Stephen Cox, Pianist

    Ethan Iverson

    Until Covid-19, the Ventura Jazz Orchestra & Sextet was a long-standing jazz/swing organization based in Ojai California, it played all over Ventura and Santa Barbara counties (and occasionally beyond those counties’ borders). For much of its history the marvelous singer Donna Greene was part of the group. I played in the group for quite a few years, and was lucky to play alongside some of the best musicians in the county (many of them came and went, some stayed in the band).

    The group’s band-leader, Dean Adams had a reputation for irascibility, for expressing startling political views and for awful humor. Despite that, he had quite a few long-standing gigs throughout the year (with aforementioned excellent musicians); among those gigs were ones for dance clubs/classes, which became a great niche for the band.

    Those dance gatherings were a lot of fun to play for: we played swing; cha-cha and various other Latin flavors; at the end – frequently a favorite of the show – would often be a polka.

    The coolest gig the band played was for Mark Morris, when he was musical director of the Ojai Music Festival in 2013. As many of you know, Mark Morris is a renowned dancer and choreographer, leader of a famous dance company in Brooklyn, NY. Mark held an event for Music Festival donors and other contributors whom he wanted to appreciate; his plan for the event was to celebrate the festival and thank the contributions, and teach his invitees some dance steps. He hired the Ventura Jazz Sextet for that occasion.

    Mark was hilarious and witty; he was wonderful to watch, as he taught his charges those dance steps with much humor and joy. As usual, a polka was saved to the end, it was a vehicle for him to put a high-energy, comedic exclamation mark on the experience.

    Mark Morris’s long-time dance accompanist was the great pianist Ethan Iverson. I feel lucky that Mark didn’t just hire Ethan for that gig in 2013!

    We were fortunate to see Ethan play at the Ojai Music Festival that same year (2013), as part of the new-music group ‘The Bad Plus’. I was lucky again to see Ethan play a few months ago with his trio, at Kuumbwa Jazz club in Santa Cruz.

    Ethan’s playing doesn’t really resemble anyone else’s, but to categorize him: he, along with VJ Iyer and other musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey (Tyshawn won Pulitzer Prize last year), Claire Chase, & Steven Schick, create fearless amalgamations of new-music (‘contemporary/modern classical’) with jazz/popular and exotic/esoteric styles – inspired by and/or based upon all sorts of unexpected sources (historic and new, from anywhere in the world).

    By the way Rhiannon Giddens also has her own ability to create such new amalgamations/creations (she also directed the Ojai Music Festival a couple of years ago); she reaches into the past too, with beautiful old songs, and makes them her own. Another musician I’ve just recently discovered, Cécile McLorin Salvant: she’s also able to utilize the way-back-machine with ease; meanwhile she’s creating completely new & modern music and sounds. E.g., one of her recent recordings includes an old 30-minute blues song/suite (Jelly Roll Morton’s ‘Murder Ballad’, written in the 30s).

    Back to Ethan! He has a website which contains an endless source of wonders:

    For anyone interested in being a collaborative pianist (especially a dance accompanist) – or if they already are, being an even better one – Ethan’s blog about accompanying is a must-read; he’s generous with practical recommendations (hints & tips of a ‘tactical’ flavor), helpful observations from lessons-learned along his journey.

    Of course the other portions of his website(s) are great too: Ethan’s writing is something all music-lovers should be lucky enough to discover, and enjoy – along with his playing!