Jazz Nights: Mike Boone, Neil Podgurski, Daniel Gonzalez

Mike Boone 

"A native New Yorker and Eastman grad, Boone was fresh off a second tour with Buddy Rich when he landed in Philadelphia in 1986. When he got to  Philly, he put down his electric bass and picked up the acoustic; it was  the only way to get gigs with the aging titans who still very much ran  the Philly scene then. He immersed himself in that scene, playing at the  old, beloved Ortlieb’s, educated by professors like saxophonist Bootsie  Barnes, organist Shirley Scott, pianist Sid Simmons, and drummer Mickey  Roker.     

Boone has preserved that legacy; no one in the city teaches young  musicians how to gig and how to become professionals better or more  thoroughly than Boone, who, in addition to furiously gigging himself,  also teaches at Temple University and is the always opinionated,  low-talking pied piper of Philadelphia’s most legit jazz jam sessions—at  Heritage in Northern Liberties and Chris’ Jazz Café— where welcoming up  a steady stream of present and former students is de rigueur.    A leader on about a half-a-dozen releases—the most recent being 2017’s  Beneath the Surface—Boone’s bona fides as a sideman go beyond Buddy Rich  to gigs and sessions with Papa and Joey DeFrancesco, Sean Jones, and  fellow Ortlieb’s alums like Orrin Evans, Uri Caine, and John Swana.     

But tracking down an exhaustive list of Boone’s “associated acts” is  next to impossible; if you’re a jazz musician and part of the circuit  here in Philadelphia, chances are you’ve shared a bandstand with Mike  Boone for at least a tune or two, until he calls for new personnel,  which is the closest thing to a hockey line change you’ll see at a jazz  jam.    

There are bigger names in jazz to call Philadelphia home, but few on the  scene engender the loyalty and respect that’s accorded Boone. Bassist  Nicholas Krolak, a rising star based in Philadelphia, calls Boone, “The  patriarch of the Philly jazz scene, mentor to all…and the torch-bearer of the Philly jazz tradition.” That encapsulates everything Boone is  about. Above his own individual accolades as an instrumentalist, which  are numerous and deserved, he’s the consummate steward of this music, in  this place—a protector of the realm."    -Matt Silver, WRTI

Neil Podgurski

Neil Podgurski has been deeply embedded in the NY/Philly jazz scene for  20 years, enrolling in New York’s New School in 1994, and living in  Brooklyn until 2001 before returning to his native Philadelphia area.  Over the years, he’s performed at many of the region’s finest venues,  most recently The Kennedy Center, The Philadelphia Art Museum, The Jazz  Gallery, The Iridium and Bohemian Caverns. Events in Podgurski’s life  led him to become a devoted practitioner of the ancient Bön-Buddhist  meditation tradition of Tibet, charting the way for his groundbreaking  new recording.

Daniel Gonzalez 

A  native of New York City currently based in Northeastern Pennsylvania,  US combat Army Band veteran Daniel Gonzalez stays busy performing and  teaching locally and abroad. He holds a bachelor's degree in percussion  performance. Endorsed with Bucks County Drums and Red Cymbals of  Australia, Daniel co-leads DaMoJo, a unique jazz trio featuring  accomplished artists Morrie Louden and Jon Ballantyne. As the artistic  director at Vic's Jazz Loft at the Stabin Museum, he curates the jazz  program and performs as the house drummer with select artists.

7-10 PM doors at 6 PM

Reserve:

570-325-5588

Tickets: www.vicsjazzloft.com

$15.00 music charge

Free Parking!

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