Tag Archives: The Mason Lounge

1/7 | Celebrate Shackelford’s Last Jam & Kate’s BDay tonight @ the Mason Lounge

Posted on by
Reply

9pm – 12am No Cover | Five Points Jazz Collective Live at the Mason Lounge

416 S Park St, Madison, WI 53715

After 7 years of keeping the time in-line at the Mason Lounge every Tuesday night with the Five Points Jazz Collective, our drummer Eric Shackelford is stepping down. Come join us tonight to celebrate his seven years in service of the groove! Also, we’ll be celebrating the birthday of our fearless bartendress, Kate!

Eric the Shack-man pictured here staring a hole through your soul. The camera lens was injured in the taking of this photograph and was later re-tired. (photo by Matthew Norman)

It’s been so much fun playing bass in the Five Points Jazz Collective with Eric at the helm of the pocket. Famous for his “buh-da-dun dun dun, _ duh-nunt!” endings and exciting solos, Eric has been the bedrock of the the Five Points sound for 7 years! In that time, Eric and I have developed what I would describe as an effortless groove. It’s easy and it just goes… You don’t have to think about it or calculate, you simply play. And for me, that’s when it’s really fun. If I ever throw a funky surprise at Eric, he’s ready to catch it and throw it right back at me. And when it’s time for a drum-and-bass-trade during solos, I know things are gonna get interesting because of his careful listening and conversational style. In fact, some of my favorite memories during my time with “the Tuesday Night Squad” have been those drum’n bass trades!

Drawing of Eric Drumford’n Sons on New Year’s Eve 2020 by master John Ribble, Crawdaddy of Five Points violinist Rin Q Ribble!

A versatile drummer, Eric also plays heavy in the blues trio Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo. It’s actually not common nowadays to play with a Jazz drummer who can bust out a solid blues style. Well, Eric’s got a whole bag of blues baby. I’ve always enjoyed hearing the blues side of jazz come out in The Shack’s playing. Sometimes just for a chorus during a solo, always in good taste.

One of my favorite memories playing with Eric and the Five Points Jazz Collective happened this past Fall 2019, when we collaborated with Music con Brio at the Barrymore Theater (pictures below). It was a crashing together of worlds for me, because I also teach cello at Music con Brio! Eric did such a fantastic job playing fun drum beats to fit the children’s songs and the kids had a great time. The cello group’s favorite moment was performing the surf-rock edition of “Drunken Sailor”!

Music con Brio + Five Points collaboration at the Barrymore Theater (pictures by Scott Maurer). Click on image to expand and enjoy.

Eric has the unique gift of an experienced drummer who know’s how to play-the-room. It’s a rare thing indeed for a drum set player to keep the volume at a low, manageable level yet also hold up the energy and create an exciting group sound. The Shack-man has always found the sweet spot at the Mason Lounge and never overplays the room. Quite a feat! This is but one of the many reasons why Eric will be leaving some big shoes to fill for the next drummer of the Five Points!

We tip our hats to you Eric and raise a glass… or two or three. We’ll miss you and your drumming at the Mason Lounge each week. It’s been a blast and we cherish the friendship & music we’ve created with you over the last 7 years!

We wish you the best!
from solid-blue-Brian, the Five Points Jazz Collective & The Mason Lounge

6/11 | Isthmus Jazz Festival: Five Points Jazz Collective CD Release + Live Art!

Posted on by
1

Tues, 6/11, 9p-12a no cover @ The Mason Lounge
416 S Park St, Madison, WI 53715, USA
Isthmus Jazz Festival presents the
Five Points Jazz Collective CD Release show with Live Art!

“Don’t Worry About It” CDs $10

Entering Madison’s Mason Lounge for the first time, one immediately notices the quirks. The stuffed chicken in a henhouse in the wall, complete with straw. The action figures dangling from string, rigged up to move when someone opens the door to the restroom. The collection of neckties and paint can lids on the walls. Every element is so out of place, it somehow fits.

Like the décor, the Five Points Jazz Collective is quirky and disparate. Serving as the house band since the Mason opened in 2010, the Collective is an extended family of local musicians from varied backgrounds. Playing a mixture of jazz old and new, the group has evolved over the years from an open jam into a stable sextet with an increasingly large repertoire.

