Best Jazz Series
Park Hill Golf Club
4141 E. 35th Ave.
Following the demise of Dick Gibson's jazz series, our chances to hear legendary masters of the golden eras of jazz were few and far between. But at the Park Hill Golf Club, we can return to the sweet sounds of mainstream and swing players. This past year, featured artists included dynamic and diminutive cornetist Ruby Braff, bassists Milt Hinton and Jack Lesberg, pianist Jay "Hootie" McShann and drummer Panama Francis, not to mention younger neo-swing players Howard Alden, Dan Barrett and Scott Hamilton. It's expensive, but so is fine wine.
Best Jazz Summit
Bill Frisell, with Dale Bruning and Ron Miles
October 8, 1994
Ogden Theatre
It was not only daring, it was touching when eclectic guitarist and former Denverite Bill Frisell hooked up with trumpet-playing phenom Ron Miles for a rare appearance here--and made sure to include his old teacher, Dale Bruning, in the festivities. Both halves of the concert were unforgettable: loopy, countrified experimenter Frisell first sat for a sweet duet set with Bruning, whose Zenlike instrumental facility nearly stole the show. Then Frisell stretched out with Miles's trio for a look into what could well be the future of modern music. It really fit the Bill.
Best Worldbeat Band
Mom's Instant Hot
Our resident African music champion, pedal-steel guitarist Glenn Taylor, gave us Orchestra King Mama and, later, Monkey Siren. Taylor's new lineup in Mom's Instant Hot blends a lively, danceable worldbeat sound with lyrics devoted to timely urban concerns.
Best Worldbeat Album
Clay, Blues, Rock, Raga
Clay Kirkland
Honey-dripping harmonicat Clay Kirkland took almost three years to compile the material for Clay, Blues, Rock, Raga, his innovative collection of gut-punching blues, classical riffs, flamenco stylings and East Indian ragas. The resulting effort is enchanting, from the live recording of six tunes done with his former electric band, The Screamin' Demons, to the five acoustic pieces on which Kirkland is joined by flamenco guitarist Miguel Espinoza and two Nepalese musicians on tabla and sitar.
Best Salsa Band
Salsa Metro
One listen to Metro State College's salsa ensemble--one of eight singled out to perform at the National Collegiate Jazz Festival last spring--will tell you this is no ordinary bunch of students. In fact, many of the group's members came to the program already loaded down with musical credentials: Reed player John Asti has recorded with Latin jazz giant Machito and toured with Broadway's Cats; timbalero Gary Sosias, who also leads Denver's high-profile Conjunto Colores, apparently inherited his skills from his father, a sideman with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra; Sosias's Conjunto Colores bandmate Francisco Mejias developed his superb conga skills in Puerto Rico and Manhattan; and Freddie Rodriguez Jr. is the accomplished son of Freddie Sr., accomplished local jazz figure. Band director Walter Barr puts it more succinctly: "We're not just a window dressing--this is the real thing."
Best Pan Pounder
Don Prorak
Pan Jumbies
Percussionist Don Prorak first encountered a steel drum eight or nine years ago and has been hooked on the pans ever since. But it's a healthy addiction--his Pan Jumbies are in constant demand, perhaps because their sunny Caribbean melodies and lilting, islands-in-the-stream rhythms carry an extra-dreamy significance for escapist landlubbers trapped here in arid Colorado. Last year Prorak did manage to escape to Trinidad & Tobago's Panorama Steelband Competition, where he performed with a 120-member group that pounded out an impressive fifth-place finish in the sticks-and-tones contest. What a man of steel.
Best Rock Music
Lost Angel Stone Ensemble
In 1991 Boulder musician Tom Wasinger began creating musical instruments from resonating stones such as slate, andesite and basanite. Teaming with composer/drummer Jesse Manno to form the Lost Angel Stone Ensemble, Wasinger now performs exclusively on rocks (the only nonpercussive instrument used is a jade wind instrument called an ocarina), presenting some of the most melodic, rhythmic and pristine sounds imaginable. It's surreal music for the mind--not bad for a guy who was just "playing around with rocks."
end of part 1
