Singer/trombonist Aubrey Logan joined the Collin Shook Trio as part of the Monks Jazz concert series on Thursday, July 30. The trio donned masks and streamed live from East Austin Piano Shop on YouTube and Facebook.
Logan, who gave an exclusive interview to 360°Sound last week, announced that she was invited to sit in with the trio for her first live performance with other musicians since March.
“Three very incredible hard bop, hardcore-jazz musician dudes in Austin, Texas are getting together with their masks on to play music and really try and show off, as they tend to do, and they should because they’re awesome,” she said on social media.
Logan, who recently moved to Austin from Los Angeles, told 360° prior to the gig: “Collin Shook has created a virtual jam session and so graciously invited me to join. So let’s call this my first jam session in Austin since moving here!”
Monks Jazz is a pop-up concert series that spotlights jazz musicians in the Central Texas area. Founded by Shook, a pianist, in 2016, Monks Jazz has hosted nearly 100 concerts, 10 of which have occurred during the pandemic.
Shook’s trio consists of Daniel Dufour on drums and Sam Pankey on bass. 360° interviewed Dufour in June, and we also reviewed his latest album, Standards.
Dufour said COVID-19 has prevented him from gigging around town, which was a major source of his income.
“Since Collin’s use of live streaming at Monks, however, I have been able to go back to making music with people for people,” Dufour said, adding he was “incredibly excited” to jam with Logan for the first time. “From researching her catalog, I know we are going to musically gel together really well.”
“It’s great to have such an amazing vocalist join the scene here in Austin,” Shook said of Logan. “I have followed her for some time, and I think our styles mesh really well. Daniel and Sam are really telepathic and relentlessly passionate about this music. I really lean on them with some of my crazy attempts at ‘peaks of the mountain’ moments, as I call them, building energy to really high intensity.”
Monks Jazz has partnered with the nonprofit Austin Jazz Society, which set up Project Safety Net, an effort to raise funds for Austin jazz musicians whose livelihood has been impacted by the pandemic. Project Safety Net has raised over $54,000, distributed in the form of $500 monthly to 69 local musicians.
“Things are going really well,” Shook said. “We keep trying to increase the quality as far as the mix, a few cameras added in for a multi-camera effect, and we’re starting to broaden out from the straight-ahead hard bop instrumental quartets. I’m excited.”
It was four world-class performers doing their thing live. That sounds good.
related posts:
Q&A: singer/trombonist Aubrey Logan
Daniel Dufour – Standards
Q&A: Jazz drummer Daniel Dufour
