July 2025 Check-In's

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Dinner And Live Music by Tom Grant At
Nicoletta's Table, Lake Oswego, Oregon
Tuesday, July 01, 2025

Dinner And Live Music At
Maryhill Winery, Vancouver Waterfront, Washington
Wednesday, July 02, 2025

Dinner & Jazz By The
David Friesen Trio with Alann Jones & Matt Sazima At
Conway's House of Jazz, Clackamas, Oregon
Thursday, July 03, 2025

Independence Day
Portland Spirit Dinner Cruise
Followed By Fireworks
Shelli Tucker, Barbara & Me
Friday, July 04, 2025

A Complimentary Club Whiskey Flight Plus
Picking Up Our Smoked Cask Whiskey Bottle At
Westward Whiskey, Portland, Oregon
Sunday, July 06, 2025

Suburban Slim Blues Band
Every First Sunday Of The Month 7pm At
St. John's Slim's (est. 1911), Portland, Oregon
Sunday, July 06, 2025

Maybe we've found the venue most similar to The Fling closest to our Vancouver, Washington, home. They describe themselves as: "A little dark, a little dingy, and a little divey, but we like it like that." This place is open from 7am to 2:30am every day. It has live bands on Friday and Saturday evenings as well as Open Mic on Tuesdays. The Suburban Slim Blues Band plays the first Sunday of every month at 7pm. This place is about 3 times the size of The Fling and does serve food all day as well as wine by the glass, unlike The Fling.

Vancouver Waterfront
Vancouver, Washington
Monday, July 07, 2025

Today was one of the rare days that the Black Angus Steakhouse has their BOGO offer for dining in. They frequently have BOGO just for online orders and take-out, but not for dining in the restaurant. They also sometimes feature BOGO50, buy one at full price and get the second one for 50% off, but Barbara and I don't find that offer worth it. We puchased one salmon dinner and got the second one free. We find their two dinners for the price of one offer worth it. I let them know we were celebrating our 49th Wedding Anniversary (June 27, 2025) and they brought us a free desert, a very large cookie with vanilla ice cream.

Afterwards we went for about a 30 minute walk at The Vancouver Waterfront. The waterfront did not exist when we moved to Vancouver, Washington, in 2011. It was just created in the last few years and is now filled with many restaurants, bars, as well as brand new hotel, apartment buildings and condo buildings with a view of the Columbia River. We haven't walked the whole waterfront for a long time. We usually just come to the Maryhill Winery tasting room where we are members and can get two $25 wine flights every day if we wanted, though we usually only come once a week on one of the days they have live music. I was surprised to see that there are now NINE wine tasting bars at the Vancouver Waterfront. Almost all of them are pretty good size venues, a bit on the upscale side, and many also serve food.

As you can see from the above street signs, the City of Vancouver features free live concerts at the waterfront and free outdoor movies at other parks in the city.

Dinner, Willamette Valley Vineyards Wine Tasting & Jazz By The
Mel Brown Trio At Conway's House of Jazz, Clackamas, Oregon
Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Grains Of Wrath "LEGENDS OF THE WEST" West Coast IPA Festival
At Grains of Wrath, 4035 Grant St #110, Washougal, Washington 98671
Saturday, July 12, 2025, 2 - 8 pm

I just had to buy tickets to this for Barbara and myself even thought it was pretty expensive. They lowered the price from $80 to $60, but that was still expensive considering how much beer you can buy for $60. Years ago a friend and I registered the IPAlovers.com website and started an IPA Lovers Meetup Group. That was back when IPA was a cult beer that very few people would drink. An IPA usually has a much higher level of alcohol than average beer, and is much higher in bitterness. We let the IPAlovers.com domain name expire and cancelled the IPA Lovers Meetup Group when IPA craft beer became one of the most popular types of beer and is no longer a cult beer that few order.

They did have live music and some food, but the food was just some snacks and sandwiches that few were taking. However, they did give each of us about a dozen beer tokens that each could be exchanged for a 4 oz IPA beer sample. If we exchanged all of them, we'd get about 48 ounces of beer each! That is a lot of beer! Barbara exchanged 2 tokens and I exchanged about 5 before we had enough beer and left.

Get ready to sip the flavors of the West Coast! On Saturday, July 12, Grains of Wrath in Camas will host the Legends of the West Beer Fest, a celebration of exclusive West Coast IPAs from the region's most acclaimed brewers. These legendary brews are being shipped to the Pacific Northwest just for this special event.

Discover flavors rarely seen in the PNW and savor the craftsmanship behind some of the most sought-after West Coast IPAs. With only 600 tickets available, this limited-access festival is designed for true beer aficionados

Dinner with Shelli At
Shanahan's Pub & Grill, Vancouver, Washington
Saturday, July 12, 2025

Eric Rabe (Sax) & Sunday Night Fun Jam
Every Sunday 8pm - 11pm At
M&M Restaurant & Lounge, Gresham, Oregon
Sunday, July 13, 2025

Laura Cunard Jazz Jam
Every Tuesday 7pm - 10pm At
Pizzario, Hillsboro, Oregon
Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Dinner And Live Music At
Maryhill Winery, Vancouver Waterfront, Washington
Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Dinner, Willamette Valley Vineyards Wine Tasting & Jazz By The
Mel Brown Trio Plus One At Conway's House of Jazz, Clackamas, Oregon
Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Double Barrel Tap House, Vancouver, Washington
Friday, July 18, 2025

While Barbara went in for her 90 minute massage at Massage Envy around the corner, I stopped by the Double Barrel Taphouse to have one of the many craft brews they have on tap. They also have an excellent selection of spirits including many of my favorites. I also tried the Michter's Single Barrel Straight Rye which was very good. Mitchter's was the very first distillery in America that started in 1753, though has changed names a number of times.

Notice the pool tables in the photos. There are more pool tables that I did not photograph. It seems that just about every bar in the Vancouver and Portland area needs to have pool tables. Even very tiny bars with only enough room for 3 or 4 serving tables still needs to have at least one pool table. It seems people that live in this area expect there to be pool tables in bars.

Mystic Mama Band At
The Blue Diamond, Portland, Oregon
Friday, July 18, 2025

Mike Phillips At
Jack London Revue, Portland, California
Shelli Tucker, Barbara & Me
Saturday, July 19, 2025

World renowned saxophonist Mike Phillips is known as one of the most electrifying instrumentalists today. Mike is the first musician signed by Michael Jordan to the Nike Jordan Brand, home of the Air Jordan, and is the only musician in the world to have recorded and toured with the legendary "Big Three" of American soul and pop music: Michael Jackson, Prince, and Stevie Wonder, not only as a member of the band, but as a featured soloist.

In 2023, Mike Phillips launched Keep It Moving Music (KIMM), under the SRG Jazz label imprint. He was also recently named Sr. VP of SRG Jazz at the SRG-ILS Group (distributed by UMG). He is a recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Music Business and Entrepreneurship degree, a recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award and The Georgia Citizen Award, which is the highest state-level honor given to a citizen. And notably is an amazing golfer; so, if he's not on a stage near you, look for him on the golf course.

No stranger to the sports world, Mike has built a rapport with some of the top professional athletes today. He performs over a dozen national anthems every year for a host of sporting and business organizations such as: Professional Golfers of America (PGA), National Basketball Association (NBA), National League (NL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and the National Football League (NFL) just to mention a few. Check out his Instagram @Mike_Phillips for some of these exciting moments.

Mike Phillips is here to stay and as he would say, "the best is yet to come." -- Mike Phillips

Burly-Q Revue At
Jack London Revue, Portland, California
Shelli Tucker, Barbara & Me
Saturday, July 19, 2025

Join us at the Jack London for the latest edition of our late-night cabaret spectacular, hosted by the Mad Marquis and featuring some of the finest dancers from the Rose City and beyond. Treat yourself to a sensational evening of sultry and exotic delights, liberally spiced with old-fashioned spontaneous fun! The show starts after the evening's musical performance.

