Events

"If this band appeared in New York City, they'd be a sensation!" That was guitar great--and one-time Mel Brown bandmate--George Benson's reaction after hearing the Mel Brown B-3 Organ Group open for him in 2003.  This true all-star band has been a sensation for a long time—including a 20-year run on Thursdays at Portland’s Jimmy Mak’s (The Oregonian dubbed them “Jimmy Mak’s signature group”).  A collective resume that reads like a "Who's Who" of NW jazz, blues, and soul, this group has the talent and confidence to be completely spontaneous--from their blistering solos to their improvised arrangements and segues.

MEL BROWN -- An Oregon icon, has been labeled the "Gentleman of Jazz," with a career spanning a half century. The city of Portland proclaimed June 22, 1989 "Mel Brown Day" in recognition of Mel's achievements as a musician and educator, receiving the Governor's Arts Award in 2002. Mel first made his mark as a Motown staff drummer, recording and touring with the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and many others. He subsequently spent ten years working with Diana Ross and other pop acts before giving up the road in 1991 and returning home to his first love: jazz. Mel has been a fixture in Portland ever since, leading groups six nights a week at Jimmy Mak's and other venues when he isn't backing jazz artists like Joey DeFrancesco and Benny Golson.

DAN BALMER -- Widely considered the defining sound of contemporary jazz guitar in the Northwest.  Described by the Los Angeles Times as "the model of what a contemporary guitarist should be," Dan is one of the most original and creative artists to come from the fertile Northwest music scene.  Dan has played and recorded with a long list of jazz greats, has released six CDs of his own, is a jazz educator and a noted composer. Dan leads his own groups and performs with jazz artists including Diane Schuur, Benny Green, and Jeff Hamilton.  

RENATO CARANTO -- described as "one of Portland's most soulful jazz saxophonists" by The Oregonian," Renato is one of the most versatile, accomplished, soulful saxophonists anywhere. Arriving from the Philippines in '81 with only his horn, Renato has built an enviable career in Portland. After gaining a foothold in the local scene, Renato became one of the most sought-after jazzmen in the NW and beyond. In recent years, he’s toured with Grammy-winning jazz artist Esperanza Spalding and late country legend Merle Haggard. Talk about versatility!  

LOUIS "KING LOUIE" PAIN -- "Portland's boss of the B-3" (The Oregonian) hails from San Francisco, where he played and recorded with a wide variety of top musicians: Tower of Power guitarist Bruce Conte, Santana saxophonist Jules Broussard, Edwin Hawkins vocalist Dorothy Morrison, and B.B. King saxophonist Bobby Forte. After moving north in '86, Louis continued the trend. His 2016 cd with vocalist LaRhonda Steele, “Rock Me Baby,” was honored by Downbeat as one of the “Best Albums of 2016.”  Louis’ knack for playing exactly what's needed to further the song has made him Portland's "first call" organist. 

Kassa Overall is a drummer, producer and MC who strikes a fresh, harmonious realignmentof contemporary hip-hop and jazz. Showing shades of Karriem Riggins, Madlib and FlyingLotus, the drummer and producer fuses the sounds of hip-hop and jazz, informed by thedozen years he’s spent honing his jazz drumming chops in the heart of the New York scene.Raised in Seattle and based in Brooklyn, Overall has been working at the forefront of jazz fortwo decades, touring and recording as a sideman drummer with artists as varied as GeriAllen, Francis and the Lights, Yoko Ono, and Arto Lindsay. He’s featured on drummer TerriLyne Carrington’s Social Science, worked with Brandee Younger and his new record “ITHINK I’M GOOD” features Vijay Iyer and Theo Croker (whose album he co-produced). He’salso shared stages with many of the greats, including Donald Byrd, Mayer Hawthorne, YokoOno and Gary Bartz. Meanwhile, he’s maintained a separate career as an indie hip-hopproducer and rapper with groups like Das Racist and Kool and Kass.As adept behind the drum kit as he is looping samples on a laptop, Overall’s music is aproduct of live improvisation as much as studio experiments. He dubs his sound “backpackjazz”, a nod to his DIY, stripped back mobile studio, which he employs in addition totraditional studio sessions, and which consists of a laptop, a simple audio interface, andmicrophone, which he packs into his bag for recording sessions in hotel rooms and friends’lounges.Explaining his thinking behind the term, he says, "It’s something like a cross between a jazzmusician, a backpack rapper and a bedroom producer.” Crucially, it’s a far more socialendeavour than bedroom production. "The bedroom producer is mostly solitary andstationary,” he says. “But the backpack producer is collaborative, mobile, and totallyimprovisatory in the truest sense of our tradition. My studio is with me almost all the time. Ineed to be able to work whenever and wherever, at my own pace.”On his latest album, “I THINK I’M GOOD”, Overall elevates that social, cross-pollinatingdiscipline to another level. It sees him wrestle with the abhorrent American prison system,the ebbs and flows of romantic relationships, and perils of trust, all seen through thekaleidoscopic lens of a brilliant 21st century composer. The backdrop to these varied themes is Overall confronting his experience with mentalillness, which included a manic episode and subsequent hospitalisation when he was astudent. Themes of incarceration and claustrophobia weave through the record, but neverdrown out the feeling of a fragile but vital hope.It follows his 2019 debut album “Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz”, which earned ravereviews from The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Afropunk, WBGO, WNYC,KNKX and Downbeat. According to the NYT’s Giovanni Russonello, the album is “one of thefew genuine-sounding, full-scope amalgams of contemporary hip-hop and jazz to surface inrecent years.”On “I THINK I’M GOOD”, Overall builds on that assured debut to deliver an even moreexpansive vision, aided by a cadre of New York’s brightest up and comers, including JoelRoss and Morgan Guerin. It even features an especially recorded cameo from legendaryactivist and author Dr. Angela Davis.

