The Jazz Scene: Appreciating April with Chick Corea, Thelonius Monk, and more

Though April is Jazz Appreciation Month, no one in this region’s jazz community has come up with a satisfactory answer as to why it’s been years since Philadelphia hosted an annual, multiday, nationally sponsored jazz festival with a healthy mix of big names and area names, à la the long-running Berks Jazz Fest in Reading, happening through April 8.

The jazz community’s response to this void has been to present a series of daylong, low-risk daytime confabs, or applying an umbrella “Jazz Festival” title to events already booked at local clubs. A good example of the former, the Center City Jazz Festival, will celebrate its seventh year on Saturday, April 28, featuring 20 jazz groups in five Center City venues, running from 1 to 7pm. Credit the producers with a novel approach, in that the fest fills five venues that are usually dark or underutilized during daytime hours — TIME Restaurant, Fergie’s Pub, Franky Bradley’s, Chris’ Jazz Café, and Milkboy — and will present a good mix of local players like trombonist Jeff Bradshaw and violinist Diane Monroe, with semi-national attractions like the more commercially oriented BIGYUKI.

Chick Corea and Fred Hersch

We’ve heard veteran pianist, composer, and innovator Chick Corea in any number of configurations throughout his long career, including in fusion with Return to Forever, in an acoustic duo setting with pianist Herbie Hancock, and in straight-ahead jazz-trio settings. But Corea has rarely performed as a soloist with a big band, which is one reason to eagerly anticipate his upcoming performance at the Academy of Music, with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. Additionally, these world-class artists will be performing the music of Thelonious Monk, which will no doubt make for an extraordinary show. It’s coming up on Sunday, April 8, at 7:30pm.

Fred Hersch, another cutting-edge pianist and composer (and now author), is coming to our area thanks to a venue that is booking more and more innovative jazz: the Williams Center for the Arts in Easton. Hersch will perform on Wednesday, April 18, at 7:30pm.

Heirs of history-making jazz

The music-history books will likely show that, after John Coltrane, multi-instrumentalist and composer Ornette Coleman was among the very few jazz innovators to come along and break really new ground as an improviser and composer. The legacy of the late and great Pulitzer Prize winner continues, by way of a tribute group — Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time Band — which operates under the leadership of Coleman’s son, drummer Denardo. This very talented unit, featuring top-drawer artists like guitarist James Blood Ulmer and Philadelphia reed veteran Odean Pope, will perform at International House (3701 Chestnut Street) on Sunday, April 29, at 2pm.

Buddy Rich, a.k.a. “the world’s greatest drummer,” was a perennial jazz poll winner through a career that topped four decades, but the late percussive master did have several pretenders to the throne through the years, including Max Roach, Shelly Manne, and in later years, Tony Williams and the one and only Billy Cobham. We don’t hear much about Cobham these days, who was once called “fusion’s greatest drummer” for his unique 1970s work with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis, but he’s still at it, energetic and pounding away at the age of 74 with a group he called the Crosswinds Project. Cobham and ensemble visit Phoenixville’s Colonial Theater on Wednesday, April 4, at 7:30pm.