Joe Jencks At the Eighth Step

Troubadour Joe Jencks opens the Eighth Step’s 58th season Saturday in Proctors cozy The Addy theater (upstairs at 432 State Street, Schenectady).

Singer-songwriter Jencks headlined WAMC’s Wanda Fischer-hosted On the Road version of Hudson River Sampler in August at Music Haven; a spot he earned through fine area shows so frequent he seemed to live here. Actually, a Chicagoan, he’s a constant presence in folk, alternative and Americana radio through prolific recordings: 10 solo albums and three with harmonizing trio Brother Sun.

Joe Jencks singing at Music Haven

At Music Haven, Jencks sang lyrics he adapted from Pete Seeger’s inspirational 1955 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. As Jencks sang, Seeger stressed his right to sing for anyone. Jencks echoed Seeger’s defense of cherished freedoms, and dropped a verse of Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer” into his song.

In a similarly strong message song, dual US and Irish citizen Jencks praised South Africa’s pluralism before hailing his grandfather Felix Kilbride’s courageous immigration here in the sentimental “Rose of Tralee.” Jencks said Kilbride arrived via Ellis Island before recounting the horrifying recent arrest of Hopi tribal people in Arizona for failing to produce green cards. This set up the pro-immigration “Lady of the Harbor” – Lady Liberty. Many fans knew Jencks’s words and sang along here and in “Bells of Freedom.” Jencks reached back to historic prison recordings as source for his “Take this Hammer,” a tool of hope and defiance.

Jencks never went preachy. He’s just too good a musician for that; too skilled and subtle, with a robust guitar and strong, low-pressure voice. His original lyrics had the same topical bite as vintage sources that inspired him, powered by compassion and principle. In other words: folk music of heartfelt authenticity and virtuoso skill.

Joe Jencks sings Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Proctors The Addy. Tickets: $28 in advance, $30 at the door, $45 priority (center front). www.8thstep.org 518-434-1703

The Eighth Step season continues with Kemp Harris Sept. 27, Mustard’s Retreat Oct. 3, Tom Rush with Matt Nakoa Oct. 18, Whispering Bones: An Evening of Ghost Stories Oct. 28, Ms. Music: Jackie Alper Nov. 1, John McCutcheon Nov. 14, and “Very Slambovian Christmas” (holiday show by the Slambovian Circus of Dreams) Dec. 6.

Seven Porches, 14 Bands on Saturday

Schenectady’s third end of summer Porchfest offers a migratory music experience free to fans wandering the city’s tree-shaded GE Plot neighborhood.

All photos from Porchfest 2024

The two busiest porches, at 1095 Ardsley Rd. and 1183 Stratford Rd., each host three acts; so staying at one porch works, too. 

While parking is less dense/problematic than some might expect, most wanderers roam from porch to porch on bicycles, scooters, skateboards, roller-blades or just on foot. Google Maps locates the two most distant porches at 18 minutes apart on foot, just less than a mile. Food trucks by the Broken Inn and Greek On the Run serve on Rugby Rd. and Ardsley Rd. while porta-johns also await.

The music ranges from Gospel by the Calvary Choir and Musicians to classical with the Chirignan-Hardage duo, blues by The Evidence, Latin-jazz dance music by Alex Torres and his Latin Orchestra, jazz by players and singers including brass bands Signature Brass, Backyard Brass and Brass Abbey. One plays in alpine lederhosen with happy oompah oomph and features trumpeter Steve Weisse. He auditions porches and performers and rounds up support by the American Federation of Musicians (all musicians are paid), the Mohawk Valley Society for Live Music, the Music Performance Trust Fund, Mona Golub, the Schenectady County Legislature Arts and Culture Fund, Stewart’s Shops and the Schenectady Foundation.

All this support means PorchFest is free to fans; so we can all sample stuff we’ve never heard of. I recommend this. Like something? – stick around. Or, not? – just drift; something else is right around the corner. For example, in the past, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the inventive pop group Nice Hockey, and expect more surprises Saturday. 

Ignore the loud cannon shots that signal scores by the Union College football team, playing close by the Douglas Rd. porch that presents two jazz groups.

Check www.schenectadyporchfest.org for who’s playing when, on which porch and how to find them.

Jazz Dessert

Stella Pasta Bar serves a jazz dessert Saturday: the newly formed MS Organ Trio. MS is prolific, restless reeds player and composer Matt Steckler, who forms a new band every few minutes. OK, I exaggerate; but he often creates fresh contexts for his compositions.

The MS Organ Trio is Steckler, saxophones and flute, Jon LeRoy, organ; and Pete Sweeney, drums. Show time is 6 p.m. for this free-admission weekly showcase. Steckler says they play “Right after Kevin Carey’s group at Porchfest!” 

FYI, Stella Pasta Bar is at 237 Union St., Schenectady; it’s the bar and dining room space downstairs from the Van Dyck Music Club, which has also resumed presenting live music.

