Last Night On Clairmont: A Night of Magic

Sam Skelton,  Justin Varnes, Delbert Felix and Brian Hogans 

Last night, at a local restaurant in the shadows of Emory University called the Mason Tavern on Clairmont Road in North Decatur, I was fortunate to be able to experience some of the best live jazz that I have seen since arriving to the Atlanta area from the New York metro area two and one-half years ago. Four extraordinary, locally based, musicians came together and did an impromptu, two-set show at proprietor Sam Yi’s latest bastion of jazz, The Mason Tavern.

You may remember Sam from his nearly twenty-year run as the proprietor of the now closed Churchill Grounds jazz club in downtown next to the Fox theater. Churchill Grounds was a beacon of light, hope and support for the jazz community here in Atlanta and Yi expects to open a new club in Grant Park sometime early next year under the same banner. The original club closed in July of last year and for the last six months or so Yi set up a pop-up jazz night in conjunction with local musician Terrence Harper at this new location in North Decatur.  I have been going frequently to the club on Thursday nights where Harper and Yi usually provides a core band of local professionals that are then augmented by other local musicians, who are encouraged to sit in with the band. It has been especially rewarding to see young musicians, some from great distances, come to sit in and get an opportunity to hone their skills in a real-life session with other professionals and in front of an audience.

This past Friday night, however, was something special. Brian Hogans, Sam Skelton, Delbert Felix and Justin Varnes put on one of the most rewarding sets of music that I have seen in a long time. A little background on these musicians can give you an idea of just how special this event was. 

Brian Hogans

Brian Hogans is a thirty-five-year old alto saxophonist/pianist, who hails from Morrow, GA and has been playing jazz since he was fifteen years old. His superlative technique and inventive harmonic sensibility has attracted a great deal of attention beyond the local Atlanta scene, where he is considered among the finest saxophonists in the South. Brian’s fiery work, particularly on alto, has been featured in his own groups as well as groups led by drummer E.J. Strickland, trumpeters Russell Gunn, Etienne Charles and Sean Jones and Hogans can often be seen in the saxophone section of Joe Gransden’s Big Band.

Sam Skelton

Saxophonist Sam Skelton is a phenomenally gifted player as well as an influential educator and current Director of Jazz Studies at Kennesaw State University. As a multi-reed player of exceptional talent, Skelton’s work can be heard on everything from the music of Elton John to the London Symphony Orchestra. He has credits on over two hundred and fifty recordings. 

Delbert Felix

Delbert Felix’s is one of those bass players that just makes you smile when you see him play. Originally inspired by the electric funk bass work of Bootsie Collins and Larry Graham, Felix is an in-demand upright player in his own right. His style is ebullient and his fingers are fleet, but it is his joyous love of what he does that makes his playing so special. Felix’s pedigree include work with Wynton, Brandford and Ellis Marsalis, iconic tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, fusion drummer Billy Cobham and local crooner legend Freddie Cole amongst others.

Justin Varnes

Drummer Justin Varnes did his formal musical education at the University of North Florida with saxophone legend Bunky Green and later continued his education in New York at the New School. He is a working drummer who has an abundance of technique, but more importantly a boatload of taste. He has toured with singer Phoebe Snow and has played with everyone from trombonist Wycliffe Gordon to piano icon Kenny Baron. Justin has on online teaching website called Jazz Drummer’s Resource where he shares some of his techniques with students. Locally he is often the go to drummer in groups led by trumpeter Joe Gransden and the pianists Kevin Bales and Gary Motley among others.

With such a formidable group of talent on hand, I expected the music to be both challenging and entertaining. The group ran through the opening song, Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys” and we were off to the races. Hogans and Skelton both playing synchronously and traded licks, never sounding alike or for that matter like anyone else but themselves. They spurred each other and the rhythm section on to new heights. Varnes and Felix set the pace perfectly for these two to go off on the quirky melody. The songs were excellent selections from the jazz canon.

The group just morphed from one into the other: “All Blues,” with Hogans sounding like Cannonball, I’ll Remember April,” “Body and Soul” with Skelton sounding very Webster-esque, a Coltrane inspired tune that sounded like it was based on “Giant Steps” and a Freddie Hubbard classic “First Light.” The group continued with the Ellington/Tizol classic “Caravan” and then a hard bop tune from Horace Silver “Doodlin’.”

As drummer Varnes explained to me at the break, the group decided to choose a set of songs that were familiar to all, but then to let their creative abilities to improvise propel where the group would take the music. The result was electric, daring and totally enjoyable. The audience was engrossed with the unexpected twists and turns that each musician brought to the party. Unexpected gems around every corner. The music was surprisingly elastic, allowing for stretching ideas into new territory, spurring new paths of invention from each member.

