Jazz

There are many reasons why it's difficult to leave the show of "Matisse Cutouts" at the Baltimore Museum of Art, but above all there's a reluctance to leave the sense of affirmation of life that comes through these works, which were created by an ailing old man.Matisse produced all but two of the 30 cutouts in this show after 1941, when at 72 he had a major operation that left him largely unable to walk. From then until his death in 1954, bedridden or in a wheelchair, he created with scissors and painted paper a body of work that is beautiful and joyous.

Anne Arundel Community College's Kauffman Theater at the Pascal Center for Performing Arts is proving to be fertile ground for people searching for entertainment bargains. The center offers such options as dance troupes, jazz ensembles, world-class guitar concerts and performances by the AACC Concert Band. The major spring concert season kicked off last weekend with classical concerts by the college's Symphony Orchestra and the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. If these opening classical concerts signal the caliber of what lies ahead, music fans are in for a treat.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Baltimore had a rich, flourishing jazz scene. Today, live jazz and devoted jazz clubs are scarce. But the owners of a new club located in a threadbare West Baltimore commercial district are hoping to help rekindle the city's once-dynamic jazz legacy. "We think Baltimore can be a major city for jazz," said Errez Segman, co-owner of the forthcoming venue, Back Alley Jazz. "We want our club to be a household name for live jazz and fine dining, and we think Baltimore's the right city for that."

Harford Community College presents an "Evening of Jazz" featuring jazz vocalist Giacomo Gates with John diMartino, piano; Craig Thomas, bass; and Tom Cohen, drums, on Friday, April 19 at 8 p.m. in Joppa Hall, Room, J108, Recital Hall 1. Gates has five heavily acclaimed CDs, including "The Revolution Will Be Jazz - Songs of Gil Scott-Heron" that reached number one for six weeks on the National Jazz Week Chart. Tickets are $1 to $10 and are available at tickets.harford.edu, the Harford Community College Ticket Office in the Chesapeake Center, by calling 443-412-2211, or at the door.

Baltimore's smooth-jazz lovers have been left scanning the radio waves for a new station, after last week's surprise switch by WSMJ-FM (104.3) to a "rock alternative" format. Since Friday morning, a station that for nearly five years had been home to such artists as Spyro Gyra and Deniece Williams has been airing Alice in Chains and Linkin Park - as well as shock jock Elliot in the Morning from 4:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Not surprisingly, lovers of the old format are not exactly cozying up to the new. "I thought they were doing quite well; I had no idea they were in trouble," said Bob Weaber of Timonium, a 61-year-old business manager for a local electronics firm.

Concert series opens April 18 at the Other Barn, 5851 Robert Oliver Place, with vocalist Kristine Key. Showtime is 5 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at door. Information: 410-730-4510 or brownpapertickets.com/event/103954.

Avicii, Kid Cudi and the Shins headlined the Sweetlife Music Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Saturday. Reporter Vivienne Machi reviews the event. If the Sweetlife Festival were an actual sweet, I'd vote for a lemon bar: smooth, luscious, with only a few chunks of sour, yet on the whole thoroughly enjoyable. For the second year in a row, music lovers from around the state and beyond gathered through rain and patches of sun to celebrate some of the biggest names in dance and electronic music, and, to a lesser degree, sustainability, environmental consciousness and all that jazz.

Live jazz and Southern barbecue are two simple, easy ways to grab our attention. Phaze 10, described as both a restaurant and entertainment venue, opens today in Mount Vernon (885 N. Howard St.). There are two sections of Phaze 10; the first is the Grill - open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. - that serves Carolina pulled pork, grilled tilapia, wings and other comfort food. The second part is the restaurant/bar/lounge/entertainment venue, which opens today at 4 p.m. The restaurant's menu offers items such as Bourbon BBQ salmon and buttermilk Southern fried chicken.

Harford Community College presents an "Evening of Jazz" featuring jazz vocalist Giacomo Gates with John diMartino, piano; Craig Thomas, bass; and Tom Cohen, drums, on Friday, April 19 at 8 p.m. in Joppa Hall, Room, J108, Recital Hall 1. Gates has five heavily acclaimed CDs, including "The Revolution Will Be Jazz - Songs of Gil Scott-Heron" that reached number one for six weeks on the National Jazz Week Chart. Tickets are $1 to $10 and are available at tickets.harford.edu, the Harford Community College Ticket Office in the Chesapeake Center, by calling 443-412-2211, or at the door.