Jazz fans face a tough choice Friday between two cool shows. There’s no wrong one: guitarist Peter Bernstein Quartet at A Place for Jazz, OR drummer Ari Hoenig in Caffe Lena’s Peak Jazz series.

A Jim Hall protege at New York’s New School, Bernstein hit the big-time when Hall invited him into a guitar showcase at the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival with Pat Metheny, John Scofield and others.

Peter Bernstein. Photo provided

That same year, Bernstein joined saxophonist Lou Donaldson’s band, then (drummer Jimmy) Cobb’s Mob. He played with organist Larry Goldings and drummer Billy Stewart in what the New York Times called “best organ trio of the last decade.” He’s released nine albums and a DVD, “Live at Smoke,” as a leader and played with Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Wes Montgomery, Tom Harrell, Joshua Rodman, Diana Krall, Nicholas Payton and Eric Alexander.

Hall hailed Bernstein’s “attention to the past as well as the future,” while Donaldson noted “Some people just have it…Peter just knows it all.” Bernstein’s recent albums include the tribute “Monk” (2009) and “Solo Guitar – Live at Smalls (2013).” 

Friday, he plays A Place for Jazz with David Hazeltine, piano; John Webber, bass; and Joe Strasser, drums; in the Carl B. Taylor Auditorium in the music school of SUNY Schenectady County Community College. 7:30 p.m. $25 at the door, cash or check. http://www.aplaceforjazz.org.

Ari Hoenig. Photo provided

Hoenig follows innovators, notably hard-bop pioneer Max Roach, who punched big holes in the notion that drummers can’t, or shouldn’t, lead bands. Hoenig emphasizes melody in his playing, in small bands where each player must reaches beyond their instruments’ traditional roles.

Friday at Caffe Lena, Hoenig drums with pianist Gadi Lehavi and bassist Ben Tiberio, the same trio that released “Golden Treasures” (2022) and Tea for Three” (2024).

On more than 120 albums as leader and sideman, Hoenig has developed his melodic style with stars including Joshua Rodman, Shirley Scott, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Chris Potter. 

He plays Caffe Lena (47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs) Friday as part of the Caffe’s Peak Jazz Series, sponsored by Joseph and Luann Conlon, in memory of Corinne Simonds. 8 p.m. Tickets: $27.15 (members), $30.40 (general) and $15.20 (students and children). 518-583-0022 www.caffelena.org.

Seriously Sad Caffe Lena Note: 

Monday night, the Caffe lost Joel Moss, longtime sound engineer for live streaming. Grammy winner as producer or engineer, Moss was a reassuringly confident, super-competent musical technician; also a sweet, quietly witty presence that made him a friend to everyone who crossed his path.

Joel Moss, the late, great. Photo provided

When New Orleans-style jazz clarinetist Evan Christopher played Caffe Lena some seasons ago, he recognized Moss from playing a Los Angeles session Moss had produced. Awed, Christopher asked to be introduced to Moss.

Moving from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1969, Moss produced or engineered records for Little Richard, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Johnny Cash, the Eagles, Talking Heads, Red Hot Chili Peppers and too many more to list.

By 1986, he ran LA’s Record Plant and Paramount Pictures studio where he produced film and TV scores.

Later, in New York, he made Broadway cast recordings and won a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album for the Lin-Manuel Miranda/Quiara Alegria Hudes smash  “In The Heights.” Nominated 11 times, Moss won seven Grammy Awards, including for Ray Charles’s last album. He also won an Academy Award, was nominated for two Emmy Awards and was inducted into the 2022 Capital Region Thomas Edison (the “Eddys”) Hall of Fame.

In Saratoga, Moss produced the regional compilation “Saratoga Pie” and many other projects, and engineered hundreds of live streaming performances from Caffe Lena – where he had performed as a member of Detroit’s folk group the Hi-Liters not long after the Caffe opened. He was so modestly self-effacing you’d only know his achievements by talking with musicians.

“Joel, I’m incredibly grateful to have had you in my life and honored to have become good friends,” wrote Brian Malick on Facebook. “The world is a lot darker and colder today, but your warm loving beautiful spirit will be with us for the rest of our days… Blessed to have been in the music with you more times then I can count, and thank you for a truly remarkable inspiring legacy of work.”

“Joel was a fierce, loving, impassioned force of a man” wrote Lecco Morris. “He was always buzzing — with the beauty of his current project, his anger and hope for the state of the world, his belief that making incredible things together would chip away at the ugliness of the world and lift people up…He was utterly disinterested in anything except beauty and honesty, and would tirelessly support anyone and any project that he believed in….So honored to have spent so many working years on so many projects with such a dauntless, pure artist as Joel. My love to (wife, photographer and music lover) Terri-Lynn Pellegri, who hung the sky for Joel. In his honor we have to make true, beautiful things, without compromise.”

Amen and amen.