The group took no break between songs, preferring to allow the last idea to unfold into the next tune organically. Bassist Felix was a joy to behold as he often danced with his upright in a display of oneness with his instrument. Varnes utilized all the sticks, mallets and brushes at his disposal, made his snare, toms and cymbals sing with purpose, while never missing a beat. Hogans and Skelton were like two lions trading roars, brandishing their claws at times or laying back on their regal haunches taking in the scene that they just instigated. It was creativity at its best, spontaneous, unrehearsed and magical.

After a short intermission, the group returned and finished the second set with “Invitation,” Joe Henderson's "Recorda Mi" Mal Waldorn's "Alone Together"  and “There Will Never Be Another You.” They ended as they began with a  Monk tune. 

These guys will return to the Mason Tavern again tonight for a repeat performance starting at 9pm. If you love jazz or just great music the way I do, you owe it to yourself to get down there and catch these artist and be part of this magic. Chemistry like this doesn’t occur that often, so don’t miss this chance to support live music at its best. The Mason Tavern is at 1371 Clairmont Road, Decatur, GA 30033.

The Spirit of Churchill Grounds lives as Julie Dexter Sings in the New Year at Decatur's Mason Tavern

Julie Dexter

On July 31,2016 Atlanta’s longest running jazz club, Churchill Grounds, shuttered its doors with a final concert at its downtown location adjacent to the Fox Theater. For many it was a shocking reminder of how fragile the economic existence of community based institutions and artistic venues can be. CG was the love child of its owner, Sam Yi, who nurtured the art form we call jazz and fostered a sense of community within and outside of its walls. Jazz musicians found a home at Yi’s little club for close to twenty years. Musicians and fans alike could congregate, socialize, listen to each other, learn, laugh, cry, improvise, entertain and be a part of something bigger than themselves. The club also had its hard-core fans, those who don’t necessarily play the music, but love it just the same and want to preserve this most original of American art forms for future generations. The club was a way station for young, up and coming musicians who found a space where they were given a chance to test their mettle, experiment with new ideas and sometimes get the rare opportunity to play with some of the music’s luminaries and elder statesmen. When Churchill Grounds closed, it was like a gaping hole was torn out of the heart of the Atlanta jazz community.

The good news is that since the closing Mr. Yi has been fervently working on finding a new location to reopen Churchill Grounds. It was recently announced that Yi has come to an agreement with Beacon Atlanta developer Phillipe Pellerin, to open a new Churchill Grounds jazz club in the soon to be revitalized Grant Park development. This is a twenty million dollar, mixed use, inner city development project that will take time to come to full fruition, but Yi is hopeful that the new club will be ready in a year. In the meantime, Yi has been setting up “pop up” jazz concerts in a local Decatur eatery, the Mason Tavern. For the last four Thursday evenings, the Tavern has hosted some of Atlanta’s finest jazz musicians, all pulled together by local trumpeter/producer Terrence Harper and curated by Yi. The shows have been a fabulous success drawing an ever-increasing audience to the Tavern on Thursday nights after 9 pm.

Appropriately, New Year’s Eve was the perfect chance to offer a jazz inspired celebration to usher in 2017 at the Mason Tavern. The Tavern offered music after dinner with a special performance by British born, Atlanta based vocalist Julie Dexter and a trio. Ms. Dexter, an established artist who has released seven albums to date, has a smooth, soulful voice that easily traverses the most difficult of jazz changes with an instrumentally based scat style.

The trio was made up of pianist Alex Williams on electric keyboards, drummer Jonathan Mills and bassist Steve Brown. They started the set warming up the crowd with Chick Corea’s “Windows” and then followed that by a Joe Henderson classic “Recorda Me.” Pianist William’s got to stretch out nicely on some of the changes on these two gems from the jazz anthology. Bassist Williams showed some animated pizzicato and drummer Mills established the solid groove.

Julie Dexter, Steve brown and Alex Williams, Jonathan Mills is playing drums

Ms. Dexter came out to what appeared to be a full house. She started her set with the 1926 Henderson/Dixon classic “Bye Bye Blackbird.” Ms. Dexter has a captivating voice that can easily grasp an otherwise rambunctious audience’s attention with her beguiling delivery and buoyant stage presence. She can scat with an instrumentalist’s sensibility and makes it all seem deceptively easy. Bassist Brown added a nice Arco bass solo to this one.  Ms. Dexter continued with swinging version of “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise” which she sang with a raucous blues sensibility, showing deft inflections and a soulful earnestness in her voice.

Ms. Dexter continued the set with Mongo Santamaria’s rhythmically driven “Afro Blue,” followed by “The Meaning of My Love,”  which seemed to lose the band at times and then into “The Nearness of You.” Perhaps her most moving performance came with her rendition of “Willow Weep for Me.” Her ability to reach into the lugubrious lyric and make it her own was worth the price of admission. A vocalist of extraordinary elasticity, M. Dexter offered her own version of the serpentine Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson composition “Four.”  A song made famous by Miles Davis; the lyrics were written and sung by the great vocalese master Jon Hendricks. Ms. Dexter, an obvious student of Hendricks, successfully demonstrated her own vocal dexterity on this challenging composition.

