[Dixielandjazz] OKOM in NYC - Noted by Jon Erik Kellso on another list:

[Steve Barbone]

Thanks to you OKOM-ers who came out to hear us at the Ear Inn Sunday night.
Meant a lot to have educated ears such as yours at the Ear--that was a fun
night!

>From Jon:
Just thought I'd share the news of a relatively new (since this past summer)
steady gig I have Sunday nights in NYC, 8-11 pm at the Ear Inn, 326 Spring
St., between Washington and Greenwich streets, Soho area on the isle of
Manhattan. Very cool old joint, goes back to 1817, interesting history.
Guitarist Matt Munisteri and I are regulars, we call the quartet the
EarRegulars, and we have misc. bass and reeds-or-whatever players with us
(Scott Robinson, Evan Christopher,  Howard Alden, James Chirillo, Chris
Flory, Greg Cohen, Joel Forbes and Frank Tate have been among the
EarRegulars).

Below is an amusing blog/review someone wrote about last Sunday, pretty
nice.

He got some stuff wrong, of course, such as --it's not the only place that
has hot jazz weekly in NYC, Arthur's Tavern still has the Sunday and Monday
bands, and Charley O's has the Stan Rubin All-Stars on Mondays., etc.....
Not sure what song he was trying to refer to, either, heh heh...I know we
played Willie the Weeper that night, and I do not think we played Farewell
Blues or Weary Blues that night...whatever! And Dan Block was on with us all
night on reeds, and Harry Allen sat in with us for much of the night--it was
a blast! Hope you are able to swing by and have a taste with us there some
time! It's a fun hang.

have a great '08, Jon

Jon-Erik Kellso
http://www.kellsojazz.com  or http://www.myspace.com/jonerikkellso

********* From the Blog:

December 24, 2007
<http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/the-ear-regulars-live-122307-m
arquee-caliber-jazz-at-a-ghetto-price/#respond>

One of the most exciting developments in the New York music scene in recent
months is this weekly Sunday 8 PM hot jazz session at the Ear Inn run by
trumpeter Jon Kellso and guitarist Matt Munisteri. This is the best deal in
town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a fiver or two
for Philip the bucket, you can see an ever-rotating cast of star
international players join the two anchors here and push it as far as it'll
go. That was Kellso and Munisteri's plan from the start, and it was
definitely working tonight. The material is traditional jazz (mostly oldtime
stuff from the 30s or earlier) but the agenda, as Munisteri put it, is to
see "see how far outside we can take it." By outside, he didn't mean obscure
it or make it deliberately inaccessible. On the contrary, this crew does
what all great jazz cats do at the top of their game, hitting a lot of
peaks, taking the songs to the limit and sometimes beyond.

The interplay and chemistry between the players is remarkable. They sank
their teeth into the old 30s hit Farewell to the Blues, upright bassist
Danton Boller taking a solo, and Munisteri didn't hang him out to dry. When
Boller slowed down his run, giving the notes room to breathe, Munisteri
picked up the rhythm, comping and punctuating it and it was clear that
everybody here is on the same page. Everything sounds better when the band
is a team and the song is the manager, and this crew knows that.
Kellso is a bluesman, straight up, no chaser, tonight alternating between
gregarious dixieland licks, admirably minimal straight-up blues and a coyly
magisterial Prez solo which Boller followed. The likelihood of hearing a
Lester Young-inflected horn line played on the bass is pretty rare, but the
guy did it. And later in the set he followed another Kellso solo, this time
a boisterous, bouncy dixieland one, without straying from the genre. The
band was joined this time around by a reed player doubling on clarinet and
sax, often working in tandem with Kellso, holding down the melody while
Munisteri or Boller were wailing away. Munisteri is a great listener and
expects the crowd to do the same: he doesn't play very loud, but he doesn't
have to. At one point, he took a solo that was .... so amazingly authentic
and soulful. Munisteri has blazing speed and a fondness for whipping chords
around, but he's just as likely to mold the melody gently and sparsely....

Considering how good the crowd was here tonight in a rainstorm two days
before Xmas, with Varick Street closed by police barricades at Charlton
Street due to debris from the latest Trump monstrosity falling from several
stories above, it would make sense to get here early to assure yourself a
seat.

This series started early last summer and it's picked up enough momentum to
the point where it could explode. On one level, that would be fantastic,
considering how good the music is and that the players deserve a bigger
space. On another level, it's perfect just the way it is. In the meantime,
the Ear Inn, which has admirably designated itself a cellphone-free zone,
is the perfect spot, an oasis of decency, good food and fairly reasonably
priced drink way over on the west side, a mere couple of minutes walk from
the train. Where they put butcher paper on the tables and supply crayons for
your personal use.

Believe it or not, this is the only weekly hot jazz blowing session in New
York at this time. In a city, or what's left of it - that has springboarded
the careers of so many thousands of great jazz players, it's about time we
had one. Bigtime props to Kellso and Munisteri for getting it going.

NOTE: as Kellso says, that last paragraph is wrong. Arthur's, Charlie O's,
Birdland, and the Donnell Branch of the NY Public Library also offer OKOM in
NYC on a weekly basis. Plus Sol Yaged is at Il Vesuvio 5 nights a week. Plus
Woody Allen is at the Carlyle once a week with New Orleans Jazz. And it may
not be "hot" jazz, but Les Paul is at Iridium every Monday night.

There are probably more OKOM spots flying under the radar.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone