Tag Archives: New York

Coral FM, Events, Off The Air

Cooking with Tank – Local Saxophone Laureate Always Comes Home to Play.

 

John Tank often plays Kitchener Waterloo.
John Tank is the most talented saxphone players in the country. He is originally from Kitchener, but now resides between New York City and New Mexico. He is back at The Jazz Room in December 2014

To many Canadians, tenor saxophonist  John Tank has been somewhat of a legendary figure in the world of live Jazz performance for the past fifty years.
His unique voice has evolved out of a  modern Jazz experience strongly rooted in tradition. His playing has been  described as “creative, smooth, strong, rhythmic, harmonic and melodic.”
Between  1961 and  1963 Tank travelled one hundred and forty miles weekly to study with  the late
concert saxophonist Paul Brodie, founder of the World Saxophone  Congress and to  date the most recorded concert saxophonist in history. From 1964 to 1969 he attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Besides majoring in  composition  and arranging, the Berklee experience provided him with the  opportunity to study Jazz improvisation both in the class room and especially at  after hours  jam sessions around town. Being in the company of so many players who also  loved the music was one of his most inspiring experiences during those years.
In 1970, Tank moved to Toronto and performed as a leader and  sideman  with many fine Canadian jazz greats such as Bernie Senensky, Don  Thompson,  Terry Clarke, Sonny Greenwich, Lenny Breau, Michel Donato, Claude  Ranger and  Freddie Stone.

In 1974 Tank moved to New York and worked as a  sideman  in groups led by Sam Rivers, Paul Jeffery, George Coleman, Joe Morello,  John Blair, Jack Walrath, Calvin Hill, Joe Lee Wilson, Monty Waters and others. He  played with the great Charles Mingus on two recordings: “Me, Myself, and Eye” and “Something Like A Bird.”
During the late 1970s and through the mid-1990s, he performed in England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Spain. Live recordings were made for the BBC Radio, Canada House, the French  National Radio and Dutch television in the Netherlands.

Tank has  organized several tours of Ontario and Quebec over the decades and recorded for  CBC Radio Canada’s “Jazz Beat” in 2000. Between 2004 and 2007 he played and toured in and around New Mexico, performing with local players in Tucson,  Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and El Paso. Some of Tank’s stylistic influences include, Lester Young, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, Paul Desmond, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, and Warne Marsh. Other major influences are Igor Stravinsky, Bella Bartok, Charles Ives and Krzysztof  Pendereki.

To many jazz music afficionados and music lovers in Kitchener Waterloo John Tank is a musical legend.
It is always my great pleasure to have him come to chat with me on the radio. In this wide ranging chat, John speaks about the actual technique of “circular breathing” which he teaches in his student workshops. He also speaks about his latest performances both in The States, and in Mexico. John also played some of his favorite jazz selections as well from bassist Ron Carter, and tenor saxophonists Joe Henderson (who John played with in Toronto!) as well as Sonny Rollins.

It’s great when John’s in town cuz things are always cookin, and I am very proud to call him my longtime pal.  These are a series of interviews I conducted for John’s shows at The Jazz Room and The Registry Theatre. Thanks to The Registry Theatre’s Lawrence McNaught and John’s  great fan and good pal Terry Pender,  John always has a great place to play when he comes home. And it cooks everytime!  Watch for him coming back to the The Jazz Room in December 2014.

Here is a series of interviews  conducted at the Sound FM studios recorded in the spring of 2012 and winter of 2013.

The first four segments are from Jan 2013. And the last two segments are taken from 2012 including a live performance in the Sound FM Studios.

John also performs live in the Sound FM studios. John speaks about the evolution of the jazz scene in Waterloo Region, The Jazz Room and latest CD – John Tank Live at The Registry Theatre taken from a fabulous live concert recorded live at Kitchener’s The Registry Theatre in April of 2010.

He also plays some of personal favorites as well. It’s always great talking with John. I learn so much, from Jazz, to his culinary skills.

My good pal  from NYC is also a great cook! Hence our  interview Series “Cooking with Tank”

For more on John go to www.johntank.com 

 

 

Coral FM, Off The Air

Coral FM’s Tribute to New York

Me near Washington Square Nov 2012.
Me near Washington Square Nov 2012.

Here is my sonic salute to New York through the music and the artists that define it from coolomundo jazz and folk legends to its and rock and punk heroes.

