I dare you to name another musician who’s done what Jhon Kahsen has: Almost every night for the past 25 years, the veteran straight-ahead jazz pianist, perhaps better known as “Johnny Case,” has been holding court at the same location.
When he began his tenure at Sardine’s Italiano Ristorante, the beloved family eatery was located on the future site of the parking lot of the University of North Texas Health Science Center. In fact, the only time Kahsen couldn’t be found on Sardine’s stage was when there wasn’t one – the restaurant closed for several months to relocate to its current location on University Drive by Camp Bowie Boulevard.
Though gigging seemingly nonstop, Kahsen also has managed to write and record several albums, including his exceptional 2005 protest work, Love’s Bitter Rage, and now the two albums whose release he’ll be celebrating on Tues., Sept. 2, from 7 p.m. ’til 11 p.m. at – where else? – Sardine’s (509 University Dr., 817-332-9937). Onstage Kahsen will be joined and probably also occasionally spelled by a stacked deck of local jazz talent, including Jeremy Hull, Daniel Tcheco, Joey Carter, James Vernon, Jon Pointer, Mario Cruz, Chris White, Keith Wingate, Pat Brown, Leonard Belota, and others. And like every night at Sardine’s, there won’t be any cover charge on Tuesday. Visit www.myspace.com/johnnycase. …
Though evidently partial to classical jazz, Kahsen also has an experimental side, a prerequisite for performing at or attending Implied Science, a sonic-art exhibit/show going down on Saturday at Firehouse Art Studios and Gallery (4147 Meadowbrook Dr., 817-534-3620). Joining Austin’s Followed by Static and Dallas/Denton’s Dirty Water Disease will be headliners Yanari, a collaboration between two Arlingtonians, nu-jazz multi-instrumentalist Mark Cook and sonic artist Terry Horn. Just like that tree-falling-in-a-forest koan, is music without rhythm and melody … music? Visit www.myspace.com/yanari. … Prog-metalists Addnerim, according to www.myspace.com/addnerim, are “poised to spread their wings like a grand Monarch, ready to migrate into the minds of new territories.” (Uh, OK.)
Anyway, the three talented metal-heads – Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards winners for Artist of the Year two years running – are more than capable of administering swift kicks to the spherical region beneath the layers of your back pockets and will attempt to do so next Fri., Sept. 5, at the Aardvark (2905 W. Berry St., 817-926-7814). The trio also is working on a new album, Addnerim Vs. the Ice Titans of Europa, a sweet narrative seven-part suite that will be supplemented by a comic book co-created by local visual artist Chris Hutton and Addnerim frontman Tyrel Choat. The story takes place on titular celestial body – the sixth moon of Jupiter, according to Professor Wikipedia – whose icy consistency has led fantasists to believe that life once existed there. (‘Member that Thomas Dolby tune from the ’80s? “Europa”? That was cool.)
The boys in the band are either summoned to or just happen to swing by the celestial body to help a race of humanoids called the Cimagons free themselves from the oppressive rule of giant ice monsters. Ass kicking ensues. The band expects to release the album within a month or so. Admission to the Aardvark show is $5-10. Visit www.myspace.com/addnerim.
Contact HearSay at hearsay@fwweekly.com.