Nick Biello "New America" Quintet featuring Charlie Porter
The 1905, Portland, Oregon
Sunday, July 20, 2025, 7:30PM

Nick is touring his “New America” project, which weaves personal tales of beauty and discovery into overarching themes of love, respect, and tolerance - a spiritually musical effort to combat the rising tide of division within the United States.

"This acorn seems to have dropped from something other than the traditional alto tree. Biello goes his own way, and has the chops to back it up. The result is an individual, identifiable sound of his own, something close to unattainable at this point of the jazz lineage." - Paul Rauch, AllAboutJazz.com

Nick has shared the stage with world-class artists, such as Slide Hampton, Cedar Walton, the Jimmy Heath Big Band, and John Benitez. He has performed at the Pescara and Bussi Jazz Festivals in Italy, as well as the Taipei and Taichung Jazz Festivals in Taiwan, and other festivals across the globe. Nick's saxophone has been heard in notable NYC venues such as Birdland, Blue Note, Dizzy's, Lincoln Center, Cellar Dog, Smalls, Mezzrow, Smoke, Zinc Bar, The Kitano, Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, and Sony Hall.

Nick has recorded on hundreds of albums, from his own original projects to his work as a sideman for other artists. His debut album, "Vagabond Soul," released in 2017 on the Truth Revolution Recording Collective, features Phil Markowitz, John Benitez, Clarence Penn, Paul Jones, Andrew Renfroe, and Vincent Lionti. “Between Light and Shadow”, a collection of original compositions for the chordless trio format, was released in May of 2024 on La Reserve Records and features Biello’s working trio of Alex Tremblay on bass and Peter Kronreif on drums. His third album as a leader, “New America”, combines the rhythm team of Tremblay and Kronreif and adds the formidable musicianship of trumpet virtuoso Charlie Porter and the eminent pianist George Colligan.

Nick teaches Saxophone at The New School and New Jersey City University, is the Artistic Director of the Blaine Harbor Music Festival in Washington.

Cyrus Nabipoor (Trumpet)
with Ron Steen (Drums), Kiran Raphael (Piano), Patrick Golicnik (Bass), Xander Buck (Sax) At
Jo Bar & Rotisserie, Portland, Oregon
Monday, July 21, 2025

Blue Note Mondays: Cyrus Nabipoor covers Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else."

Jazz Night At
Maryhill Winery, Vancouver Waterfront, Washington
Wednesday, July 23, 2025, 4-8 PM

Fenix (Sax) Rising Blues Band
Every Thursday At
The Blue Diamond, Portland, Oregon
Thursday, July 24, 2025

Superjazzers
The 1905, Portland, Oregon
Friday, July 25, 2025, 8:30 PM

Superjazzers is a Portland-based jazz quartet featuring saxophonist Tim Willcox, pianist David Goldblatt, bassist Bill Athens, and drummer Charlie Doggett. They blend diverse influences, including Ornette Coleman, Elliott Smith, Keith Jarrett, and The Beatles, creating a unique sound that mixes classic jazz with modern improvisation. Their decade-long collaboration has resulted in a rich, emotional sound and a large catalog of original compositions.

Soul Vaccination At
The Gemini Club, Lake Oswego, Oregon
Saturday, July 26, 2025

Soul Vaccination remains at the top of the Portland charts, and is one of the tightest Funk & Soul Bands in the PNW. As the Rose City's favorite, Soul Vax infuses the stage with the greatest soul standards, and has been a fixture in the Northwest music scene for over 20 years.

