By Nanette Wiser
With the Palladium closed for remodeling, Green Light Kitchen + Lounge has become the place to catch great music during the weekends, including Bryan Hughes & The Crew (also performing at Suncoast Jazz Festival with a new holiday album debut there), David Downing, The Jazz Librarians, James Suggs and more. Monday night jazz jam at The Hangar continues with Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association. On Thursday nights, Fiona Frensche is back at Adrian’s Prime in St. Pete Beach after her tour de France. You can also find James Suggs and Mark Moultrop on most Sundays at Hawthorne Bottle Shop, and music will start up again at Sola Bar & Bistro. And of course, Halloween on Central will be teeming with fun, costumes, family friendly activities and music. On Fridays, check out Horan Park fall music series (10/16 TC & Sass, 10/23 The Horny Toads, 10/30 Ramble On), and music at Mastry’s Brewing and North Tap Brewhouse for the great local bands.
SWINGING BIG BAND
Joe Saunders is one cool cat, a lawyer by day and a big band musician by night with the TomKats Jazz Orchestra, who will perform at Clearwater Jazz Holiday Oct. 15-18 with Tony Castellano and Scotty Wright. You can catch them every Monday night at CJ’s Backstage in Tyrone but get there early to grab a seat and a bite to eat and watch the swing dancers strut their stuff during the big band jazz. Joe plays guitar, is the co-band leader and handles the band’s booking and business. The set list and performers are posted every week for the Monday performance. Surprisingly, they don’t rehearse; they just show up and play. Says Saunders: “We have a lot of the charts from Sinatra that he used at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas because, Tony Castellano sings Sinatra. And so, we do a lot of Sinatra repertoire. Sometimes musicians in the band write arrangements and hand them out and we play them. We keep it really fresh. So, it’s really a working big, a working big band.”
TomKats started at Treasure Island’s Bilmar, then moved to St. Pete Beach’s Blue Parrot and when it flooded, CJs invited them to take over Monday night with class and sass. For over 35 years, the TomKats Jazz Orchestra has been entertaining jazz and swing fans throughout the west coast of Florida. The band plays jazz, blues, and jazz-rock fusion. With a full jazz orchestra horn section of five saxes, four trombones, and four trumpets, the band’s repertoire includes traditional swing arrangements from the great big bands such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington through the more progressive sounds of Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, and Woody Herman and up to Steely Dan jazz- rock and the modern big band fusion styles of Gordon Goodwin’s Phat Band. They have original arrangements, vocal performances, and improvised jazz solos in a variety of styles and have some smaller band subsets of the group that play a variety of events and are available for hire.
www.tomkatsjazzorchestra.com
SUNCOAST JAZZ FESTIVAL
On Nov. 20-22, a legendary line-up comes to the Sheraton Sand Key this year. For the first time, John Pizzarelli and Anat Cohen will headline along with outstanding local and national artists such as Claudio Infante • Dave Bennett Quartet • Diego Figueiredo • Professor Cunningham and His Old School • Tom Rigney & Flambeau • Champian Fulton • Jonathan Russell • Chuck Redd • Dan Levinson’s Palomar Jazz Band with Molly Ryan • Jen Hodge • Cláudio Infante • Eddie Metz • Theo Valentin • James Suggs • Nate Najar • Daniela Soledade • Hot Tonic • Bakey & Betty • James Wall • Heather Thorn • La Lucha • Simon Lasky • Allison Nash • Mark Moultrup • Steve Boisen • Al Downing Trio • Naples Jazz Society Jazz Band •
Paul Wilborn & Eugenie Bondurant.
www.suncoastjazzfestival.com
