Kiwi Pianist Aron Ottignon, who I heard a while back at the Glamour Bar, will be featured in two separate concerts this month at JZ club; one solo piano concert on the 16th and also a small-group setting of his own music on the 18th. The group featured on the 18th is his own band “Aronas,” which is your typical sort of Punk-Jazz group. Not. I think the rest of the group will consist of members picked up locally. I sure hope people are more attentive this time for his solo thing, as it was quite good but I couldn’t hear it last time because everyone was talking loudly.
Me and the thursday night quintet “Five Below” are lucky enough also to be joined by Aron while he’s in town. In fact he played with us already last thursday just after arriving in town and did a splendid job in spite of heavy jet lag effects and a broken coffee machine at the club! Unfortunately, I won’t be able to enjoy all of the thursdays he’ll play with the quintet because I’m going home for the holidays. I’ll miss two thursdays, but then hopefully will have one more chance to play with him on thursday January 4 before he splits. He will head back to London after this month-long trip, where he is based these days.