Mikole Kaar's Jazz Show at AJ's on the Green Is Lots of Fun!

Dan Papaila, Mikole Kaar, Gilbert Hansen and Tim Pleasant

Mikole Kaar

Dan Papaila

Gilbert Hansen & Tim Pleasant

John Farrow, Co-Owner

James Lowell, Our Waiter

Sandy, Our Hostess

I imagine that a great deal of my readers don't know about a neat new place to hear live Jazz on Tuesday nights. The place is "AJ's on the Green"located inside the Date Palm Country Club located at 36200 Date Palm Drive in Cathedral City. I was invited to listen to this group by the great guitar player Dan Papuila who was performing with the Mikole Kaar Jazz group.  AJ's is a perfect spot to hear live Jazz, small and intimate.

Mikole Kaar the leader of the group has been performing all over the Vally in the last few years and has developed a large following.  Mikole is totally dedicated to performing Jazz, and my guess is even if he didn't have a gig, he would be where he could play as a sit-in guest. It's really good to see someone who is so totally dedicated to his trade. Mikole plays his Tenor Sax in his own style and sound which is unlike any other sax player in the Desert.

Mikole asked some sensational players to join his Jazz group.  Tonight, the always entertaining Dan Papuila was on Guitar. Dan is not only an outstanding Guitar player, he also is a renowned teacher.  Dan has his own site that provides Guitar lessons and also provides a service where Guitar students can send in a tape of their performances and Dan will do a critique for them. I learned that Dan trades off every other week with our friend Brian Nova. Gilbert Hansen was on electric Bass Guitar and played in total unison with Tim Pleasant's excellent Drumming. These two pros make a great rhythm team! This group plays real "cool" Jazz that will please even the most purist of Jazz lovers.

The unexpected surprise tonight was in the quality of food and service at AJ's. Art Herrera, co-owner and chef prepares excellent dinners. We had the risotto with scallops and the short ribs. Both were as good as we have ever had! The service provided by our waiter, James and the Hostess Sandy was also excellent. 

Put AJ's on your "Future Visit" list for Tuesday nights! 

The Marvelous Callaway Sisters

On Saturday January 29, 2011 My wife and I attended the the Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway sister's concert at the "Great" Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs, California. Both of these singers are personal favorites of mine, but I never had the pleasure of seeing Ann Hampton Callaway in person so I was really looking forward to seeing both sisters live at the same time on the Annenberg stage. I was not disappointed, quite frankly their performance was an emotional experience for me. It was that good! First, speaking from a man's perspective, the love and emotional bond between sisters was so much stronger than I would have imagined. This bond between these two immensely talented performers radiated and captured the audience. There was a strange familial sensation transmitted to the audience by the end of the concert. We all felt we were part of the Callaway family. At one part of the program, the sisters spoke about how different they were as kids and yet how close they were.  Ann leaned over to Liz and said, "It was good, wasn't it", and then they sang, "Memories". It was beautifully sung for the audience.  The audience as mesmerized and trying to hide their tears.

The title of this show was "Boom" and was written and produced by the Callaway sisters.  The show was based on the music that both sisters listened to along with millions of baby boomers celebrating the 60's. It is near impossible to pick out my favorites from all the great songs the sisters sang, but I will mention four that personally moved me.  First, Ann sang the underappreciated Joni Mitchell's classic, "A Case of You". The richness of Ann's voice and her full understanding of the meaning of the lyric produced a version of this song that could only be described as outstanding.  Liz told us that there was only one album that both sisters listened to as kids, the "Tapestry" album by Carole King. Is there  any baby boomer living today that did not also love the "Tapestry" album, I think not!  The song they sang from this album was "You've Got A Friend". They told the audience that throughout their lives, this has been their mantra.  I loved their version of the Beetles classic, "Come Together". It was nice to actually clearly hear all the words to this great song. The last song I want to mention is the great Righteous Brothers hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin". There was glorious harmony between these two talented sisters. In truth, there was glorious harmony in every song which was truly soothing to the ear.

Personally, this was one of the most impressive live concerts I have ever attended.  If I had to use only  words to describe this event the words that come to mind are "Extraordinary", "Impressive", "Moving", "Stirring" and "Emotional". And that's not just my opinion. The second the show ended, the entire sold out audience was up on their feet clapping and cheering for these two remarkable performers.