Bear Creek: Best Jam/Funk Fest in the Southeast?

The Bear Creek Music & Art Festival, at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, kicks off its third edition next Thursday with pre-fest shows by Toubab Krewe and others.

I covered Bear Creek last year for Relix mag, and found the event to be one of the best groove-music festivals in the Southeast.

The fest, featuring top-shelf bands variously playing jam, funk, jazz, world music, rock, bluegrass, New Orleans music, and other styles, was well organized, not overcrowded, and packed with tons of great sit-ins and other unique musical happenings.

Slide-guitar wizard Derek Trucks, who wasn't even billed last year, sat in with Soulive, Lettuce, and keyboardist Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk.

This year's lineup is another knockout, with performances by Galactic, saxophonist Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Dumpstaphunk, organist Robert Walter's 20th Congress (pic of Walter here is from his appearance last year with his trio), all-star collectives Lettuce and Garage a Trois, the Benevento-Russo Duo, New Mastersounds, the Hill Country Revue, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Bonerama, Steve Kimock Crazy Engine, Eric Krasno and Chapter 2, and many others.

Several bands will give multiple performances. And artists at large include several major jazz/funk notables: Keyboardist Bernie Worrell (P-Funk/Talking Heads), trombonist Fred Wesley (James Brown), saxophonist Skerik, percussionist/vibraphonist Mike Dillon, and flutist/keyboardist Kofi Burbridge (Derek Trucks Band).

And Saturday night's "Mystery Show" promises something special.

The fest runs Nov. 13-15. For all the details, click here.

Helios Jazz Orchestra: Tonight in St. Petersburg

The Helios Jazz Orchestra, led by David Manson, returns to the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg for a show tonight at 7:30. Tickets are $15.

Here are the details, courtesy of Manson:

"This 20-piece modern big band is director by David Manson and features some of the best jazz musicians in the Tampa Bay area. Members of Helios have worked with Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, Bogus Pomp, Bootsy Collins and others. The Helios Jazz Orchestra has performed on the WMNF Jazz Jam and SPC Jazz Festival.

Rita Wilson, Andrea Moraes Manson and Paul Wilborn will be featured vocalists. Selections include Chega de Saudade, Too Close for Comfort, The Jody Grind and others in an assortment of Swing, Bebop, Fusion and Latin jazz.

General admission is $15. The Palladium Theater is located at 253 Fifth Ave. North in St. Petersburg (33701). Tickets are available at (727) 822-3590"

Mac's Back: Dr. John Plays the Palladium This Thursday

Not sure how I missed this listing, but Dr. John, New Orleans' first physician of funk, is bringing his Lower 911 band -- guitarist John Fohl, bassist David Barard, drummer Herman Ernest -- to St. Petersburg's Palladium Theater on Thursday night.

I caught Mac and his band on Feb. 28 when they played Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota. The occasion was the "Mardi Gras Mambo" double-bill tour with the Neville Brothers.

He sounded better than ever, pumping out those voodoo/hoodoo funk grooves and Professor Longhair-inspired R&B, his deep-digging rhythm trio augmented by baritone sax great Ronnie Cuber.

For his latest CD, last year's City That Care Forgot, the singer-pianist-composer born Mac Rebennack offered political/social commentary on the Katrina disaster and the aftermath. Terence Blanchard, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, and Ani DiFranco guested. Check out Dr. John's MySpace page here.

Bill Wharton, AKA "The Sauce Boss," the Florida blues-based slide guitarist, will open Thursday's show, which starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $45. For more info, go to http://mypalladium.org.

Disc of the Day: Los Lobos Goes Disney

Los Lobos remains one of the world's most gifted and most agile rock 'n' roots bands. For their first CD in three years, they tackle Disney tunes -- some well known, some not so familiar. Click here to go to my review in Las Vegas City Life, or read the text below:

Los Lobos
Los Lobos Goes Disney
(Disney Sound)

Los Lobos turns in a kids-oriented album of Disney songs, releases it on a Disney label, and prepares to play a Disney park. Have the world's finest and still engaging purveyors of East L.A. roots rock, blues and traditional Mexican music been co-opted by the Mouse? Or is the band secretly subverting songs aimed at children?

Neither, really. Los Lobos, who contributed "I Wan'na Be Like You" to Stay Awake, Hal Willner's 1989 Disney compilation (a new, slower-grooving version is here) and did a full children's album in 1995, is simply having its way with awfully familiar material. A half-dozen are gems, sure to pop up in live sets: "Cruella De Vil" swaggers on R&B laced with bent-note guitar runs, while "The Bare Necessities" might be straight from Cajun country, and Jerry Garcia is the guiding light for an ambling, extremely laidback "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah."

Surprises? Try a poignant, slow-mo reading of Randy Newman's "I Will Go Sailing No More" (from "Toy Story") over flickering guitar, a similarly chilled reading of Roger Miller's "Not in Nottingham" (from "Robin Hood"), or the overdriven six-string crunch of "The Ugly Bug Ball" (from "Summer Magic"). Yet again, it's all tasty, artful Americana-plus from David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Cesar Rosas and Co.

