Connection Through Jazz and Conversation at the Cactus Cafe

photo by Kim Yarbrough

Listeners pack the Cactus Cafe as jazz spills from the corner stage. Explosive saxophone and splashy drums burst forth before giving way to tiptoeing basslines and softly brushed guitar. Tasteful piano fills in the cracks.

Host, jazz historian, and local rabbi Neil Blumofe approaches the microphone after a few numbers.

“We’re honored to think about the spaces in between the notes, the spaces in between all the information we get,” he reflects. “Hopefully we can come from here to a place of peace with inspiration and expansion.”

This marks one night of a longstanding free monthly jazz series at the Cactus Cafe, which aims to connect the Austin community through music and conversation. Each month, Blumofe spotlights a different artist with live performances of their work while sharing short stories from their life to extract universal themes. Singer Billie Holiday, drummer Elvin Jones, and pianist Thelonious Monk are just a few performers charted over the series’ more-than-a-decadelong run.

“It is meant to be a bridge between those in town and those at the university who could enjoy a conversation and unparalleled performances,” Blumofe said.

The next show, Oct. 30’s “Benny Golson and the Art of Life,” honors tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, who died at age 95 last month. While doors open at 7pm, folks typically line up early to secure a seat. Blumofe encourages the audience to maximize their experience by bringing an open ear for deeper threads woven between the music – which is the night’s theme.

“It’s about how one can devote as much life as one has to the projects that not only bring happiness and joy, but wholeness and uplift to the world,” Blumofe said.

One defining point of Golson’s career included his composition of the jazz standard “I Remember Clifford,” written after rising trumpeter Clifford Brown died at 25 in a car crash. “The contrast between a man who lived into his 90s, remembering and continuing to perform a piece for a man who died in his 20s,” Blumofe said, “I think is a really important aspect of how we live our life.”

Choosing a theme depends on factors like time of year and availability of local musicians. This month will feature familiar faces Michael Malone on saxophone, Roscoe Beck on bass, and Brannen Temple on drums, along with two guests – trombonist Andre Hayward and pianist Dayne Reliford.

Sometimes the musicians help steer the focus. The host originally planned something different for the October show – a theme that corresponded with Election Day. “But a couple of the musicians said to me, 'Hey, Benny Golson was an important part of our life, and we want to process that,’” said Blumofe. Changing the game plan is not surprising jazz behavior.

“The holiness of jazz is about its improvisational quality,” Blumofe said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Benny Golson and the Art of Life

Wednesday 30, Cactus Cafe

universityunions.utexas.edu/events