In its current incarnation, the group consists of Rin Ribble (violin), Eric Shackelford (drums), band leader Charlie Painter (guitar), Trey Grimm (keyboard), Kyle Rightley (trombone and euphonium), and Brian Grimm (bass and contracello). As Tuesday night regulars will attest, no two shows are ever alike. Listeners can expect to hear many subgenres of Jazz including swing standards, modal jazz, latin jazz, pop arrangements, blues, and funk.

Five Points at the Mason’s frozen back patio on set break – photo by Matthew Norman

About the CD Release

In collaboration with the Isthmus Jazz Festival, the Five Points Jazz Collective will be celebrating its first official album release! For 5 years the sextet version of this collective has played nearly 50 shows a year and decided it was time to lay down favorite selections of our vast catalogue. When listening to this debut album, you’ll feel the energy and spontaneity of the Five Points live sound with the buzzing atmosphere created by our regular fans. CDs and download cards will be available for sale at the show. Come grab your very own copy of this special recording captured live at the Mason Lounge!

Our CD Release will be made extra special with live visual artist contributions. Watch along as one of our most regular supporters John Ribble, plus special guest Jim McKiernan, create portraits of band members in real time to our music!

Live Drawing of me on bass at the Mason by John Ribble!

9/4, 9/7, 9/8 | Shows This Week

Posted on by
Reply

JAZZ SEXTET

Tues, 9/4 | 9p-12 $0 @ The Mason Lounge (every Tuesday!)

416 S Park St, Madison, WI 53715

FIVE POINTS JAZZ COLLECTIVE!

39277848_2078020895606407_7213369686409347072_n.jpg

As always, you can find me on Bass Guitars at the Mason Lounge on S. Park ST every Tuesday night, with the Five Points Jazz Collective!  We’ll have the full sextet this week, featuring Charlie Painter on guitar, Trey Grimm on keyboard, Rin Ribble on violin, Kyle Rightley on trombone/euphonium, and Eric Shackelford on drums!  Sure to please with funk, latin-jazz, swing, and blues along side the wonderful selection of craft brew that the Mason rotates on tap.  Warning! Jazz occurs between 9p-12a.

JAZZ, IMPROV, & INDIE ROCK

 Fri, 9/7 | 7p $Tips @ Bos Meadery

849 E Washington Ave, Madison, WI 53703

BOAT PATROL (on tour Jazz/Grass)

LABRADOR, THE BAND (Indie Rock)

BRENNAN CONNORS & STRAY PASSAGE (Free Jazz)

34583349_1942150189161991_1883066383013511168_n.jpg

Built on an improvisational base, Boat Patrol (pictured above) uses a trove of influences and techniques ranging from bluegrass to avant-garde jazz to create extensive musical landscapes and textures.

Boat Patrol began creating music in the fall of 2017 in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.  Avoiding simple categorization, boat patrol explores every nook and cranny of the musical palate with each live performance serving as a unique portrait of the band.  Featuring Cai Mountjoy – bass/madolin/guitar, Daleth Mountjoy – keys/synths, Evan Verploegh – drums/theremin

Labrador. The band. are a mellow, moody three-piece that sounds like the type of estro-rock you might hear in The Bronze on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Brennan Connors & Stray Passage is a free/outside jazz trio. Performances delve into fiery high energy music, focused minimalism, and raw expression.

Donations suggested.

FREE-IMPROV

Sat, 9/8 |6p potluck 8p music $5 @ The Vault

JACK WRIGHT & ROUGHHOUSING (tour)

HIGH PRIESTS OF THE APOCALYPSE

BRIAN GRIMM (cellos)

Improviser extraordinaire and road warrior Jack Wright and his trio Roughhousing is back in Madison for a show at The Vault!  Roughhousing features bassist Evan Lipson and guitarist Zach Darrup.  Read more about the trio here > Roughhousing EPK. Potluck starts at 6pm – bring a tasty dish to share and enjoy; music starts by 8pm.  Enjoy a night of free improv at one of Madison’s most notorious DIY venues with a trio that aims to strip away the layers of facades that plague the digital marketing age.

