Here’s an interview Ted and I did with John Simna in Cleveland last month while we were on tour with the band. This was aired on WCLV, Cleveland’s classical music station. John has hosted a late night jazz show on that station for as long as I can remember. It was a thrill to sit down with him and talk about the band and the music. This is an hour long interview featuring tracks from the CD.
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Zan is awesome to interview with and hang out with. A great cat and a very nice tenor player himself…. Mike Lee lives the jazz life at Cecil’s by Zan Stewart/The Star-Ledger Thursday July 16, 2009, 12:26 PM
Like many professional jazz musicians, Mike Lee found hearing a major-league jazz artist in person to be a life-transforming experience, one that set him on the road he travels today. For the 46-year-old Cleveland native, who has evolved into a spirited, intelligent saxophonist, woodwind player, composer, arranger, bandleader and educator, it was a performance by the great tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin at Cleveland State University in 1978. Then a teenager, Lee, who had also been listening to records by saxophone powerhouses John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon, found that Griffin moved him in a special way… read the whole story here: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/07/mike_lee_lives_the_jazz_life_a.html
“I hope we sound as good as you feel” . . . → Read More: After Much Discussion, Josie Moves East Over the past few years, the northern New Jersey-based band New Tricks has painstakingly developed a distinctive sound during weekly sessions in the basement studio of saxophonist Mike Lee. It is almost bad form to single out contributions of the tightly knit quartet’s members, which include Lee, trumpeter Ted Chubb, bassist Kellen Harrison and drummer Shawn Baltazor. An excellent, self-titled compact disc recorded in 2007 and released several weeks ago on New Tricks Records only approximates the high energy and single-minded intensity they generated throughout an opening set at Cecil’s Jazz Club. “We are New Tricks,” Lee declared after the first number, as if to underscore the group’s “one for all” ethos. . . . → Read More: All About Jazz Review of Cecil's Gig Friday July 17th Although these musicians are all soloists in their own right, in an ensemble setting “New Tricks” plays as if they are one instrument and concomitantly, their strong suit is their intuitive interaction and resultant tight sound. “New Tricks” is well on its way to becoming one of America’s premier jazz ensembles and hopefully will perform as a unit long enough to make an impact on the jazz world. . . . → Read More: “New Tricks” Review by Dr. Timothy M. Kalil, 7/15/09
Quick reviews of recent events Submit your own review or commentary to Events@CoolCleveland.com
New Tricks Quartet @ Nighttown 7/16 Mike Lee and Ted Chubb, two mainstays of the New York jazz scene who have roots in Northern Ohio, played Nighttown last Thursday with their four-piece band The New Tricks Quartet. They performed two solid sets of jazz in the late 50′s and early 60′s styles of artists like Paul Desmond and Chet Baker.
Lee, a Cleveland Heights native who has been in New York since the early 90′s, is a gifted reed player. Chubb, originally from Ashtabula, plays horn and has background similar to Lee, gravitating to New York after college at Ohio State. They are joined in the New Tricks Quartet by Kellen Harrison on bass, and Shawn Baltzasar on drums. . . . → Read More: Live Review from Cool Cleveland After weeks of waiting while CD Baby underwent a major overhaul, the New Tricks Album is finally available for purchase or download. Reviews of the album are still pending, but we’ve received a number of very positive remarks so far. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/miketed
Welcome to the New Tricks website. We’re just getting started. We’re going with a blog type of format here because, a) it’s easy and b) we’re hoping to create a dynamic place to interact with our friends and fans. |
 
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