Ezra Home Care: Summertime Jazz in Cambridge

SUMMERTIME JAZZ 2011 Concerts at Cadbury Commons in Cambridge!

Commons, Where the Livin’ is Easy…

On Thursdays in August, from 6:30 - 8:30 pm, there are wonderful jazz performances at the Cadbury Commons. The concerts are free of charge and delicious food is served!

The jazz series began with the

KEVIN HARRIS PROJECT, on Thursday, August 4

which featured Kevin Harris on piano, Steve Langone on drums and Will Slater on bass. Kevin Harris plays a distinctive combi-nation of traditional and contemporary music that can vary from explosive polyrhythmic pieces to introspec-tive ballads. Harris has performed at the Blue Note (NYC and Milan), Scullers Jazz Club, Regatta Bar, Wang Theatre, Jordan Hall, Berklee Performance Cen-ter, Wally's Jazz Café. His music embraces the varied influences of Marcus Roberts, Chopin, Keith Jarrett, Danilo Perez, and Thelonious Monk.

I went to the Kevin Harris Project performance and I really enjoyed the performance. I give it Five Stars!

on August 11, MADE IN THE SHADE, performed a blend of New Orleans Jazz and swing. Some of the tunes played were originals from their new jazz CD for kids: Stellar Jazz Safari.

August 18 will showcase the vocal talents of the CLAUDIA ELIAZA QUARTET  which will feature Maxim Lubarsky on piano, Sergei Io-annisyan on drums and Dmit-ry Gorodetsky on bass. Clau-dia Eliaza is a Haitian Ameri-can jazz vocalist with a fra-grantly rich voice that capti-vates her audiences. She has sung and worked with some of the jazz world’s biggest stars, including Nancy Wilson, Roy Haynes, and Frank Foster, drawing from the deep legacy of Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Funk, Haitian, Latin and African rhythms.

And the series will end on Thursday, August 25, with RAN BLAKE

playing a con-cert called ‘Ghost Tones’, featuring Dave Fabris on guitar, Aaron Hartley on trom-bone, Eric Lane on sax, and Andrew Mul-harker on tenor sax. Blake is not only a pia-nist and composer, but also an author, re-cording artist and educator. For over thirty years, he was the chairperson of the De-partment of Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory, whose curriculum integrates jazz, classical and ethnic music. This concert will include original compositions, as well as jazz stand-ards and noir interpretations from the music of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Abbey Lincoln.

I highly recommend attending a jazz concert at Cadbury Commons; the welcoming environment and wonderful food and music make it impossible to not relax and have fun.  However if you need an extra push to make the time to go and listen to some great jazz think about the fact that music is good for the soul and can promote relaxation. Listening to great music also has some surprising health benefits:

How Music Affects Us and Promotes Health

Music For your brain health

Music aids Alzheimer's patients in remembering

Information was taken from the Cadbury Commons newsletter, Volume 10, Issue 8