10/21 | “Emergence” CD Release Show w/ Invisible Guy Trio (SF)

Posted on by
Reply

Sat, 10/21 | No Cover 630-930p @ The Mason Lounge

416 S Park St, Madison, WI

INVISIBLE GUY TRIO (SF)

BRENNAN CONNORS & STRAY PASSAGE (Mad)

↑ CD Release via setola di maiale (Italy)

Brennan Connors & Stray Passage have a new CD “Emergence” coming out this October on Italian label, setola di maile!

http://www.setoladimaiale.net/catalogue/view/SM3300

“Their sets embrace plenty of sinuous melody and conversational interplay,
but can just as easily dive into minimalism and dissonance.” ~ Tone Madison

Experimental Jazz trio Brennan Connors & Stray Passage has been performing in Madison for the past 5 years, exciting listeners with a range of sonic capabilities.  Their improvised music is directly linked to the atmosphere in the room and energy of the audience.  The listener is such a crucial element in shaping the band’s sound that they recorded this album in front of a live studio audience – expertly captured by master engineer Steve Gotcher at Audio for the Arts.  Listeners will experience a jazz trio that embraces both free and structured improvisation, original compositions, groove based experiments, and sound exploration. The breadth of a performance ranges from focused minimalism to fiery high energy music, all while maintaining a sense of narrative organization and compelling ensemble interplay.

The group is led by Brennan Connors on tenor and soprano saxophones.  Geoff Brady orchestrates drum and percussion textures, while Brian Grimm rounds out the trio bowing cello, contra-cello, and electric bass.

We are ecstatic and grateful to setola di maiale records in Italy for officially releasing our first album!

We’ll be joined by a fantastic drummer & friend of mine, Hamir Atwal (San Francisco), with his trio Invisible Guy.  The group features Michael Coleman on keyboard & Ben Goldberg on clarinet.  We are very glad to share our CD release show bill with another trio that explores the dynamics of free-improv in full range!

“Mr. Goldberg is a clarinetist of range and curiosity.” – The New York Times

Ben Goldberg’s Bay Area-based trio looks forward and backward at the same time, creating both nostalgic reveries and modern statements. Goldberg is known for drawing on his Jewish roots and radical versions of Klezmer music and his clarinet work is always focused with an endearing lyrical quality. Pianist Michael Coleman leaps between stride riffs and electronic splatter. Drummer Hamir Atwall provides everything from a swinging undercurrent to a clattery rush.

As a trio, Ben, Michael, and Hamir are in strict pursuit of beautiful melody. Michael Coleman says: “Melody is the knife that cuts through to truth. Then there is the importance of breath, and personal expression.” Reviewing a 2014 concert, Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune said the group is “an unusually focused ensemble inventing a musical syntax for itself.”

From 1992, when his group New Klezmer Trio released Masks and Faces and “kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music” (SF Chronicle) to 2013’s simultaneous release of Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues (featuring Joshua Redman) and Unfold Ordinary Mind (featuring Nels Cline), which the New York Times noted for “a feeling of joyous research into the basics of polyphony and collective improvising,” clarinetist and composer Ben Goldberg has shaped a career through relentless pursuit of musical truth across many genres and styles, resulting in the Downbeat Critics’ Poll naming him the #1 Rising Star Clarinetist in both 2011 and 2013. In 2015 Ben released a recording of his songcycle Orphic Machine , sung by Carla Kihlstedt and performed by an allstar nine piece band including Nels Cline, Greg Cohen, and Ches Smith. The LA Times called Orphic Machine “knotted and occasionally spooky composition marked by dazzling interplay.” All Music Guide says “Orphic Machine is wildly ambitious and sophisticated, but also graceful, emotionally honest, and accessible. It makes the profound embraceable and, as a result, is a masterpiece.” Ben currently composes for and leads the following groups:
Unfold Ordinary Mind ; Go Home ; Ben Goldberg School ; and Ben Goldberg Trio with Greg Cohen and Kenny Wollesen.

Drummer/Percussionist Hamir Atwal is a Berklee College of Music graduate who
has taught at Music Academy International, and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Hamir is an active endorser of DREAM Cymbals. Hamir has played with saxophonists Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, and Grant Stewart; Bassist/Producer Bill Laswell; and clarinetist Ben Goldberg.

Michael Coleman is a pianist, improviser and composer currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. He has had the pleasure of playing with many great musicians and recording with some of his favorite bands and people. Apart from leading his own groups (Beep!, CavityFang, Young Nudist), Michael has toured the world with Chris Cohen, tUnEyArDs,
Sean Hayes, Miles Kurosky and Jug Free America.