As the witching hour approached Ms. Dexter did an abbreviated version of the classic “My Favorite Things”, a Broadway tune from The Sound of Music that was made famous in the jazz lexicon by the saxophonist John Coltrane. She scatted her way into a countdown to the New Year in true jazz style as we all toasted to a hopeful and healthful New Year.

Once again jazz lives and breathes in the Atlanta area with the help of flame keepers like Sam Yi. While we wait for the new Churchill Grounds to open its doors next year in Grant Park, it’s nice to know that for the foreseeable future Yi continues to bring this live music to the Mason Tavern on Claremont Road in Decatur every Thursday night after 9 pm. 

Check her sing "Softly as the Morning Sunrise" from the show:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10211857270848142

The Last Concert: Atlanta's Jazz Club "Churchill Grounds" Closes its Doors April 1997- July 2016

The window sign at Churchill Grounds

This past Sunday evening, July 31, 2016, the nearly twenty-year run of Atlanta’s longest continuously operating jazz club, Churchill Grounds, came to a glorious but ultimately sobering end. Since April of 1997, when the club first opened its doors, Churchill Grounds has been a labor of love. The name is curiously the combination of two things that Owner Sam Yi loves, Churchill size cigars and coffee grounds. This Atlanta institution was situated adjacent to the Fox Theater at 660 Peachtree NE in downtown Atlanta. Mr. Yi’s admittedly naïve motivation for such an endeavor? Maybe it would be fun to have a place where local musicians could play and you could make a little money providing a platform for the music that you love. Simple and admirable enough, but hardly the kind of business plan that would inspire a flock of financial supporters to your cause. That didn’t seem to bother Yi, a mild mannered business man, who was surprisingly passionate about the music and who decided to live his life immersed in it. On Sunday night, in an emotional farewell, he recounted how this endeavor required that he spend much of his life over the last twenty years at the club, putting in countless hours there, often at the expense of his family. Poignantly looking back over the years it was obvious that given the chance, Yi wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Owner Sam Yi; Billy Thornton on bass and Morgan Guerin on drums

It was his employees who worked there, the musicians who played there and the patrons who respectfully listened there that collectively became his extended family. He thanked them all with an emotion laden goodbye.That family even included two homeless men that became permanent fixtures outside the club’s front door. One of them, “homeless Joe,” offered his own tearful adage from the stage, saying how much he was going to miss seeing Sam and the steady ebb and flow of the club’s patrons. I suspect what Joe will miss most was his visibility. Sam and many patrons didn’t look past Joe, but acknowledged his humanity. They didn’t judge him, but looked at him as a soul who was just down on his luck. They didn’t castigate him as a nuisance, but greeted him with dignity, including him as part of the extended Churchill Grounds family. It was Sam Yi who provided this space where people who recognized the power and inclusiveness of the music were able to congregate and commune with one another.

And of course there was the music; it swung, it bopped hard or it grooved straight ahead, it fused wildly or it whispered softly and it often funked you to the bottom of your soul. The music wasn’t merely entertainment, it was history, it was creativity, it was a social compact and inclusiveness. Churchill Grounds became the go-to place in Atlanta. The place where musicians of all levels, professional and acolyte, could come and practice their skills, hone their craft, commune with each other and connect with their audience. It was the hometown stage for legends like the late Cedar Walton and the venerable Freddie Cole. It was the sometime residency for current standouts like Russell Gunn and Joe Gransden. It was a stop off joint for visiting celebrities like Wynton Marsalis or Harry Connick Jr. It was the proving grounds for a new breed of firebrand like Morgan Guerin, Kenny Banks Jr., the Harper Brothers and Darren English. 

A view from the drums at Churchill Grounds
photo by organ Guerin

The life of a musician is hard enough in today’s society where the arts in general are valued so poorly. Professional musicians often have to supplement their income by teaching, travelling extensively or taking other work. Churchill Grounds provided that home based waystation for many of Atlanta’s finest jazz musicians. Jazz musicians in particular have chosen a road that becomes ever more challenging in this modern world. Despite jazz being the only recognized original all American art form, the audience for this music has shrunken and grayed dramatically. According to a survey by Nielsens, jazz and classical music sales combined represented just 1.4% of the total music consumed in the United States in 2014. As for digital sales, the likely future of all music distribution- jazz streaming- represented a paltry .3% of the total volume of streamed music. These are sobering statistics for anyone who loves this music, for professional musicians and certainly for the hundreds of music students who are currently enrolled in jazz music educational programs. Needless to say, with such a small audience, the economic viability of presenting this music in a place like Churchill Grounds poses its own challenges.

