The Charlie Hunter Quartet

 

go

Who says you have to migrate to the Village to hear jazz with an edge? Sarah Cain and Steve Wood don't think so. They introduced their independent production company in May, with a Monday night series at Ortlieb's Jazzhaus that has been turning a lot of heads. The Shanghai Trunk Company has already booked such jazz luminaries as Skip Heller, Uri Caine, Odean Pope and Cecil McBee, along with up-and-coming New York City acid groups like Jazzheads and The Sex Mob. Cain and Wood start a new series in July - Tuesday nights at The Five Spot. It promises to be a wild ride; the Five Spot series debut features the incendiary saxophone of Oliver Lake (July 15), trumpeter Dave Douglas and the Tiny Bell Trio (July 22), and Charlie Hunter's eight-string wizardry (July 29).

Mondays at Ortlieb's Jazzhaus, Third & Poplar Sts.; Tuesdays at The Five Spot, 5 S. Bank St. Info: 382-3198.

- Nate Chinen

Hey you! You who have put off the theatrical event of the season. You have one last chance to experience the musical that has reinforced the success of Walter Dallas and the Freedom Theatre Company. Cooley High ends its run at the Arts Bank on July 6 after nearly a month of music, dance and pure energy.

Director Walter Dallas (Freedom Theatre's artistic director) has taken the acclaimed 1975 film and adapted it to the stage, which is no mean feat considering the musical numbers and choreography needed in order to keep the play as dynamic as the film.

The story revolves around five high school friends and the coming-of-age crap that goes with the territory. Though we've seen and experienced for ourselves the traumas and elation that surrounds those troubled teenage years, Cooley High was one of the first films to portray the black community's angle with respect and inside knowledge. The job of the play was to do the same - and to most everybody concerned it has succeeded enormously.

So for you who still insist that there's nothing in this city that is appropriately à la mode for your refined taste, you have an opportunity to be proven wrong. I dare you to take it.

- Sarah Armour