John Nastos.com » Alan Jones

Jimmy Mak’s – November 14th

John Nastos — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:44:57 +0000

On November 14th, my band will be playing a double bill with Ben Darwish’s Commotion (Russ Kleiner, Sam Howard, and Chris Mosley).

I’ll be lucky enough to be playing with Clay Giberson (organ), and Alan Jones (drums), playing some of the E4 book.

Cover charge for the evening is $10 (gets you in for both bands). My group kicks the evening off at 8 PM. Hope to see you there.

“The Cave” on 5/16

John Nastos — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:45:42 +0000

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be playing at "The Cave" on Friday, 5/16. The Cave is Portland’s newest jazz venue and promises to be a great place. I stopped by last night to hear Alan Jones play and thought the venue was perfect for jazz.

I’ll be playing the show with Clay Giberson on keys, Chris Mosley on guitar, and Randy Rollofson on drums. Music starts at 8 PM – minors welcome until 9:30. There’s a $5 cover charge.

Saw Ingrid Jensen at JM’s

John Nastos — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:08:52 +0000

On Monday, I went to see Ingrid Jensen play at Jimmy Mak’s with Alan Jones, Randy Porter, and Dave Speranza. It was a great show with only a $5 cover. I was worried that the crowd might be thin, since I hadn’t heard much press about the event, but both sets were pretty full. It was especially great to see so many musicians out to hear a show – young and old.

I first met Ingrid at the Port Townsend Jazz Workshop in 2005, when she was my combo coach there. I was lucky enough to be able to sit in with her band in NYC a few months later at a club called Kitano. I also got to see her play a number of times, mostly with Maria Schneider’s band. As far as trumpet players go, I don’t think you can ask for much more. I hope Alan keeps finding ways to bring her out here.

In other news, JazzPDX.org has a new look, or will soon after I post this. I’m looking forward to adding some new features, most notably a podcast which is in the works. If you’re a Portland musician, be sure to send your album info to submit@jazzpdx.org so that I can put it in the “Featured Album” section.

Alan Jones and the Bridge Quartet

John Nastos — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:43:23 +0000

Last night I went to Jimmy Mak’s to see Alan Jones‘ CD release party for “Day,” the first of two new CD’s from the Bridge Quartet. The quartet (Alan, Darrell Grant, Tom Wakeling, and Phil Dwyer) played three amazing sets of music. The group really stretched the pieces and focused on heavily improvised music rather than intricate arrangements.

Although all the players were great, I know all of the saxophone players in the audience were especially blown-away by Phil Dwyer. What a monster tenor player.

Alan mentioned during the release that the group was proud of the recording-quality of the project, which they did out at Clackamas Community College in the new studio there. After listening to the disc, I have to agree – it sounds great. It definitely makes me tempted to record my first studio project there.

In other news, I have some new recordings that I’m working on editing to put on the site. I got the tracks from the Old Church concert (which Patrick Springer did a great job of recording) and I have some stuff from my trio gig at Wilf’s as well.More soon.