How many artists have been praised a “punk rock provocateur,” “jazz  vibraphone visionary,” and “percussion virtuoso” in the same sentence? There’s only one: Mike Dillon. Whether through his affiliation with artists like Les Claypool, Primus, Rickie Lee Jones, Dean Ween Group and Ani Difranco, and collaborations such as Nolatet, Garage a Trois, The Dead Kenny G's, Critters Buggin or bands he has led, including Mike Dillon Band, Mike Dillon's New Orleans Punk Rock Percussion Consortium, Billy Goat and Hairy Apes BMX, the Texas-native has set his own standard for 25 years now.

   

Over the past decade, Mike Dillon has released a number of acclaimed albums, intertwining a range of influences from Zappa-esque eccentricity to Fishbone punk funk, D.C. Go-Go to Milt Jackson-influenced vibraphone majesty. Never before, however, has he recorded music so personal and committed to a sustained mood as his latest album, Functioning Broke. The recording finds Dillon solo on vibraphone and various percussion, building each track into its own minimalist, but multi-dimensional auditory landscape. 

 

The current version of the Mike Dillon Band features guitarist Cliff Hines, Bassist Nathan Lambertson and a rotating cast of drummers including Claude Coleman Jr. (Ween), Simon Lott, G. Maxwell, Doug Belote and Paul Thibodeaux. With this line up, Dillon has continued exploring the connection between New Orleans street beats, Ska, funk, Hardcore and jazz. The band will release a new record in February 2017 titled, “Life is not a Football." Produced in New Orleans by Richard Maloney and Dillon with engineers Rick Nelson and Robert Mercurio, this album sounds like a Spotted Cat trad band that grew up playing Dead Kennedys and invited Captain Beefheart over for a dinner cooked by Thelonious Monk. The Mike Dillon Band has supported acts like Galactic, The Revivalists, Clutch, Primus, and Fishbone, while continuing to play music festivals and in cities across the U.S.

In 2016, the Gambit's Big Easy Awards named Mike Dillon "Performer of the Year" and the Mike Dillon Band "Best Punk/Metal Band" in New Orleans. Living in New Orleans for over 10 years now, when not on the road with Rickie Lee Jones, Nolatet, or the Mike Dillon Band, Mike resides in the Musician's Village. 

Mike's latest release, Life Is Not A Football, released April, 2017 (Royal Potato Family) is "A recording with the Big Easy coursing through its veins and equal parts Frank Zappa and The Butthole Surfers in its DNA. Life Is Not A Football, is a no-holds-barred affair, complete with rallying cries for justice, truth-to-power political and existential rants and plenty of inside jokes

New York City-based Jonathan Barber was voted the #1 Up-and-Coming Drummer of 2018 in Modern Drummer. Only 29 years old, he has already recorded and toured worldwide with such artists as Pat Metheny, Nicholas Payton, Buster Williams, Jeremy Pelt, Wallace Roney, Terrace Martin, Jennifer Holiday, Harold Mabern, Steve Davis, Stefon Harris, and many more. Barber has also been called on for such significant performances as Jimmy Greene’s Ana Grace Project (with an all-star band comprised of Greene, Kenny Barron, John Patitucci, and Kurt Elling) and back-to-back sold-out concerts with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Erykah Badu at the BAM Opera House.

