06/11/2024
Bright Moments Jazz Jam Session,
June 10th Edition
New start and finish time: 7pm – 10pm*
We’re rounding the corner on our June 10th Bright Moments Jazz Jam Session. Our House band this week will be Minh Vo on piano, Ted Baker on reeds, and Kevin Kearney on drums. The Keystone Korner Baltimore will be hoppin’!
As usual, I’ll circulate a sign-up sheet for all interested musicians, then after our opening set, we’ll create bands right on the spot in the jamsession. I hope you’ll join us as we further our “walk upon the sands” at the Korner of Keystone and Bright Moments!
Last Tuesday, June 4th , the house was packed with new faces in both the audience and among the musicians! The house band opened with “Jinrikisha,” a composition by Joe Henderson, featuring Nii Akwei Adoteye on tenor saxophone. We followed up with “Wicked Grin,” an original of mine. Amongst other highlights, our host and maestro Todd Barkan offered up another rousing rendition of our banner song “Bright Moments"(Stay tuned as we are expanding Todd’s repertoire in the very near future—as per audience request!)
The jam session started with a bang when Ben Merliss and Brandon Borne took to the stage and performed music by Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis and Cedar Walton! It’s great to see so many new faces joining the familiar ones on the stage. Michael Friedman’s terrific photos include a gentleman with an electric bass—that guy swung us into bad health with
that machine! (My apologies—I’ll get his name next time!)
Drummers Amin Gumbs and Phil Thomas joined that crew and took us even further to bliss as several brass majors from Peabody and a trombonist from the Navy band sat in on an intense version of “A Night in Tunisia.”
Just when we thought we were at our peak intensity, in walked international drum legend Lee Pearson! Lee is the famed drummer for Chris Botti, and a Baltimorean! He held court on the drums for the better part of an hour with his creative arsenal of world rhythms and exotic solo techniques! The set closed out with Lauren Slinny groovin’ on Miles Davis’s “So What.”
The good folks at Keystone Korner finally kicked us out long past ending time, and we all wandered home looking forward to another Bright Moments session like that one! By all indications, tomorrow is gonna meet that high bar—will you join us? Keystone Korner is a welcoming space, and admission to the Tuesday Jam Session is FREE. You can show your appreciation to Todd Barkan, NEA Jazz Master and keeper of the flame, by bringing your friends and enjoying some great food while you listen.
The Bright Moments Jazz Jam Session has quickly established itself as the place where the local, national and internationals of the jazz scene meet up then heat up! Since these sessions are live-streamed, we’re creating a historic archive of these Bright Moments, so join us and become part of history yourself! (Even if you’re not in the neighborhood, you can get the livestream link and still hang with us!) Doors open at
6:00pm for a 7:00pm start!
We want to thank you from the bottom of our collective hearts for the tremendous support that’s come our way since the opening of the Bright Moments Jazz Jam session back in September 2023! As you can see from Michael Friedman’s excellent photographs each week, we’ve been having quite a party! Thrills, spills, tender moments, growth, development, breakthroughs… just so many Bright Moments! It’s onward and upward from here—we’re definitely on the right side of history!
