How was month one with The Infidels at Hero's Welcome?

Sunday afternoon jazz at Hero's Welcome, a Main Street neighbourhood pub, launched this month of March 2023 with two shows presented by The Infidels.

I felt that both shows met or exceeded everyone's expectations. The series is well worth your attendance, and more is on the way.

Let's debrief:

• The first show (March 5th)
• The second show (March 19th)
• What's coming up (April 16th & 30th)

Show 1: Jimi James Sextet

The March 5th opening show featured the Jimi James Sextet, with a front line of Spencer Drody on trumpet, Connor Lum on alto saxophone, and Bryan Chung on tenor saxophone; and a rhythm section of Brad Pearson on bass, Jamison Ko of Earth Tones on drums, and Jimi on the house upright piano.

"I feel like I'm at Jazz House," someone said of this lineup, referencing the infamous Marpole house with Friday night jams and musician residents.

Jimi has launched one of Tim Reinert's series with a sextet before. This time as with the last, his opener was his hard bop original "Spring Ahead and Strive For Tone".

The band continued with more repertoire in that vein, like "Nica's Dream" by Horace Silver (Jimi: "We're gonna play some real music by a real composer now"), "The Message" by Hugh Fraser, and a selection from the 1964 sextet album Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof.

Show 2: Jodi Proznick New Horizons

The follow-up on March 19th didn't lose any momentum and featured Jodi Proznick's new quartet, which she calls the New Horizons band: Chris Davis on trumpet, Tilden Webb on piano, and Nicholas Bracewell on drums.

Compared to Jimi's sextet, New Horizons moved ahead a decade from the 50s to the 60s. "It was an excuse to dive into some of the albums and composers that made me fall in love with this music," Jodi said from the stage.

Jodi talks often about the formative influence of Ray Brown, but on this gig it was Ron Carter as she opened with his Miles Davis Quintet tune "Eighty-One".

The repertoire also included 60s post-bop tunes like "Speak No Evil" by Wayne Shorter, "One Finger Snap" by Herbie Hancock, and "Mamacita" by Joe Henderson.

Luke Young, a student trumpeter headed for the MusicFest Canada National Youth Combo this year, sat in and played "Billie's Bounce" with confidence.

Up next at Hero's Welcome

The series contnues on April 16th, after taking April 2 off the every-other-Sunday schedule, with the Brad Turner Quartet. The band's de facto new drummer Todd Stewart lines up with Brad, Bruno Hubert, and André Lachance, and Bruno performs on the house piano he has been dutifully tuning before each show.

To follow that, James Danderfer leads a quartet on April 30th with Sharon Minemoto, Jeff Gammon, and Arvind Ramdas. Young drummers: they're doing something right.

Hero's Welcome sports the most affordable cover charge in Vancouver jazz, among gigs that have one, at five dollars.

"[I]t's about trying to fill the void in the jazz community left by Pat's Pub halting their music programming last year," Tim Reinert told me in February. "I've been trying to find a venue where we can present an affordable and accessible weekend afternoon jazz hang again. And with Hero's Welcome I think we've found the right partners." The solid turnouts and effusive staff agree.