West Café Jazz Calendar February 2009

Feb 7 2009: Mindy Anderson
West Café brings intimate Portland jazz downtown on Saturday, February 7.

West Café is pleased to feature Portland jazz songstress Mindy Anderson with guitar accompaniment on Saturday, February 7. Mindy’s intimate musical style should mesh perfectly with the West’s warm and cozy surroundings. In Mindy’s own words: “Some of my earliest memories revolve around two of the things I love most: family and music. For me, singing invokes the joy of belonging, security and celebration.” Hear and see more of Mindy at www.myspace.com/mindyrooted.
Please join us for a delicious dinner in the dining area or relax by the fireplace in our bar and enjoy some of the finest local jazz Portland has to offer. Our jazz performances are always free.

Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009
Time: 7-10PM

Feb 13 2009: Anomalous Quintet
Downtown Portland jazz club features local quintet as part of Portland Jazz Festival on Friday, February 13.

West Café is proud to be a featured venue for the 2009 Portland Jazz Festival Friday, February 13. Portland’s own Anomalous Quintet will be performing their “luxuriant” compositions in our relaxing bar area – complete with roaring fireplace and the city’s best in cocktails and delicacies.
Led by guitarist and composer Jason Newsom, Anomalous Quintet is based in Portland, Oregon and has recorded three albums. Jazzreview.com says that Anomalous Quintet “pushes the envelope of jazz to the hilt” and describes their songs as “fresh and innovative.” This free performance will be a part of the city’s celebrated Portland Jazz Festival. More information can be found at http://www.pdxjazz.com/festival/bios2.php?id=25#Anomolous%20Quintet.

Date: Friday, February 13, 2009
Time: 8-10PM

Feb 14 2009: Stephanie Torres
West Café invokes romance and jazz with a special Valentine’s Day celebration meal on Saturday, February 14, featuring the sensuous stylings of Stephanie Torres.

Lonely hearts and satisfied lovers alike will want to join us at the West Café in downtown Portland on Valentine’s Day for an elaborate dinner and jazz package unlikely to be rivaled anywhere in the city. The West Café will be hosting The Lonely Hearts Supper Club, which includes your choice of a delectably filling (though not too fattening!) four course prix fixe meal ($50.00) or select deals on our bar-snack menu for you and your single friends. For those of you happily partnered, we’re offering the aforementioned four course prix fixe meal at a cozy private table in our dining area. And everyone will be able to soak in the romantic ambience with jazz from Portland songstress Stephanie Torres. Let love claim the evening—and be sure to make reservations, whether dining or pining. The restaurant and bar will fill quickly!

Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009
Time: 7-10PM

Feb 20 2009: Michelle Medler Quartet
Portland Jazz Festival ‘09 continues at the West Café with Portland’s own Michelle Medler Quartet on Friday, February 20.

West Café once again plays host venue for the nationally acclaimed Portland Jazz Festival on Friday, February 20, featuring the modern urban jazz of the Michelle Medler Quartet. Led by multi-instrumentalist Medler, the Quartet will be performing in the close and intimate quarters of our bar area, so be sure to arrive early to catch good seating as the place is bound to fill up fast. Michelle is influenced by all kinds of jazz from big band to straight-ahead to experimental -along with everything from dirty-blues, funk, hip hop, r’n’b, rock ‘n’ roll from the 50‘s on and classical music. Whether on saxophone or flute, Michelle makes a fierce statement and she says it with grace and integrity. More information can be found here: http://www.pdxjazz.com/festival/bios2.php?id=29#Medler
Come celebrate and support local jazz at the West Friday February 20. Music begins at 8 and the event is free and open to the public. How often do you hear that?

Date: Friday, February 20, 2009
Time: 8-10PM

Feb 21 2009: Carri Bella
Downtown Portland Jazz Bar and Restaurant features Carri Bella Saturday, February 21.

Join us Saturday, February 21, for live jazz with Carri Bella [http://www.myspace.com/carribellajazz] on vocals. Take advantage of our warm fireplace and enjoy a little swing and bossa nova with a torch song or two. Since our dining room is completely open to the lounge, every seat in the house is great. Come in for dinner (all ages, all hours), or have a signature cocktail in the bar.
Always free!

Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Time: 7-10PM

Feb 28 2009: Mary Kadderly
Say farewell to February at the West Café in downtown Portland with the distinctive jazz of Mary Kadderly on Saturday, February 28.