In addition to his first-call status as a sideman, Barber has recently stepped forth as a composer and leader with his Vision Ahead band, featuring saxophonist Godwin Louis, guitarist Andrew Renfroe, bassist Matt Dwonszyk, and pianist Taber Gable. Even with Barber’s history of high-profile gigs and recordings taken into consideration, DownBeat magazine calls Vision Ahead’s self-titled debut album his “greatest accomplishment to date.” Released on Rockwood Music Hall’s largest stage in May 2018, Vision Ahead is a powerful declaration of intent for a band that’s been making waves on the modern jazz scene since its debut performance at Smalls Jazz Club. The group’s blend of classic, swinging jazz with elements of gospel, rock, soul, and fusion is a compelling showcase of Barber’s broad stylistic range as a composer and performer. Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead was featured and headline the 2018 Rainy Days Jazz Festival held in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. 

Born in Hartford, CT, Barber has been playing drums since the age of five, initially falling in love with the instrument through watching his father perform in the family church. Barber’s upbringing in the church instilled within him a deep appreciation of the power, passion, and full sound of the gospel music tradition, and he now brings its infectious energy to the wide range of styles in his musical toolkit. Early influences also includes beginning George Duke, Fred Hammond, Weather Report, Yellowjackets and Commissioned, and classic jazz titans like Miles Davis, Jackie Mclean, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Tony Williams and Thelonious Monk. With soul, impeccable groove, and explosive chops, Barber has synthesized his favorite traditions into a thoroughly modern and endlessly adaptable musical expression that connects with listeners from across generations.

In September 2019, Barber completed his first solo drum tour in Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina). Barber endorses Canpous Drums, Istanbul Agop Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Promark Drumsticks, and Sunhouse Percussion.

Eisen-Meyers is a Portland based guitarist, singer/songwriter and band leader. He has supported local, regional and national acts for the last 10 years on the road and in the studio. Samuel E-M & The Joyful Noise are a 4 piece pop outfit with live instrumentation & carry the musical flavorings of gospel, neo-blues, soul, dance - hop, and improvisational music. The Joyful Noise, (nearing a year old) is made up of a young cast of Portlands rising stars. Collectively the band has supported local and national acts ranging from , Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, The Hamiltones, The Roots, Trombone Shorty, Christian Scott, Amine… too west coast based artists Swatkins & The Positive Agenda, Moorea Masa & The Mood, Hailey Niswanger, Jarrod Lawson, Max Ribner, Lilla, Saeeda Wright, Othership Connection, Acorn Project and many more.
 

Bending the future of sound, taking ivory and ebony to destinations unknown, is keyboard maestro, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger and astral traveler Brandon Coleman. A regular fixture with Babyface, Donald Glover, Flying Lotus, and Kamasi Washington's band including his most recent film Live at The Apollo, Coleman represents a new chapter in the evolution of jazz and funk fusion.

 His celebrated sophomore album, Resistance on BRAINFEEDER, released in late 2018, brought him All Around The World to Japan, South America, and Europe alongside Kamasi and traveling North America to support Flying Lotus, with his future funk band, Brandon Coleman's SpaceTalker. For those accustomed to Coleman's role laying the foundation for expansive spiritual-jazz explorations in Kamasi Washingtons band, its revelatory to hear him so spry on his feet and down to get down.
 If his work with Kamasi Washington contains all the weight and gravitas of Sunday church, Coleman's Resistance has all the fun, breeziness- and yes, sunlight- of an afternoon church picnic, said Andy Beta of Pitchfork. At a typical Brandon Coleman show, whether trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet or SpaceTalker, its common to get the entire Sunday extravaganza.
Currently performing every month in Los Angeles, and putting the finishing touches on his upcoming Brainfeeder album, Coleman's live show is a sonic portal into the future of ethereal space jazz and psychedelic funk.