This high energy 12 piece band features Brian Harris on Hammond B-3 and keyboards, along with the precision guitar playing of Mike Doolin. On bass, is Grammy nominated producer John Linn, and on drums is Ron Tuttle, always bringin' the funk and groovin' hard. Portland's own Regina K, and Mark Wyatt share their soulful vocal styles. Lewis Livermore and Dave Mills carry the backbone sound of the Soul Vax horns on trumpets, with Ron Regan, Gary Harris, & Timothy Bryson on saxophones.

10 PM Lab with Brian Myers At
The 1905, Portland, Oregon
Saturday, July 26, 2025

Saxophonist Brian Myers grew up between Washington and Oregon, immersed in the rich traditions of Northwest jazz. He studied with respected artists like Rob Scheps, David Valdez, Glen Moore, Dave Storrs, and Neal Grandstaff, and developed his voice through formative programs including the Mel Brown Jazz Camps and the Western International Band Clinic.

Brian Myers brings a lively set of saxophone trio music to the 1905’s 10pm lab. Featuring two of Portland’s rhythm section greats - Eric Gruber on bass and Michael Raynor on drums, this evening of music will swing, excite and soothe with deep cut standards, fresh originals and some favorite compositions by local composters.

Brian Myers grew up in the area moving to Portland in 2005. Early studies with local greats lead to performing with numerous local jazz groups, as well as pick up work with groups like The Temptations and Four Tops, The Modern Gentlemen, The Ultimate Elvis Experience and others. He regularly performs straight ahead, avant-garde, big band, traditional jazz and blues as well as popular and theater music as a pit musician. He is an active instructor with a large studio of students.

Eric Gruber is one of the city’s finest bassists performing regularly with many of Portlands top musicians including Darell Grant, Rob Scheps, Devin Phillips, Marilyn Keller, and Dimitri Matheny. He is a first call for many great acts coming through town.

Michael Raynor spent 20 years performing with Von Freeman, toured and recorded with Kurt Elling and has worked with legends like Freddie Hubbard, Steve Coleman, Eric Alexander, Gary Bartz and Johnny Griffin to name but a few.

Blue Note Mondays:
Shelly Rudolph Covers "Chet Baker Sings" with Cyrus Nabipoor (Trumpet)
At Jo Bar & Rotisserie, Portland, Oregon
Monday, July 28, 2025

Dinner And Live Music At
Maryhill Winery, Vancouver Waterfront, Washington
Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Dan Balmer Quartet At
The 1905, Portland, Oregon
Wednesday, July 30, 2025

This is the first time Barbara and I ever just dropped in at The 1905 without tickets. We just wanted to sit out on the patio where there is no ticket charge and enjoy some pizza and wine while listening to jazz.

From coffee house gigs at fifteen to chart-topping success with the Tom Grant Band in the 90s, world tours with two-time Grammy Award winner Diane Schuur and contemporary jam-bands, Dan Balmer brings fire and heart every time he plays the guitar. His playing spans nearly one hundred CDs including twelve as a leader from which his original works have appeared internationally in television, film and radio. An in-demand educator, Dan maintains a busy schedule of private lessons, group clinics and master classes throughout the US and abroad. He adjudicates student jazz band competitions at events such as the Monterey Next Generation Festival and Reno Jazz Festival along with being a long-term teacher at the Centrum Jazz Workshop. He is the director of jazz combos at Lewis And Clark College while also on faculty at virtually every other college in the greater Portland, Oregon area. Dan has performed or toured with Joey DeFrancesco, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Les McCann, Javon Jackson and Karrin Allyson, Benny Golson, Jeff Hamilton, Gerald Clayton, John Clayton, Terell Stafford, Ingrid Jensen, Duduka da Fonseca, Kendrick Scott, Taylor Eigsti, Buddy De Franco, Bruce Forman and countless others. Dan’s love of guitar and making music combined with discipline, technique and restless curiosity provide an ever-deepening experience for himself and his listeners. In every performance he finds himself in the middle of the path, amidst a continuous and compelling process of discovery.

Lunch With Lanita At
Margarita Factory, Battle Ground, Washington
Thursday, July 31, 2025

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