Join us at the West as we count down to spring and say “Ta Ta” to the month of February with jazz from acclaimed Portland singer Mary Kadderly and accompanist, Dan Gildea on Saturday, February 28. Kadderly’s smoky vocals recall Natalie Cole in her “Unforgettable” phase, though she can get sassy and coy like Kay Starr, be as coolly detached as Sade, and ooze overt sensuality like Julie London. More information can be found at http://www.marykadderly.com/index.htm.
The West always has a cozy seat reserved for you. So come on in and dine, drink, unwind and enjoy the jazz. There’s never a cover charge.

Date: Saturday, February 28, 2009
Time: 7-10PM

Carri Bella sings swing, bossa nova and sultry torch songs this Saturday with Steve Blackman on guitar. The duo will be adding a bunch of jazzy holiday favorites through the end of the year. Tunes like “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”, “Christmastime Is Here” (from Charlie Brown Christmas), “Winter Wonderland”, “Let It Snow,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and many others will get a modern update!

Our dining room has great sight lines to the bar, so you can enjoy the sights and sounds of live music wherever you sit at West Cafe. Bring the kids. It’s the only place in town where you don’t have to usher them out at a certain hour.

But if you want to hang in the bar, our fire will be roaring and we’ll have the hot nog and brandy ready!

Our Saturday jazz is always 7:00 to 10:00 pm.

You can find out more about Carri Bella by listening to her tunes on MySpace or Facebook and following her on Twitter.

Dismal economic news got you down? Don your best 1920’s garb – or bread-line appropriate apparel – and party with us like it’s 1929!

Carri Bella will be crooning favorites from the jazz age era and we’ll be pouring Absinthe cocktails – just the thing to help you forget dismal circumstances! Relax with a glass in your hand and imagine you’re in a dark speakeasy – without the big guy at the door demanding the secret password.

Carri Bella will sing favorites from the jazz era of the 1920s & 1930s.

Once you’re lubricated, Carri’s jazz renditions of “Blue Skies” or “Glad to be Unhappy” (depending on whether you are a glass half full or glass half empty kind of person) will soothe your frazzled soul.

Or request something from the era!  Leave a comment here by 5:00pm Friday and Carri will try to accommodate your song request.

“Even though Absinthe is no longer against the law, its mystique has made it a bootleg favorite of many international travelers over the years,” notes West Café co-owner, Doug Smith. “It is reputed to have mind-altering properties, so introducing it to Portlanders who need a respite from reality seems perfect.”

Event details:

Live jazz with Carri Bella & Steve Blackman 7:00-10:00pm
Special deals on Absinthe cocktails
Bail Out Menu available for dinner
No cover charge

Interesting facts and folklore 
about Absinthe from Wikipedia:

West Cafe serves Absinthe in a traditional glass.

Dubbed the Green Fairy, absinthe gets its chartreuse hue from wormwood and there is a long-held notion that absinthe is hallucinogenic. The most famous “users” of Absinthe in the past were bohemian artists or writers. In one of the best known accounts of absinthe drinking, Oscar Wilde described the feeling of having tulips on his legs after leaving a bar. Two famous painters who helped popularize the notion that absinthe had powerful psychoactive properties were Toulouse Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh.

One early critic of the liquor said “Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman…”

Albert Maignan's "Green Muse" depicts Absinthe's reputation.

Although Émile Zola mentioned absinthe only once by name, he described its evil effects in his novel L’Assommoir.

In 1906, Belgium and Brazil banned the sale and distribution of absinthe, although they were not the first. The Netherlands banned absinthe in 1909; the United States banned it in 1912, and France in 1915.

Today it is known that absinthe does not cause hallucinations. In 2007, a federal agency begrudgingly allowed two European distillers to sell the notorious liquor Stateside. You can read more about the recent changes that allowed for legal importing of Absinthe in TIME Magazine.

Through a scheduling mishap Carri Bella won’t be performing at West Café this Saturday.

But her pal, Tobaj, will be on stage instead! He’s fantastic, so I encourage all of you to check him out!

Show starts at 7pm and as usual there’s NO COVER CHARGE!

He’ll be singing and playing his original Latin jazz tunes on guitar — and might throw in a standard or two. I might even sit in for a song. Tobaj and Carri Bella have performed together in several vocal jazz quartets and duos over the years.

Carri plans to hang out for a bit at West Café on Saturday night, so if you enjoyed the vibe at her gig a couple of weeks ago (and I know you did!), join us for wine, conversation and great entertainment this Saturday. You can check out original tunes from Tobaj at his Web site: www.tobaj.com

Carri Bella will be back at West Café on the following dates:

November 1 — Bootleg Bash — an evening of debauchery with Absinthe & retro jazz. If you’re ready for a break from the reality of current economic woes, come party like it’s 1929! Wear your best 20’s garb or bread-line-suitable apparel.
November 15
November 29
December 6
December 20
December 31 — New Year’s Eve Party!