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Blog Entry 10 of 55 The Lush Report

I'm trying to bring some of the more overlooked stuff from the local music scene. I have to balance it against a full-time real job, so I can't be as thorough as I'd like, but hopefully you'll find some of the stuff that Mark Brown and Ricardo Baca don't cover. If you've got a tip on a great venue for live music or great musicians to check out, e-mail me here. To bookmark this blog, click here.

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No more sit-ins with 4th Chair

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Contributed by: John Zwick on 5/17/2006

So Dazzle isn't the kind of place you have to be told about. If you dig on a high-profile jazz club in Denver, you've already been there (and Jazz@Jack's.) If your memory's left you, though, just know you can expect a laid back interior and - damn - a $12 shot of Macallan. It's kind of a training ground for young urban sophisticates - the college/post-college crowd that's ready to eat jazz up, if you're smart enough to wrap it in a little hip-hop.

I was there March 21: The last day you could catch 4th Chair there.
Oh, they didn't break up. But it was the last of 2+-years doing Tuesdays at Dazzle. I'm sure someone capable will be taking their place, but the regs at Dazzle ought to miss 4th Chair's sessions. A small core of musicians with some guests rotated in and out through sets consisting of some slick fusion, more of a free set and a closer with some big covers.

What you can't pick up from just any other competent band is their drummer. I couldn't explain it, and neither could the patrons I talked to, but without being showy, he grabbed everyone in the crowd smart enough to pay the man some attention.To some it was background for everyday boozing and scamming on pretty things across the room. Others just turned their backs to the crowd and got transfixed in the grooves. But whether you recognized it or not - know this. It doesn't get any more real, any more oldschool than a great sit-in session. Musicians stepped in for guest vocals, a little emceeing during the downtime and to show off instrumental chops. I wouldn't call a free jam session a dying practice, but there's not nearly enough of it.

And yes, that even goes for the night's closer, a cover set with smart choices including Radiohead, but no shortage of dust-gathering jams like Pearl Jam's "Alive" - the kind of former radio standard that's just a lot more fun when looked at through the lens of irony instead of Eddie Vedder's classic, pained earnestness.

Until I get a word on where to check out 4th Chair now, head to Dazzle April 8 to see Jim Stalhut and Maurice Anderson for some jazz steel guitar. It's one of those things that doesn't sit right in your mind until you give it a listen, but you'll be glad you did.

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Submitted By: Joel Hunt

posted on 3/27/2006 @ 11:46:50 PM

Rated Blog Entry

Not being a big jazz fan, I think that the key to a great metal band is the drums. There's a lot of pounding in a lot of bands, but when you hear one that really drives the music without just beating the drums, it's something special. Sorry I'm such a lame music critic John, but your blog is cool.

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