But what statistics don’t reveal is the fierce loyalty, love and dedication that this music brings to those who embrace it. The spirit, reverence and sense of comradery that is often found within the jazz community as a whole is largely under appreciated by the general public. Jazz is international in its scope. The music remains an international language that bridges the widening gap between peoples of vastly different cultures. Jazz becomes the crucible by which these cultural differences can be annealed into a commonly shared means of communicating with each other in a positive and humanistic way.

The music is often spoken of as music for musicians. That assessment may be partially correct, as it takes a great deal of skill and dedication to play complex improvised music, but it also takes soul, heart and empathy to play it in such a way as it will move the listener.

In this technological age of diminishing attentions, we are less and less likely to immerse ourselves in the musical experience, perhaps because we no longer feel we have the time for such an indulgence. Jazz requires thoughtful listening. The experience is not always best conveyed through listening to recordings- although admittedly the great ones transcend the medium-but when we really listen and participate in the music in a “live” setting the magic of music can spread all over us like a blanket of warm sunshine. An engaged audience becomes an active participant in the creative process. Are we really ready to forego that precious experience? 

Having a venue that can offer musicians and music lovers a chance to experience what it is like to participate in a live jazz performance is crucial to very existence of the art form. That’s why the closing of Churchill Grounds is so distressing.

                                                                 Sam Yi and Russell Gunn

If anyone needed proof positive of the outpouring of love and affection that this music can generate, they should have been at the final few performances at Churchill Grounds. Local musicians and stalwart patrons came in force and solidarity to pay homage to the closing of an Atlanta institution. The City of Atlanta issued a proclamation naming the day Churchill Grounds Day and so did Fulton County, perhaps too little too late.

Kevin Bales, Billy Thornton, Russell Gunn and Morgan Guerin

Local trumpet legend Russell Gunn was the informal musical director of the proceedings when I attended on Sunday night. He was joined by the pianist Kevin Bales, the bassist Billy Thornton and the drummer Morgan Guerin. They played with a palpable intensity in a mostly hard bop style to an appreciate crowd of aficionados and well-wishers. Probably one of the most moving performances of the night was a rendition of the Bill Evan’s classic “Blue in Green.” Mr. Bales sensitive opening led to Mr. Gunn’s poignantly playing the melody on his muted trumpet that evoked memories of Miles Davis, an obvious influence. The young rhythm section was equally impressive.

The players frequently changed throughout the night as each one who came wanted to pay tribute in their own most personal way. At one point the stage was packed with four well known trumpet players-Russell Gunn, Georgia State educator Dr. Gordon Vernick, Joe Gransden and Darren English-in a trumpet show down that was par excellence. The trio section of Bales, Thornton, now with Marlon Patton on drums kept the frantic pace as the four guns had a high powered shoot out.

Here is a partial video of that show down posted on Darren English’s Facebook page: click here

Pianist Kenny Banks Jr. took over the piano chair and improvised on a beautiful rendition of “Con Alma.” His thoughtful ruminations on the melody were captivating. Here is a sample of that performance posted by saxophonist James Patterson. click here

Pianist Gary Motley took the piano chair and lent his elegant swing and facile chops to the proceedings. A seasoned professional as well as the Director of Jazz Studies at Emory University, Motley also accompanied several vocalists with a revolving rhythm section, this one including Craig Shaw on bass and Darren English on drums.

Some of the other artists that performed that night included tenor man Mike Walton, drummer Kenny Bostick, bassist Dishan Harper, trumpeter Terrence Harper, saxophonist James Robinson, flautist Rasheeda Ali and vocalists Laura Coyle and Julie Dexter. My apologies to those who I’ve missed.

Now that the lights are switched off and the doors are shuttered, the best way to describe the proceedings of this last evening at Churchill Grounds is to liken it to a joyous New Orleans style funeral march. A celebration of life not a demonstration of sorrow at the passing. Sam Yi was honored for his years of service, his defense of the cause and his unbridled passion for this music.

Make no mistake, this is a gut check for all of us who live in Atlanta and its surrounds. As a City of six million people can we really afford to lose yet another institution that promotes the arts? Do we really believe that the quality of our lives all comes down to dollars and cents on a ledger sheet?

Mr. Yi has said that he is looking for another venue, a rebirth of Churchill Grounds, hopefully in the near future. We should all hope he succeeds so that Churchill Grounds doesn’t become another distant memory like “Jeff’s Jazz” or “Dante’s Down Under.” Instead of lamenting another lost treasure, let’s all try to make this happen through community activism. You can help by donating to a special go fund me site by clicking here. It seeks to raise seed money to help secure another venue for Mr. Yi and hopefully, with our help. Churchill Grounds closing will be but a temporary blip in its long and illustrious history.