Chris Cortez at Blue Bamboo

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Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts (1905 Kentucky Ave. Winter Park FL) consistently brings cutting edge music to Central Florida. Chris Cortez one of the founders often offers solo shows about once a month featuring selections from his many CDs and all time favorites from the Great American Songbook to the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Chuck Berry and more. I love the intimate setting and it is one of my favorite spots to sketch musical acts. Something about the setting gets my creative juices going.

Blue Bamboo is part venue, part recording studio, part art gallery. This unique space offers live performances most evenings, state of the art recording studio, and gallery space. More concert hall than night club, they’re open to all ages and present all kinds of music, theater, dance, and spoken word events. They’re also available for private parties. You can browse the online schedule for tickets or call 407-636-9951 for more information.

They have limited seating so patrons are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations. Tickets are also available at the door, based on availability. Most shows begin at 8:00 p.m. and the lobby doors open at 7:00 p.m.. A small bar offers wine, beer and soft drinks.

Thursday Night Hang: Dave Sheffield Trio

Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, 1905 Kentucky Ave, Winter Park

Free admission!

The trio has been performing together for almost 30 years, and the
group is regarded as one of the finest jazz trios in the central Florida
area. The group features Dave on piano, Jeff Green on bass, and Don
Sanderson on drums. This is an authentic jazz trio with repertoire
consisting of standards from the American song book. The group can
easily crossover from easy listening dinner music, to hard bebop.

This event is sponsored by the City of Winter Park.

Thursday Night Hang: Chris Cortez Trio

Posted on by Thor

At Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts (1905 Kentucky Ave. Winter Park Fl), Chris Cortez performed on guitar and vocals; Ron Jenkins was on bass and Walt Hubbard was on drums. Chris is an international recording artist with a wide range of musical interests, he ranks among the top jazz guitarists in the world. He’s been featured in Downbeat, Jazziz, Jazz Times, Le Jazz and Hot Paris. He’s performed at clubs and festivals all over the world. His recordings are critically acclaimed.

This was a free jazz jam session and great sketch opportunity. I was able to find a small table in the front row to set up and relax to the music. They have a small bar in the back of the room for drinks and some snacks. Blue Bamboo is one of the newer venues in Central Florida and they are always hosting amazing musical talents. Blue Bamboo is part venue, part recording studio, part art gallery. More of a concert hall than a night club, they’re open
to all ages and present all kinds of music, theater, dance, and
spoken word events.  They’re also available for private parties. Check the web site to stay up to date on all that is happening.

There is a Thursday Night Hang with the Dave Sheffield Trio tonight May 9, 2019 starting at 8pm.

The trio has been performing together for almost 30 years, and the group is regarded as one of the finest jazz trios in the central Florida area. The group features Dave on piano, Jeff Green on bass, and Don Sanderson on drums. This is an authentic jazz trio with repertoire consisting of standards from the American song book. The group can easily crossover from easy listening dinner music, to hard bebop.Admission is free.

Chris Cortez at Blue Bamboo

Posted on by Thor

Blue Bamboo Music Center for the Arts has become an amazing new venue that features top musicians. Blue Bamboo is part
venue, part recording studio, and part art gallery!  Located at 1905
Kentucky Ave in Winter Park, Fl, just off Fairbanks between Formosa and
Clay, this unique new space offers live performances most evenings,
state of the art recording studio, and gallery space.  More concert
hall than night club, they’re open to all ages and present all kinds
of music, theater, dance, and spoken word events.  They’re also available
for private parties.  Browse the schedule for tickets or call
 407-636-9951 for more information.

The venue has limited seating so you are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations.
 Tickets are also available at the door, based on availability.  Most
shows begin at 8PM and the doors open at 7.  They offer beer and wine,
soft drinks, and light snacks. 

Chris Cortez is a talented local acoustic guitarist and I have sketched him before. In the low light, I got to play with my digital drawing tablet to try and capture the light and mood of the evening. On Tuesday nights there are ongoing acoustic guitar sessions that feature Chris Cortez. Best of all there is now cover, so this becomes a great sketch opportunity.

