By: Bob Krasner via AMNY |
The jazz jam session. If you know what that means, you’re probably picturing a late-night back room where you don’t even think about getting on stage without a good amount of talent and even more guts, because every player there is ready to play you off the stage and they don’t really care if you never come back.
Then again, there’s the Sour Mouse, where the “Jazz by Jorei” Sunday afternoon sessions organized by Katherine Joyce-Reilly and Johnny Johnson are basically an alternative universe to that scene. Newcomers are encouraged no matter where their musical level is and if you sign up, you get to strut your stuff. It might only be one song, but it’s in front of a swinging house band with an appreciative audience.
Johnson and Joyce-Reilly are both veteran singers (jazz and R and B, respectively) who met ten years ago and decided to team up to produce a jazz session at Perks, a well-known club in Harlem. After moving around a bit they settled downtown into the Sour Mouse at the invitation of co-owner Aaron Ho, who loves having them there. “They have a passion for sharing music with others,” he notes. “We’re grateful to be working with people who, like us, want to give something back to the community...”
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