Fans of real (as in: not smooth) jazz in Tampa Bay can feel like they’ve been exiled to Siberia. A wasteland. This is not to disparage the many talented musicians who call the area home; it’s just that they always seem to be scuffling, waiting for the next club to axe its jazz programming and put them on the street again. Or they subsist on one-off or sporadic gigs. Let’s put it this way: A Tampa Bay jazz aficionado has a difficult time figuring where to go on any given Saturday night. Which is why the Sunday matinees at the Gorilla Theater are so vital. The program books lesser-known, but highly talented, players, usually sets them up with ace local sidemen and lets the bop loose in a small, acoustically impeccable room. Just this year, Jazz at the Gorilla has presented stirring sets by Kenny Drew Jr., Jed Levy, Ira Sullivan, Don Scaletta, Jorge Garcia & Federico Britos and others. Organizers already have six dates set aside through June of next year. This jazz lifeline shows no signs of dying.
4419 N. Hubert Ave., Tampa, 813-879-2914, gorilla-theatre.com.
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2007.