Robert Edmund Haynes, who owned a popular Gwynn Oak jazz and sports club and was a former Maryland State Lottery commissioner, died Nov. 12 of stroke complications at the Veterans Hospital in downtown Baltimore. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 81. Born in Clarksburg, W.Va., he was the son of the Rev. Egbert Adolphus Haynes, a Methodist pastor, and Margret Delena Jackson, a teacher and homemaker. He moved to Baltimore in 1947 after graduating from Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C. He earned a degree at Morgan State University and belonged to the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

Jacoby Jones and Karina get the first jazz dance of the season. He says, "I wasn't nervous in the Super Bowl, do you think I'd get nervous for this?" and Karina gives him a shove. She's too smart to pull his finger during rehearsal but he cuts one without help. Karina brings in some friends, a troupe of tiny girls, and yes, Jacoby in their midst is as cute as you'd think. They taunt him mercilessly. They start with Karina on Jacoby's shoulders, under a very tall trenchcoat, in sepiascope.

A Johns Hopkins brain scientist is finding a neurological basis for a notion that many people believe intuitively - that music is as much a form of language as Spanish or French. Charles Limb is one of just a handful of researchers worldwide studying what's going on in the brains of jazz musicians who compose on the fly. Some findings related to traditional language areas of the brain are what Limb expected to discover, though one key and recent result has surprised even him. But he's hoping that what he's learning may apply to creative activity and problem-solving of all sorts - whether writing a novel, designing a better mousetrap or devising a mathematical proof.

When jazz musician Yosvany Terry talks about music education, his voice rises with emotion. "We need to focus on the younger generation," he said by phone from his home in New York City. "They are the ones who will carry the torch into the future. We must expose them to different musical traditions so they can learn how to utilize what's come before them. Then they will be able to fly higher with their own creations. " Considering his passionate stance, it's fitting the Cuban born saxophonist is the headliner Saturday, Jan. 26 for the 9th Annual Jazz @ The Lake concert.

Charles Louis von Nordeck, a jazz guitarist who led a quartet and was later a wine salesman, died of cancer Dec. 25 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 66 and lived in Stoneleigh. Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Royden Blaine von Nordeck, a Martin Marietta engineer, and Elizabeth Mary Bell, a homemaker. He grew up in Gardenville and attended City College from 1960 to 1963, when he earned his General Educational Development certificate. Mr. von Nordeck joined the Air Force and became an airplane mechanic.

Some might see an odd destiny - if not exactly Jerry Garcia's “long strange trip” - in the formation of the 3-year-old Jazz Docs band. Its five members form a sort of Venn diagram - with Ellicott City dentist Hank Fasteau somewhere in the middle - with a complexity approaching the jazz compositions they practice every Wednesday at the Damon Foreman Music Academy in Glenwood. Fasteau on drums and fellow dentist Gary Anderberg on trumpet are joined by Glenwood internal medicine specialist Scott Maurer on bass, retired piano teacher Kathy McGinn of Columbia back on her instrument, and guitarist Damon Foreman of the eponymous music academy on guitar.

Harry Dutton Grunwell, a retired Army warrant officer with a talent for linguistics and computers, died Dec. 5 at Howard County General Hospital from complications of multiple sclerosis. The Marriottsville resident was 66. Mr. Grunwell was born in Ogden, Pa., the son of Paul and Bernice Grunwell. He graduated in 1963 from Chichester High School in Pennsylvania, where he was class president his last two years. In his senior year, Mr. Grunwell was voted "most talented" for his skill at the piano and "most dependable," said Norman Guarinello, who became friends with Mr. Grunwell in sixth grade when they competed against each other in sports.

Good news for jazz aficionados and connoisseurs: Concert impresario Elana Byrd has announced that she will continue the Joe Byrd jazz concerts in 2013. Joe and Elana Byrd had chosen the full 2012 slate of artists before his death March 7 in an auto accident near his Edgewater home. Elana Byrd decided to continue the planned season, bringing major jazz musicians to Annapolis. Downtown Annapolis is in its 40th consecutive year as a showcase for jazz — a legacy of local guitarist Charlie Byrd, his brother, bassist Joe, and entrepreneur Paul Pearson, who in 1972 opened the King of France Tavern at the Maryland Inn, where jazz royalty was featured for nearly 30 years.

Barbara Cook approaches a song from the inside out, judging the weight of each measure, the point behind each word in a lyric. So when she sings, she starts from a place where there's nothing but truth. No artifice, no exaggeration, no self-aggrandizing flourish. Small wonder that Cook, who gives a concert at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall this Saturday, a week after turning 85, remains one of the most treasured vocal artists of our time. The years may have shaved some brightness and some top notes from her silvery soprano, but the glow remains as enveloping as ever.