Blue Bamboo Fundraiser

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I went to Cavanaugh’s Wines for a Blue Bamboo Music Center for the Arts fundraiser back in 2016. Since that time, the venue has changed to Digress Wine (1215 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, Florida 32804.) The evening was a happy hour that featured Robotman plus Chris Cortez and Danny Jordan. Chris and Danny are featured in this sketch.

Blue Bamboo is
part venue, part recording studio, and part art gallery, located at 1905
Kentucky Ave in Winter Park, Fl, just off Fairbanks between Formosa and
Clay. This unique new space offers live performances most evenings,
a state of the art recording studio, and gallery space.  More concert
hall than night club, they are open to all ages and they present all kinds
of music, theater, dance, and spoken word events.  The venue is also available
for private parties.  You can browse the schedule for tickets or call
 407-636-9951 for more information.
 

Seating is limited so they encourage guests to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations. Tickets are also available at the door, based on availability.  Most
shows begin at 8PM and the doors open at 7.  They offer beer and wine,
soft drinks, and light snacks.  Check the schedule at their calendar link.

Robot Man at Cavanach’s.

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Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, a new performing art center, held a social hour fundraiser at. Cavanaugh’s Wines (1215 Edgewater Dr, Orlando, Florida 32804). The proprietor offered everyone a free cup of wine to start out the evening. I found a table close to the stage and started drawing. Musicians Chris Cortez and Danny Jordan started out the evening. 1 t started to rain outside and it felt safe and comfortable to be sipping wine with several dozen patrons, and enjoy and the live music.

Robot Man definitely livened up the evening with their unique blend of music. I was in the midst of boxing up my life and moving to Winter Park. This evening was a reassuring reminder of why I needed that independence. The storm might be raging, but I could find peace of mind by documenting inspiring and creative performances. I usually do one sketch a day so I could keep the peace at home. This was my second and therefor a decadent sketch. I didn’t think I would have time to finish it, but I took the chance anyway. It is time to take more chances and to stay longer at events like this to get the whole story. In this case, we all had to wait for the storm to pass.

The Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts (1905 Kentucky Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789) is now open and hosting performances and workshops regularly. Blue
Bamboo Center for the arts is part venue, part recording studio, part
art gallery.  This
unique new space offers live performances most evenings, state of the
art recording equipment, and gallery space.  They cater to jazz,
classical, and world music, theater, dance, and spoken word. 

Blue Bamboo has limited seating so they encourage guests to purchase tickets in
advance.  Most shows begin at 8PM and our doors open at 7.  They offer
drink service, including beer and wine, but no food.  This is the hot teens new music hot spot in town. I hope to sketch there soon.

The Inbetween Series brings cutting edge music downtown.

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On the third Monday of every month, The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida) hosts the In-between Series. It is called the In-between Series because the art gallery is in-between shows. Soon after the concert, new art is loaded into the gallery and hung. Steven Head was listed on the invitation, but the trio consisted of, Doug Mathews on base, Mark Piszczek on sax and Chris Cortez on Guitar. Mark explained that one of the pieces was autobiographical having to do with his childhood growing up on the space coast. Mark’s father was a devout fan of classical music and it played
daily on the family phonograph. This early exposure to concert music and
the presence of highly competent music teachers, instilled a love of
music that later turned into a life long passion.

The music from this Jazz trio was both soothing and cutting edge.  The low resonant base contrasted the energetic searching melody of the sax. There was a yearning to the music, an endless reaching out. There is no better music to sketch too.

Mark and Chris have been working on opening a new music venue called The Blue Bamboo Music Center for the Arts at 1905 Kentucky Avenue just south of Fairbanks in Winter Park. He showed me plans for the 4,000 square foot warehouse which will become a studio quality performance space. The venue will feature state of the art sound, grand piano, back line equipment, stage lighting and a large projection screen, it will also be set up to record concert and performance video in high definition. The Center will also serve as an art gallery featuring local and international artists.

Unfortunately City codes and ordinances have tied up the construction and renovation. Creating a new arts venue in Orlando is not an easy task. The Center will hopefully open in 2016. It is a sure sign that the arts continue to grow in Central Florida.