Italian hybrid drummer, producer, and Dj Tommaso Cappellato is a musical maverick, from free‐form electronics to hip‐hop beats and jazz improvisation. His seemingly unorthodox breadth of style and vision gives us a truly unique new school artist - from building his jazz chops as a resident drummer in NYC, to hip hop excursions alongside Brooklyn MC's; traveling to Senegal to meld with local world music masters, to collaborating with experimental electronica and techno artist Rabih Beaini, and visionary Egyptian producer Maurice Louca.

Tommaso leads his own award‐winning spiritual jazz project Astral Travel, presents his hybrid drum masterclass around the world, has released his solo artist project "Aforemention" and his latest acclaimed release "Butterflying", bringing together his lifetime of artistic exploration and exposure to create his own concept of a jazz‐informed experimental electronic soundscape.
 Cappellato was recently seen as an artist in residence at NYC's Pioneer Works besides appearing on Maurice Louca's album Elephantine and has recorded and co-produced a new album with Mark de Clive-Lowe. He appears frequently on Gilles Peterson's Worldwide FM.



       

The London is proud to continue the jazz tradition of the Monday Night Big Band. On a night when most musicians are free of gigs, they gather in numbers to play some of the music they love most: everything from Ellington and Basie to Buddy Rich and Michael Buble. Don't miss this chance to enjoy the power and diversity of the top horn-heavy bands from Portland and beyond.

Pranksters Big Band is one of the most sought after dance bands in the Portland Ballroom/Swing dance scene. Gary Bong, band leader, vocalist Claudia Knauer

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"If this band appeared in New York City, they'd be a sensation!" That was guitar great--and one-time Mel Brown bandmate--George Benson's reaction after hearing the Mel Brown B-3 Organ Group open for him in 2003.  This true all-star band has been a sensation for a long time—including a 20-year run on Thursdays at Portland’s Jimmy Mak’s (The Oregonian dubbed them “Jimmy Mak’s signature group”).  A collective resume that reads like a "Who's Who" of NW jazz, blues, and soul, this group has the talent and confidence to be completely spontaneous--from their blistering solos to their improvised arrangements and segues.

MEL BROWN -- An Oregon icon, has been labeled the "Gentleman of Jazz," with a career spanning a half century. The city of Portland proclaimed June 22, 1989 "Mel Brown Day" in recognition of Mel's achievements as a musician and educator, receiving the Governor's Arts Award in 2002. Mel first made his mark as a Motown staff drummer, recording and touring with the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and many others. He subsequently spent ten years working with Diana Ross and other pop acts before giving up the road in 1991 and returning home to his first love: jazz. Mel has been a fixture in Portland ever since, leading groups six nights a week at Jimmy Mak's and other venues when he isn't backing jazz artists like Joey DeFrancesco and Benny Golson.

DAN BALMER -- Widely considered the defining sound of contemporary jazz guitar in the Northwest.  Described by the Los Angeles Times as "the model of what a contemporary guitarist should be," Dan is one of the most original and creative artists to come from the fertile Northwest music scene.  Dan has played and recorded with a long list of jazz greats, has released six CDs of his own, is a jazz educator and a noted composer. Dan leads his own groups and performs with jazz artists including Diane Schuur, Benny Green, and Jeff Hamilton.  

RENATO CARANTO -- described as "one of Portland's most soulful jazz saxophonists" by The Oregonian," Renato is one of the most versatile, accomplished, soulful saxophonists anywhere. Arriving from the Philippines in '81 with only his horn, Renato has built an enviable career in Portland. After gaining a foothold in the local scene, Renato became one of the most sought-after jazzmen in the NW and beyond. In recent years, he’s toured with Grammy-winning jazz artist Esperanza Spalding and late country legend Merle Haggard. Talk about versatility!  

LOUIS "KING LOUIE" PAIN -- "Portland's boss of the B-3" (The Oregonian) hails from San Francisco, where he played and recorded with a wide variety of top musicians: Tower of Power guitarist Bruce Conte, Santana saxophonist Jules Broussard, Edwin Hawkins vocalist Dorothy Morrison, and B.B. King saxophonist Bobby Forte. After moving north in '86, Louis continued the trend. His 2016 cd with vocalist LaRhonda Steele, “Rock Me Baby,” was honored by Downbeat as one of the “Best Albums of 2016.”  Louis’ knack for playing exactly what's needed to further the song has made him Portland's "first call" organist. 

