to know where blues and jazz are going, don’t miss this.
7 and 9 p.m. both days, $20. dazzle
Set list.
Jazz poet Gil-Scott Heron, he of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” is still a vocal force to be reckoned with, and he’ll appear at the Fox Theatre in Boulder tonight . . . also at the Fox, on Thursday, Colorado’s Motet pays tribute to Herbie Hancock . . . pianist Joe Bonner appears at the Mercury Cafe tonight; meanwhile it’s saxophonist Nelson Rangell’s quartet at Jazz@Jack‘s . . . Lannie Garrett’s Swingin’ Big Band fills the room at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret on Friday and Saturday . . . guitarist Stanley Jordan returns with his trio to the Soiled Dove Underground on May 16.