My fave artists from New York include actor / lead singer David Johansen of The New York Dolls who I chatted with a few years back by phone, and Lauri Anderson who I had the pleasure of meeting when she played The Perimeter Institute! Plus I play Maggie Estep, The Ramones, The Cramps, Iggy Pop, Regina Spektor. Tom Waits and Lou Reed – All from NYC! – Coral FM

 

A very special thanks to my friends Lorca Peress, Steve McGraw, and John Tank for showing me the many sides of the City That Never Sleeps. – Coral FM

 

 

Coral FM, Events, Off The Air

Michela Marino Lerman live from Small’s Jazz Club in New York on Coral FM

That’s Michela doin her Jazz Tappin thing at Small’s. Pic courtesy of The New York Times. Below Michela at Smalls. Pic by Coral

Michela Marino Lerman 001

 

 Michela first appeared on Sesame Street at the age of 5.  In February 2002 she was showcased on the cover of Dance Teacher magazine with Gregory Hines. In 2005, she was named by Dance Spirit magazine as one of the 20 hottest tap dancers under 20 and in 2008, Dance magazine named her as the only female tap dancer in its “25 to Watch in 2008.” Michela performs annual as part of Tap City (NYC Tap Dance Festival) and the Tap Extravaganza, and is the artistic director for Cobi Narita’s Tap Extravaganza Quens. She was born, raised, and continues to live in New York City.

She won first prize in the Harlem Jazz Dance Festival’s, “Hoofer’s Challenge” in both 2002 and 2003. In 2002, Michela performed with Jennifer Holliday on Broadway in Nothing Like A Dame and also in 21 Below at Town Hall. In 2003, she was inducted into the famed tap dance fraternity “The Copasetics” as their first and only female lifetime honorary member.  In 2004-2006, Michela toured Spain and Japan with Rafael Amargo’s Enramblao.  In the fall of 2005, her choreography was featured in the tap section of the opening number for the Bermuda Music Festival with UDP, starring Al Green, Angie Stone, and Patti LaBelle.

Michela began her touring career at the age of 14, when she travelled with the Cab Calloway Orchestra throughout the Northeast and Florida.  At the age of 19, she was commissioned by Dixon Place to create and direct her own show, entitled AM+bu$h+ED.2007 saw Michela tour Europe for 3 months as a lead dancer in the show Magic of the Dance.  In 2008-2009, she was featured in the show “Wonderland,” an all tap show set to Stevie Wonder’s music choreographed by Ayodele Casel and Sarah Savelli.

In 2008 she appeared on CBS’s Secret Talents of the Stars with Grammy award winning singer Mya, performing the choreography of Emmy award winner Jason Samuels Smith. From 2007-2008, Michela was a featured lead performer at NYC’s hottest nightclub, The Box. She also has performed with the Roy Hargrove Big Band and Quintet at the Jazz Gallery and the Village Vanguard.  Over the past several years, Michela has performed throughout the West Coast and in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, and Turkey in addition to tap festivals in Canada, New York, and Flint, Michigan.

The American Tap Dance Foundation commissioned Michela to produce and direct her second show, entitled Tapsploitation, which was presented a second time by HarlemStage. Recently she has been co-creator in forming the tap dance company The Tap Messengers who performed at the CareFusion Jazz Festival with Talib Kweli and Nicholas Payton with the Revive Da Live Big Band, Joe’s Pub, and HarlemStage opening for Marcus Strickland.  Her newest group is Sole Society, which has just debuted at Matthew Garrison’s ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn, collaborating with the Marcus Strickland Quartet, and appeared at the Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival with Revive Da Live. For the past 4 years, Michela has hosted the only weekly tap jam in NYC at Smalls Jazz Club, collaborating some of today’s most gifted young jazz musicians including Joe Sanders, Ben Williams, Justin Brown, Harold O’Neal, Sullivan Fortner, and Burniss Earl Travis, to name just a few.  Michela also hosts monthly tap jams at Fat Cat.

 Michela is grateful for the mentoring and guidance given to her by Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, and Leroy Myers. She has taught in numerous schools, studios, programs, and festivals throughout the globe. As a performer, teacher, director, and choreographer Michela is dedicated to spreading the art of tap around the world.

Michela was the first interview I did when I went down to New York. I met her at the legendary jazz club Smalls! in Greenwich Village.  Tap Jazz is cooolomundo! – Coral FM.