Roman Street in Hoover, Chamber Music à la Mode in LaGrange, Jazz in Auburn and More

Sunday's (6/5) Preserve Jazz Festival in Hoover looks to be a great set for fans of smooth jazz. There will be national names like saxophonist Boney James and guitarist Earl Klugh. Birmingham guitarist Eric Essix will perform with Tampa-based saxophinst Eric Darius, both with international reputations. But if I were going, I would check out Roman Street. It's a guitar duo from Mobile that sometimes performs with a full band. From what I can hear online, they really present a lovely acoustic sound with some hip, international flavors. There are several videos to watch, and I found one with poor audio but great energy to embed here.

Including Me

On Monday (6/6), Auburn guitarist Patrick Bruce and I will play jazz at Hamilton's on Magnolia. We play standards and a few things that are off the beaten path. Come have half-price martinis, a good meal and make a request or two. Hamilton's is a great venue for jazz.

Next Thursday (6/9), The highly acclaimed Yellow Hammer Restaurant in Waverly will host a wine-dinner benefit for the tornado victims of Tallapoosa County. They've asked The Woodfield Trio to perform for the patrons, and we were more than happy to accept. The trio is a chamber group comprised of me, cellist Charles Wright and pianist Barbara Acker-Mills. Call the restaurant at (334) 887-5800 to make reservations. The Yellow Hammer wine-dinner scheduled for June 9 has been postponed.

Other Local Sounds

Tomorrow (6/2), the Jane Drake Trio will continue with its Thursday-night performances at Piccolo. Her cohorts are bassist Sidney Simmons and pianist Jonathan Lynn. These guys are AU students who played last week with faculty at the Auburn Summer Jazz Concert, which was, just as I predicted, very good.

On Friday (6/3) and Saturday (6/4), Piccolo will host its weekly jazz series which highlights top local and regional musicians. On Sunday, Ariccia will serve up its jazz brunch from 11-2. I will update this post once I find out who is playing.

UPDATE: Tim Chambliss just commented on this post to let us know that Piccolo headliners will be Columbus saxophonist Fred Ezekiel on Friday night and AU jazz instructor and saxophonist Russell Haight on Saturday night. Both of these players are definitely worth checking out. Haight, in particular, has skills you would expect to hear in New Orleans, Nashville or Memphis. Maybe Atlanta. Maybe. I have a gig, of all things.

In the One-hour Circle (Montgomery, Columbus, Lagrange)

Jazz group Just Friends performs at The Loft in Columbus from 7-9 **EASTERN TIME** this Friday (6/3). I'll say again not to worry if you don't see the Friday night jazz info on The Loft's calendar online. The Columbus Jazz Society is good about keeping its website updated with The Loft's jazz schedule. Personnel of Just Friends is saxophonist Jeremy Pownell, drummer Joe Baccus, bassist Joee Nagem and pianist Donald Tipton.

On Sunday (6/5) at 5:00 PM **EASTERN TIME**, the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra presents Sundae Serenades, an afternoon of chamber music and ice cream. I have a cellist friend, who has not given me permission to quote him, but who says the program will definitely be worthwhile. Auburn Community Orchestra's principal violinist, Lorna Wood, will be among those performing.

Also on Sunday (6/5), 1048 Jazz and Blues in Montgomery will hold its weekly jazz jam starting at 9:30 PM.

Atlanta

On Saturday (6/4), the Atlanta Sacred Chorale will present its season finale at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts on campus at Emory University. According to the website, this will be a repeat of their performance in Montgomery at Memorial Presbyterian on 5/15. Here's the event page.

With performances tomorrow (6/2) and Saturday (6/4) the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform Alvin Singleton's After Fallen Crumbs; James Oliverio's Dynasty, a double tympani concerto; and Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. The orchestra will also premier the last two of ten fanfares written for this season "in celebration of the 10-year artistic partnership of Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles, and 10 years of the Atlanta School of Composers." That was a quote from this press release, and here is the event page from ASO's website.

Birmingham Area

Thursday night (6/2), Alabama Symphony string players will present the second of two Summer Serenades at Samford University's Brock Recital Hall. They'll do Mozart's Eine Kliene Nachtmusik, Dvorak's Serenade for Strings and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. Here's the event page.

Then on Friday (6/3), the full Alabama Symphony Orchestra will share the stage with the Black Jacket Symphony to present The Beatles's album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Here's the event page.

On Saturday (6/4), nationally acclaimed and Grammy-award winning smooth-jazz guitarist Earl Klugh will perform at Brock Recital Hall at 7:00 PM. The concert is billed as a Preserve Prelude to the Preserve Jazz Festival I mentioned up top. Tickets are high, but include admission to Sunday's festival and also benefit the Rev. John T. Porter Minority Scholarship at Samford. Birmingham guitarist Eric Essix will also perform. Here's a press release with more.

Local Events Next Week and Beyond 
6/9 - Jane Drake Trio at Piccolo (Auburn)
6/10-11 - Local and regional jazz musicians perform at Piccolo (Auburn)
6/12 - Jazz Brunch at Ariccia (Auburn)
6/13 - Verdi's Macbeth from the Royal Opera House simulcast at the Carmike Wynnsong 16 (Auburn)
6/20 - Auburn Summer Jazz Concert at Goodwin Hall (Auburn)
6/22 - Macbeth simulcast encore at the Carmike Wynnsong 16 (Auburn)

Not Quite as Local
6/10 - Silent Threat at The Loft (Columbus)
6/10-11 - Alexander City Jazz Fest
6/12 - Solar at the Liberty Theatre (Columbus)

More to come ATL and BHM...
6/9-12 - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra presents Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Atlanta)
6/10 - Alabama Symphony Orchestra plays Weber, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Dvorak (B'ham)
6/11 - Alabama Symphony Orchestra plays Tchaikovsky (Birmingham)
6/12 - Alabama Symphony Orchestra pops concert (Birmingham)
6/18 - Jazz guitarist Pat Martino at Center Stage (Atlanta)