Tag Archives: Robin Connell Trio

Jazzy singer, sax player join Robin Connell Trio’s Listening Room series on March 7

Entertainment, Local Entertainment, Upcoming Events,
Laurie Sears. (Courtesy of the artist)

By WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org

The Listening Room’s jazz series featuring the Robin Connell Trio with guests will continue Saturday, March 7, with singer Mary Rademacher and saxophonist Laurie Sears as guest performers.

The venue is located at Studio Park at 123 Ionia Ave SW. The jazz nights start at 7:30 p.m., with doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $12, with open seating, drinks available for purchase, and a parking garage attached.

Pianist and singer Connell’s “house trio” will usually have with Rob Hartman on bass and Keith Hall on the drums. For a video of “Taking a Chance on Love” from last month’s gig, with Hartman on bass and Ethan Bouwsma on drums, visit here.

Robin Connell

“If you’re from west Michigan you know Mary,” Connell said in supplied material. “I know she’s looking forward to performing in an intimate setting without all the talk and clatter, where she is able to connect with listeners and perform tunes she doesn’t often get to sing.”


 
But audiences “might not know the fabulous Laurie Sears. She makes her home in Traverse City but travels all over for performances, often at DeVos concert hall when touring artists perform there and hire top pros to back them up,’ Connell said. “Laurie and I have played together for several years, mostly up north.”

For more information on the jazz series and all concerts at Listening Room, visit listeningroomGR.com or call 616-900-9500.

For more information on Robin Connell, visit robinconnell.com. Next month playing with Robin Connell Trio at Listening Room is Carl Cafagna, on April 1.

Online ticket sales are available but with a handling fee. The movie box office downstairs has tickets for all shows, available in advance. Parking is available in attached garage and is free if patrons purchase drink or food in the restaurant downstairs before or after the show.

Old school jazz trio, visiting voices, to debut series at The Listening Room on Jan. 4

Entertainment, Going Local, Local Faces, Reviews, Upcoming Events, , ,
Max Colley latest release, “Jubilee”, includes Jimmy Cobb, Jon Faddis and others. Locally, he has played with the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra, The Truth in Jazz Orchestra and Gumbo Nuveau, as well as leading the Max Colley III Quartet. (Supplied/Max Colley III)

By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org

The Listening Room, one of Grand Rapids newest music venues, will debut a new jazz series this week when the Robin Connell Trio, with opening night special guest trumpeter Max Colley III, hits the stage Saturday, Jan. 4.

While the venue, located at Studio Park at 123 Ionia Ave SW, is definitely new, having opened late last year, the idea of jazz in an intimate setting where sipping a cocktail and listening to some jazz in small club setting, is perfectly old-school.

Robin Connell (Supplied)

“It’s a wonderful venue for those who love live music and enjoy listening … It is designed such that it could very well function as a jazz club on a par with NYC clubs that require people to refrain from talking,” local pianist Robin Connell said to WKTV. “The (venue general manager) … described it to me as ‘a music room with drinks vs a bar with music.’ … (and) he is bringing in an eclectic mix of genres, including some jazz.

 

“This (new) series is loosely based on what I did at The Harris Building four years ago, which was loosely based on the old style jazz club that hired a ‘house’ trio to back touring artists such as Charlie Parker & Billie Holiday,” Connell said.

The jazz nights will start at 7:30 p.m., with doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $12, with open seating, drinks available for purchase, and a parking garage attached — “So no outdoor hassle (park on 2nd floor to walk right in),” we are told.

Connell’s “house trio”, which will usually have with Rob Hartman on bass and Keith Hall on the drums, are scheduled to feature Colley and his trumpet to open. From then, the monthly series will have Ivan Akansiima, on guitar and piano, on Feb. 6; Paul Brewer, on trombone but also a fine composer, on March 7; and wrapping up the initial winter series on April 1 with Carl Cafagna on woodwinds — “Almost all of ‘em and vocals, too!” Connell says.

Max Colley III, according to his website, received music education degree from Central Michigan University, has studies with the likes of Jon Faddis, and has won awards including outstanding soloist at the Aquinas College, CMU and Montreaux-Detroit Jazz Festivals, and won the Jimmy Forrest Memorial Scholarship.

In 2016, he released the recording “Jubilee”, which includes Jimmy Cobb, Faddis, “and many other jazz luminaries!” Locally, he has played with the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra, The Truth in Jazz Orchestra and Gumbo Nuveau, as well as leading the Max Colley III Quartet.

And while Connell is looking forward to the series and all her guests, she is also looking forward to playing the house piano.

“I played there Dec. 15 in a collage type concert … I was the only jazzer in a wonderful lineup of singer songwriters,” Connell said to WKTV. “After I waxed on about the piano, a woman reached out to me and said the piano had been her grandmother’s. A man nearby then told me the piano had been his mother’s. So I realized then that I was meeting the owners of Studio Park since I knew it was their piano in the club.”

For more information on the jazz series and all concerts at The Listening Room, visit listeningroomGR.com or call 616-900-9500. For more info on Max Colley III, visit maxcolley3.weebly.com . For more information on Robin Connell, visit robinconnell.com .

New local jazz trio, with familiar face on keys, to debut Oct. 3 at One Trick Pony

Entertainment, Local Entertainment, Upcoming Events,
The new Robin Connell Trio (shown is promotional graphic) will debut on the local scene in October. (Supplied)

By WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org

Local jazz pianist and singer Robin Connell’s new trio, with Rob Hartman on bass and Keith Hall on drums, will debut at Grand Rapids One Trick Pony on Thursday, Oct. 3, from 8-11 p.m.

Connell, the Artprize 2016 jazz music award recipient and the West Michigan Jazz Society’s 2017 Musician of the Year, is no stranger to the local jazz and music education scenes.

Originally from Detroit, Connell spent more than a decade in New York City, at places such as The Waldorf-Astoria and The Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center, and performs regularly as bandleader or sidewoman throughout Michigan and the region, according to supplied material. She is also a music educator, having taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp for 20 years (did-you-know fact: Norah Jones studied with Robin for two summers) and she currently hosts a jazz piano concert series, Jazz in the Sanctuary at Fountain Street Church, and co-directs the St Cecilia Music Center’s Youth Jazz Ensembles.

Hall, when he is not playing professionally, is the director of the Keith Hall Summer Drum Intensive and is the Jazz Drum Set Professor at Western Michigan University, according to supplied material. He is the author of Jazz Drums Now! Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and is the radio host for Jazz Currents on WMUK. As a musician, he has toured with singer Curtis Stigers (for 12 Years) and leading his New York trio TRI-FI (for 15 years). He also spent 8 years in New York City where he played drums on Broadway’s “Lion King” and has performed with Betty Carter, Wycliffe Gordon, Sir Roland Hanna, Joe Lovano and Wynton Marsalis.

Hartman performs regularly all around west Michigan with a variety of jazz trios and bands.

One Trick Pony is located at 136 Fulton St E. There is no cover charge on jazz nights. For more information visit onetrick.biz or call 616-235-7669.