Listening Post, Week of Oct. 26, 2009: Joey DeFrancesco, Garage a Trois, Jason Isbell, Michael Janisch, Jason Marsalis,

Five releases in rotation at home and in the car - a list without comment (in alphabetical order):

Joey DeFrancesco, Snapshot (High Note, 2009)

Garage a Trois, Power Patriot (The Royal Potato Family, 2009)

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (Lightning Rod, 2009)

Michael Janisch, Purpose Built (Whirlwind, 2009)

Jason Marsalis, Music Update (Elm, 2009)

Jazz Duos: Lynne Arriale/Bunky Green; Kenny Drew, Jr./Larry Coryell

Kudos to WMNF-FM and the Tampa Jazz Club for (separately) presenting two top-flight jazz shows this fall.




Both concerts are specially assembled duo performances, and all four artists are internationally known jazzers.

First up is the WMNF event, launching the station's new series of jazz concerts: Pianist Lynne Arriale and saxophonist Bunky Green play THIS SUNDAY, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. at the Springs Theatre in Sulphur Springs (Tampa).

Green, in addition to his other accomplishments (check out the 2008 profile in Jazz Times mag), is the longtime head of the jazz studies program at UNF in Jacksonville; Arriale, best known for her trio work, is also on the UNF jazz faculty.

The Springs, a one-time movie theatre converted into a recording studio, is a good place to hear jazz -- great acoustics, laidback atmosphere. Tickets are $20 advance, $25 at the door. For more info, click here.

As I've previously noted on this blog, another jazz duo show is on the horizon, and it figures to be one of the Tampa Bay area's most impressive jazz concerts of the year.

Legendary jazz and jazz fusion guitarist Larry Coryell plays with Kenny Drew, Jr., IMO one of the finest pianists of his generation, on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. at HCC Ybor's newly renovated Performing Arts Building.

It's another in a long line of high-quality jazz concerts presented by the Tampa Jazz Club. Tickets are $21, general public; $16, members; and free to HCC students and faculty.

Disc of the Day: Gov't Mule, By a Thread

Warren Haynes and Co. deliver one of their finest studio sets yet with the new By a Thread. Click here to read my review online at Las Vegas City Life, or see the full text below.

Gov't Mule
By a Thread
(Evil Teen Records)

Given his multiple residencies in Gov't Mule, the Allman Brothers and the Dead, and his own forthcoming solo recording, Warren Haynes could be the hardest-working man in jam business.

Lesser guitar-playing mortals might be stretched thin by those demands, but not so Haynes: He and his Gov't Mule bandmates -- longtime drummer Matt Abts, keyboardist Danny Lewis, new bassist Jorgen Carlsson -- sound rejuvenated on their first studio recording since 2007's dub-edged Mighty High.

That freshness owes in part to the band's refusal to work within strict musical confines. Metallic bass crunch, a heavy backbeat and the sound of pick scraping string signal the start of opener "Broke Down on the Brazos"; Haynes' leathery vocals tell a tale of desperation, followed by a nasty extended six-string exchange with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

Jimi Hendrix is writ large on the acid-washed "Any Open Window," its relentless blues-rock riff tinted with overdrive and wah-wah. Cathedral organ opens and closes "Gordon James," an unplugged-to-electric lament about merchants of war, and "Steppin' Lightly" flourishes on a circling figure and a big, catchy chorus.

Tying it all together are Haynes' sweet and tart slide lines, soulful singing on lyrics reflecting spiritual malaise, and fat Southern-fried grooves.

Marcus Roberts Trio @ Clearwater Jazz Holiday

High-end jazz, sadly, was in short supply at last weekend's Clearwater Jazz Holiday, the 30th edition of the festival.

An exception: Sunday's performance by the Marcus Roberts Trio. The pianist, joined by regular drummer Jason Marsalis and, on bass, Rodney Jordan (subbing for Roland Guerin) emphasized American Songbook repertoire.

Roberts' approach, also demonstrated on his recently released New Orleans Meets Harlem, Vol. 1 (J-Master), was stately and studied but rootsy and eminently swinging, characterized by a willingness to dig between the cracks of the rhythms, and an ability to pull new textures out of familiar material.

He employed those fruitful musical strategies on nearly every piece, beginning with Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight." The set also included Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies," Johnny Green's "(You Came to Me From) Out of Nowhere" and several Cole Porter tunes: "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," "Anything Goes," and a syncopation-spiked "What is This Thing Called Love."

Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird" was a swinging delight, and Roberts slipped into stride figures during his extended solo on Jelly Roll Morton's "New Orleans Blues."

Marsalis, an underappreciated New Orleans-based drummer overshadowed by the work of his older brothers, was featured on "Balue Bolivar Balues." Using brushes, he drove the chunky funk and, midway through, pulled and stretch the rhythmic tension to nearly the breaking point.

Charles Mingus's "Haitian Fight Song" offered solo space to Jordan, Roberts' fellow colleague on the FSU jazz faculty. The bassist opened the piece unaccompanied, and aptly applied grinding, bluesy lines to the entire tune. During Roberts' solo, he tossed in a reference to George Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So."

Roberts' next recording will be a return trip to the music heard on his Deep in the Shed album, released 20 years ago, as he told me during an interview for the St. Petersburg Times.

Meanwhile, those inspired by Sunday's set might want to check out his latest CD, with Roberts, Guerin and Marsalis giving new life to a set of jazz and vintage pop gems, including two of the tunes -- "New Orleans Blues" and "Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are" -- played in Clearwater.