live from new york, it’s zach brock
A favorite guilty (and strategically pointless) pleasure of mine is to occasionally glance through the New York Times’ jazz listings and pretend that even a fraction of the city’s weekend performance choices are available in Lexington.
This morning, the reverse, in effect, was true. Sandwiched in with notices of impending Manhattan shows by Roy Haynes, Kenny Garret,t and Medeski Martin & Wood is a paragraph devoted to a Tuesday concert by Lexington’s own Zach Brock.
Admittedly, the show at the Jazz Standard isn’t a big geographical jump for the violinist (he lives in Brooklyn). But getting a full graph penned by Times’ jazz critic Nate Chinen, complete with favorable nods to his new album, Almost Never Was, with pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland (a team that will also accompany him for the Jazz Standard gig) and to Brock’s home town, is a wonderful leap. Way to go, Zach.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.