Heard on my street

Champaign-Urbana has a lot of live jazz going on, outside of what you would expect from a major university town with a facility like the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois. (It's the hometown of Brother Jack McDuff and Cecil Bridgewater, too.)

While it lasted, I used to catch pianist Simon Rowe and his trio, which played every Wednesday night for several months at Jackson's Ribs -N- Tips a few blocks from my house. (Great food besides the music. Try the smothered pork chops for lunch.)

Rowe, who's originally from Australia and has since moved to Minnesota, started a little jazz record label, Catalyst Productions, with the idea of producing disks from some outstanding Midwest musicians who aren't well known nationally. You can generally find them on Amazon.

I picked up three, including the Simon Rowe Trio's "Flamingo," a CD where Rowe, who's comparable to Mulgrew Miller, bassist John Huber and drummer Peter Wilhoit, both quite good, have at a Rowe composition "The Visit", standards like "God Bless the Child" (done up tempo) and some less-often-played goodies such as Sam Rivers's "Beatrice" and "Tequila." The version of "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" on here is super. If you're having a rotten day, this disk would be a good antidote.