10 Things (the first one)

Whenever I have more than ten recent happenings or upcoming items to tell you about, I'm going to try this format – here is the first edition of 10 Things on a Friday:

1. The music curators, or dare I say the DJs, of our community have been ringing me into the new year. Last Friday, I listened to Nou Dadoun's first A Trane radio show of 2025; Nou got me turned onto Herbie Nichols, finally. In addition to the acclaimed album by vocalist Fay Victor of her new lyrics with Nichols' music, Nichols' own recordings from the 50s and other associated material played a big part in the always extensive tracklist. The Nicholverse is mainstream but delightfully off-kilter. In New York it's Winter Jazzfest time, and I believe Victor played this stuff somewhere last night.
2. I'm producing Cory Weeds' Condition Blue show now (as part of my work for him and Cellar) with new episodes every other week. Cory's new episode from this Saturday features, among other things, checks notes B.B. King and an exclusive peek at an upcoming Cellar album by Johnny O'Neal recorded live in Vancouver.
3. On Saturday Night Jazz with Laila Biali's year-opening show, I heard a track from The Bad Plus' latest album Complex Emotions called "Cupcakes One". I didn't really dig its "Beat It" breakbeat thing; from what Laila spun last week I prefer Luke Sellick's "Fun". Anyway, looking up "Cupcakes One" made me realize that some of the best jazz labels in the world don't have a clue about how digital distribution works. The label thinks they need to upload their own "official audio" version of the track to YouTube when in fact the distributor does this automatically, making a duplicate. Someone's wasting their time. Check it out (label and distributor).
4. As for Tim Reinert's Infidels Jazz Show, I had never listened to Satoko Fujii until this week. Recording artists as prolific as her – Dave Douglas and Tim Berne being the first others who come to mind for me – have really cracked the code in my opinion. I checked out this Fujii album that opened Tim's Monday episode. Thanks, Tim, for the never-ending support in helping me catch up a bit with the bounty.
5. I've had the pleasure of going to several live shows already in week one of 2025. At Brentwood Jazz Evensong on New Year’s Day, Chelsea McBride played with Dean Thiessen and Wynston Minckler – without drums – and I recognized the music from the times I've played with Chelsea at 2nd Floor Gastown. What was new to me was how deeply she dug into the earth of her tenor saxophone over the last year or two; whatever she's been shedding at multiple American grad schools has brought out the Gene Ammons in her sound more than the Ben Wendel. You won't hear that on any of her contemporary big band or pop-fusion recordings from the past decade, but maybe you will on her next one, even if it's just a YouTube video or two that could rear its head from her schedule of grad school (as discussed on the podcast) and grant writing.
6. At Frankie’s last Friday, Holly Burke and the Naturals with Bill Runge as a co-leader of sorts, also featuring Kristian Alexandrov, Brent Gubbels, Nick Apivor, and Randall Stoll. I emceed and bombed the pronunciation of Apivor's last name: sorry! The vocalist-flautist Burke has recovered from a concussion recently; she laid out every other tune. The band was smooth and inviting with influence from the fusion act Steps Ahead, an influence that I suspect comes via Runge. Burke and Runge composed music for piano on an album called Dreamride that I wrote about previously.
7. At Fabrique on Saturday, the Matt Choboter Trio with James Meger and Andrew Thompson. Choboter has been living in Copenhagen for years and has acquired a bit of a Danish accent to his English, which doesn't surprise me given how intently he listens. I hadn't heard Thomson in forever, but he used to play with Choboter and friends in our overlapping CapU studies. According to Chris Fraser, who hung with me there, Thomson lives in the interior somewhere. The trio played in the vicinity of Jarrett / Peacock / DeJohnette and E.S.T. with a particularly nice version of "All or Nothing at All" plus free intro and outro playing. The gig sure wasn't the experimental-tuning work that Choboter is getting into now, as heard on his recent release Unburying, from Liminals, Emerging.
8. Sharon Minemoto dropped a bit of news about the Wednesdays at Fabrique: she said in the introduction that they'd focus now on “traditional” bands, “New Orleans jazz”, and “more of a party vibe”. If you squint, that's already visible in this month's lineup, which has Van Django, Geoff Claridge and Josh Roberts, and Alan Matheson. I bet the direction comes from management wanting to match the louder evening crowds, but it could also be an artists' reaction to how much harder it is to play delicately in that environment.
9. At the Lido on Monday, the Mary Ancheta Quartet. The venue now presents some of its shows – including Infidels fare like this one – under the anagrammed name Hot Deli, which I find confusing and annoying. The music, however, was as high-energy as the Betty Davis Show and any other outing from Ancheta. Actually, it was more jazz-oriented than I expected. Even a tune by the bassist Matt Reid had a jazz-waltz part to it before it kicked into a punchy bass groove. Thanks again to Tim for inviting me out to the show.
10. In the spirit of my December look at ticketed shows in the new year, some more shows to keep tabs on from outside the Cellar/Infidels world:

• John Korsrud's unique large ensemble Absolute Unit at the Fox February 13
• Be Good Tanyas co-founder Frazey Ford at the Anvil Theatre in New West February 18
• Coming out with a new album (which admittely is on Cellar), Paul Pigat and Cousin Harley at the Inlet Theatre February 22
• Ravi Coltrane at the Chan Centre February 28 playing his mother Alice Coltrane's deservedly-en-vogue music
• Crosscultural band Les Égarés at the BlueShore March 31.

11. I stayed as offline as I could during the holidays; I was shocked to learn belatedly that Sapalo Shafooli suffered a loss of camera gear. Sapalo, as heard on episode 100, is a tremendously vital person for Rhythm Changes and of course for the scene at large. The GoFundMe started by Laura Crema has crossed $3,000 so far to cover the costs.