Between his white-hot guitar playing and his soulful, emotional vocals, Coco Montoya has talent to burn. In a career that spans almost four decades, he’s gone from drumming for blues icon Albert Collins to holding the lead guitar spot in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers to leading his own band and touring worldwide. Montoya is revered for his ability to move from subtly melodic guitar playing to slash-and-burn pyrotechnics. Equally forceful are his deep, soul-baring vocals. Years of constant touring, playing unforgettable shows at clubs, concert halls and festivals, have earned him his position at the top of the contemporary blues world. And it all started with a chance meeting in the mid-1970s with legendary bluesman Albert Collins, who offered Montoya a spot in his band, where he stayed for the next five years. Coco was initially hired as Collins’ drummer and later—with Albert mentoring him on the guitar—became the band’s rhythm guitarist. A few years after leaving Collins’ band, British blues star John Mayall heard Coco jamming onstage and was so impressed that he hired him for the newly reformed Bluesbreakers.

When Montoya launched his solo career in 1993, he already had an instantly recognizable burning-hot sound and style all his own. His debut album solidified his stature as the blues’ newest rising star. Over the course of his nine previous solo albums, Montoya has consistently delivered piping hot blues, rock and soul. His new album (his fifth for Alligator), Coming In Hot, is another instant classic. Montoya’s fiery, melodic guitar playing and passionate vocals fuel one memorable song after another. Guitar Player says Montoya plays “stunning, powerhouse blues with a searing tone, emotional soloing, and energetic, unforced vocals.”

Coming In Hot, produced by Tony Braunagel (Eric Burdon, Curtis Salgado, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt), features 11 songs, ranging from the blistering, hard-rocking title track to the gritty and potent blues shuffle Water To Wine to the emotional ballad What Am I?. He delivers Albert Collins’ Lights Are On But Nobody’s Home with uncompromising, dynamic energy. Montoya’s unpredictable guitar playing and smoking, soulful vocals are inspired by a backing band featuring renowned musicians including bassists Bob Glaub (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Lee Lewis) and Mike Mennell (Jimmy Buffett, John Fogerty), keyboardist Mike Finnigan (Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, Taj Mahal), rhythm guitarists Billy Watts (Eric Burdon) and Johnny Lee Schell (Bonnie Raitt), and Braunagel on drums.

Jeff Parker - guitar/sampler
Makaya McCraven - drums/sampler
Josh Johnson - alto saxophone/keyboards
Paul Bryan - bass guitar/bass synth


Jeff Parker is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer. A longtime member of the influential Tortoise, Parker is recognized as one of contemporary musics most versatile and innovative electric guitarists and composers.

“I’m always looking for ways to be surprised,” as he explains the process, and the thinking, behind his new album, Suite for Max Brown, released via a new partnership between the Chicago–based label International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. “If I sit down at the piano or with my guitar, with staff paper and a pencil, I’m eventually going to fall into writing patterns, into things I already know. So, when I make music, that’s what I’m trying to get away from - the things that I know.”

Parker himself is known as the longtime guitarist for the Chicago based quintet Tortoise, one of the most critically revered, sonically adventurous groups to emerge from the American indie scene of the early nineties. The band’s often hypnotic, largely instrumental sound eludes easy definition, drawing freely from rock, jazz, electronic, and avant-garde music, and it has garnered a large following over the course of nearly thirty years. Aside from recording and touring with Tortoise, Parker has worked as a side man with many jazz greats, including Nonesuch labelmate Joshua Redman; as a studio collaborator with Makaya McCraven, Brian Blade, Meshell N’Degeocello, his longtime friend (and Chicago Underground ensemble co-founder) Rob Mazurek; and as a solo artist.

Suite for Max Brown is informally a companion piece to The New Breed, Parker’s critically acclaimed 2016 album, which London’s Observer honored as the best jazz album of the year, declaring that “no other musician in the modern era has moved so seamlessly between rock and jazz like Jeff Parker. As guitarist for Chicago post-rock icons Tortoise, he’s taken the group in new and challenging directions that have kept them at the forefront of pop creativity for the last twenty years. As of late, however, Parker has established himself as one of the most formidable solo talents in modern jazz.”
 

Join us for a classic night of cocktails and cabaret with a rotating cast of phenomenal local and touring performers.

Contact Critical Hit Burlesque for reserved seating or large party rates.

 

The Jack London Revue is located at 529 SW 4th Ave, Portland

Follow the hardwood path through the Rialto Poolroom