Dear Friends:

It feels like the summer has finally hit full force.  The Village is baking - the heat waves are visible rising up off the concrete of 7th ave.  Fortunately, the air conditioning systems are working well in both clubs.  Escape the heat and descend into our cool, basement jazz bunkers - far from the din of noisy cars, crowds of idiots and all the banality of our current political situation.  Escape for a cool drink and the sounds of the great American artform call Jazz Music.  It will refresh you and revitalize you and give you the inspiration to climb back up into the world of heat noise, now impervious, inwardly peaceful and joyous - your heart in the clutches of swing...

We have some really amazing shows that I wanted to especially mention.  This week at Mezzrow we have the great Albert "Tootie" Heath coming in with a trio that features pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Ben Street.  Tootie's had some health issues as of late and, I believe, this is one of his first public appearances in awhile.  I suggest making a reservation for the show on one of the nights.  They be playing on Wednesday (CLICK) and Thursday (CLICK).  On Sunday at Mezzrow we are featuring the amazing JP Jofre and his "Hard Tango" group.  This is really a dynamic and fascinating group of musicians playing original tango music and other compositions.  To reserve CLICK.  At Smalls we have our usual feast of great musician presenting their art.  Some notable shows are Godwin Louis group tonight, Jeff Williams and his group on Thursday followed by the wonderful Carlos Abadie and his hard hitting bop-group.  The weekend features the great John Fedchock and his sextet and on the weekend we have trumpet virtuoso Bruce Harris.

I also like to mention our audio/video archive.  We have now more than 11,000 recordings in the archive dating back to 2007.  If you are already registered for the live stream, we urge you to become a subscribing member.  $10 month gets you unlimited access to this archive that grows with about 30 shows each week.  All revenue collected is shared in our unique artist revenue share project.  For more info on this please CLICK.

Beat the heat - come on down and join us in the clubs.

Regards,

Spike