I promise not to turn this blog into a litany of gloom and doom, but I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the passing of Queva Lutz, owner and proprietor of the 55 Bar. Queva not only ran one of the best jazz establishments in New York, but raised it to a new level of excellence during her tenure. She was responsible for booking superb performances like this one, and countless others week after week. The 55 Bar proved to be an important bit of context in my recent features on Chris Potter and Mike Stern & Richard Bona [both pdf]. I was just getting to know Queva when she fell ill. She was always very nice — in a New York kind of way — at the door, and I’ll greatly miss seeing her there.
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