A & E

Legends James Street Tavern closed a little more than two weeks ago, its owners citing "undercapitalization" and a feeble cash flow.

The dark shadow of blame could be cast anywhere, but the most important point is simple. Right now, there is not a good jazz club in this area.

The Crawford Grill on the Square in Station Square, South Side, is a great space for jazz, but doesn't have much to speak of. Big-name guests are virtually unheard of. Local performers do a nice job, but they are the people whose faces get all too familiar.

Places like Martini's in Jefferson Hills, CJ's in the Strip District or the Wooden Nickel in Monroeville present a steady stream of players, but none of them will make you go out of your way to get there.

Dowe's on 9th, Downtown, would seem to offer the biggest hope, but it's been in a jazz coma of late. Club owner Al Dowe insists he takes such a summer break every year, saying summer is a lousy time to program acts. Dowe has brought in some good-drawing pop acts, but there hasn't been a name jazz guest there since Kevin Mahogany in May.

He seems to be doing well in a business sense with local jam sessions and performances by local players. But that gets rather ordinary after a while.

He has has other acts at his club, too, such as guitarist Raul Malo, who will return Nov. 5. But where are the jazz stars who should be featured at his jazz club?

Dowe says Saturday's show by trumpeter Maynard Ferguson is the start of jazz concerts that will roll through the cooler months. But, when asked, he added there were no other jazz acts booked yet.

There is a good variety of jazz events taking place in concert settings around the city, but club life -- the real heart of jazz -- is in a sad state.

A rendezvous with music

When Chick Corea celebrated his 60th birthday, he did it in a three-week party in which he performed in nine bands or duos.

"It represented friendship and a party," Corea says, looking back at the 21 days of shows at the Blue Note in New York City. The event in 2001 has been captured on the 10-DVD set, "Rendezvous in New York" on Image Entertainment.

Now that it's on the streets in its slick package, he looks at it as "a great, big success," but admits it was a test putting it together. He says, for instance, the high-tech equipment was so new, the crew was downloading instructional material for it right into the first day of filming.

Each of the nine performance DVDs feature one of the groups: duos with Bobby McFerrin, Gary Burton and Gonzalo Rubalcaba; or in the Bud Powell Project, the Akoustic Band, the Three Quartets band, Origin and the New Trio, and the trio with the curious name Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.

The 10th disc in the set is "Rendezvous in New York -- The Movie," a documentary on the performances.

Some of his most famous bands, Return to Forever and the Elektric Band, for example, are not on the collection. He says the Blue Note stage just wouldn't hold the musicians and the equipment from those groups.

"It would have been a production feature that would have pushed us over the hill," he says.

Others created welcome reunions. He hadn't worked with the Three Quartets band since 1981, he says. Meanwhile, his work with Burton is an ongoing part of his career and he agrees there is a cohesion on that disc that stands out.

Each performance disc also opens with a brief monologue from Corea talking about how the musicians came together..

The set has 559 minutes of music and film and retails at $99.99.

Albums

"In My Time" (Mack Avenue) Gerald Wilson. It is great to hear arranger Wilson again lead a big band in his own material. This album features only two non-originals, and they are both good arrangements. The band also is excellent with such soloists as Jon Faddis and plays the distinctive charts with zest. Four stars

"Lyric" (Lunacy Music) Billy Childs Ensemble. The pianist leads a string-oriented group through a collection of lovely, mellow originals. His version of "Scarborough Faire" is the only piece he didn't write in this outing that puts jazz into a chamber orchestra feeling. Three and a half stars

"Canvas" (Blue Note) Robert Glasper. The label introduces this pianist, who leads a forward-looking trio on a trip through original material. The band is joined by sax player Mark Turner in this promising release. Two and a half stars

"Hopeless Romantics" (Concord) Michael Feinstein and George Shearing. No, this isn't really jazz, but it's hard not to talk about so fine a presentation of song by a singer and pianist. They come close to creating a standard for classics such as "At Last" and "The More I See You." Three stars

"Outre Mer" (Telarc) Garage a Trois. Sure it's only a soundtrack but guitarist Charlie Hunter and his group could have done better. John Williams does pretty well with soundtracks, right? One star

"Time Was -- Time Is" (Harmonia Mundi) Ray Baretto and "Do It!" (Concord Picante) Poncho Sanchez. Two excellent Latin percussionists take vastly different approaches. Sanchez is joined at times by Tower of Power and Hugh Masekela for an album that drifts toward a pop sound and is a great deal of fun. Baretto's release stays closer to a purer jazz nature and is filled with greater improvisational richness. Two and a half stars for each

"Bembe En Mi Casa" (FS Music) Nachito Herrera. With a tight horn section, pianist-arranger Herrera creates this "bembe" -- a party -- full of lively music that's hard to resist. The music ranges all over its Cuban territory with vocals and even a string section on one piece. Two and a half stars

"It's Mostly Residual" (ArtistShare) Cuong Vu. The Vietnam-born trumpeter who now lives in New York City has assembled an album that treads the edge. Tunes such as the title tune or "Patchwork" have harmonic melodic richness while "Expressions of a Neurotic" is aptly named. Two and a half stars

"Bird on the Wire" (Evensongmusic) Joan Crowe. This singer is one of those performers who really needs to be known more. She presents familiar tunes in such a fresh manner they never seem old. The album also features a good backup crew featuring bassist Jay Leonhart. Two and a half stars

"Labyrinth" (Polisonic) Kerry Politzer. Don't let the title mislead you. There is no maze to the straight-ahead music of this pianist. Joined by sax player Andrew Rathbun among others, she offers a well played set that never gets lost. Three stars

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