Oregon Music News

We’re back in the World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. They’ve finished completely re-doing the place and it’s fabulous. You should stop in and check it out. With me today is Dylan Magierik who twenty years ago founded Badman Records. Over that time they’ve put out a whole lot of albums including Starfucker, My Morning Jacket and many others. They...

World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan has been closed for over a week for renovations, but by the time you hear this it’ll be open again. While they were closed I thought it would be a good idea to call upon OMN’s National Editor, Art Levine and find out what’s going on with him. He’s in Washington, D.C. so we’re Skyping this one. He hasn’t been writing for us very much lately because he...

Back in World Cup Coffee and Tea’s world famous cupping room at NW 18th & Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. You know, the Waterfront Blues Festival is right around the corner, beginning on July 4. Stop in and say hi at the OMN booth in the Louisiana Pavilion. Performing again this year is an ensemble called Okropong, part of the Obo Addy Legacy Project. They’ll be at the festival on...

The cupping room runeth over today because right here in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan we’ve got the return of the great guitarist Eddie Martinez, who before he moved to Portland was THE in-demand studio guitarist in New York, having been in Robert Palmer’s band, among many others. And yes, that was his lick on “Addicted to Love.” Eddie is back. He did one of these in April of 2016....

Back at World Cup Coffee & Tea at NW 18th & Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today, Stephen Rutledge, a most engaging and entertaining fellow, and a spectacularly prolific writer is in the chair opposite me in the Cupping Room. It’s one of those episodes that I love to do, never having met him before, so much so that I asked him a stupid question right off the bat. We hit it off bef...

Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. This is number one hundred 49. My name is Lisa Helfer, I’m filling in for Tom D’Atoni today and with me is Portland-based, virtuoso mandolinist, Tim Connell. Tim is a graduate of New England Conservatory who has created a sophisticated and original global mandolin style. Regarded as one of the top...

Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. This is number one hundred forty-eight. With me is a funky bass man, a Gospel bass man, a Blues bass man and one of those go-to guys that other musicians call when they need talent, versatility and reliability…and quality. It’s Ben Jones who’s here with me. He’s got his own band, is in bands, and...

All set up and ready to go in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for OMN Coffeeshop Conversation number 147. In the coffeeshop with me is trumpeter Paul Mazzio, a mainstay in the Oregon Jazz world for a long time. He has his own ensembles but he’s also known as one of those go-to guys when fine players want to add a trumpet in their recordings or live performances. He’s versatile enoug...

Sitting in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for OMN Coffeeshop Conversation number one-hundred forty-six. Buckle-up friends because Andrew Paul Woodworth, all three of them, is paying us another visit. He has a new album called Drinks To Sleep but I would have wanted him back even if he didn’t. His last visit was in February of 2015 but it was one of the most memorable…just seems to...

This delightful bit of cleverness took place at the Art Bar on Saturday, February 22, 2014 as part of the Portland Jazz Festival 2014's Jazz Conversations

OMN Coffeeshop Conversation number one hundred forty-five coming to you from the internet via World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan. I am still Tom D’Antoni, barely, and you know, we’re all dealing with current events the best we can. Robert Parrish and Teri Briggs took action in the best way they know. They call it “Musicians Rising Up.” They make videos of local talent who perform songs c...

Hi there. This is OMN Coffeeshop Conversation number one-hundred forty-four. No kidding. And there are no signs of stopping. Back at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan. If you ask who makes the best trumpets in the world, a lot of folks will tell you it’s David Monette who makes his here in Portland. Both Jazz and Classical masters world-wide own Monettes. This is not news to trumpet p...

Welcome back to the Cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea, NW 18th & Glisan, for another in the endless series of OMN Coffeeshop Conversations. Last year we started what has become a sensational tradition of having the folks who book major festivals come in and tell us about the people they booked. Did it with Don Lucoff and the Portland Jazz Festival, We did one last time with Nicolas Harris o...

In World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan, it’s another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Last year, I stumbled across the best way to preview a music festival. I had Waterfront Blues Festival Artistic Director Peter Dammann here and he just went day by day and talked about every performer. Who would know better? Did the same thing with Portland Jazz Festival’s Don Lucoff a few months ago and we’...

Our guest this week is Kendra Carpenter, a Portland-based musician and music instructor.

Back in the cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan in Portland for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. When I do these things, it’s always nice to get to talk to people I’ve never met. Just as nice to renew acquaintances with people I haven’t talked to for a while. It’s been years since I’ve talked with famed Irish fiddler Kevin Burke. He is still travelling the world, he an...

. Instead of sitting in the cupping room at World Cup, we are in an office located somewhere inside the Music Millennium building on East Burnside where I’m going to talk to Terry Currier who owns the joint. It’s comforting to come to Music Millennium, not only because you can find any kind of music there is, but because it’s still HERE…unlike so much of Portland. It’s here and Terry’s here…It’s c...

Back in World Cup Coffee & Tea at NW 18th & Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today it’s a man who is known for his thoughtful singing and song writing. He’s known as WORTH, although he has a first name…Christopher. We first met him when he was a member of a band called NIAYH, Now Is All You Have. He moved on to a solo career. Last November he released number three in a trilogy of al...

Once again we’re in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today it’s a real star in Oregon’s Classical Music world, Suzanne Nance came to Portland to be the Program Director for All Classical Portland, our state-wide Classical Music service …not just radio…and now around two years later, she’s been named CEO at All Classical. That’s quite a change fr...

Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another Coffeeshop Conversation. Today I’ve got drummer Scott Magee and DJ Cooky Parker here with me. Ok, they’re the same person. Scott has played with a lot of Portland bands including Y La Bamba and Loch Lomond, and he leads the Ural Thomas band. Cooky Parker (and wait till you hear how he got that name) is a DJ around town spec...

You’re back in the coffeeshop today, World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan with me is one of those musicians. His name is Alan Hager and he IS one of those musicians who is appreciated by his peers but because he’s been known as a side player, sometimes unfortunately gets overlooked…and that’s a shame. Currently more people are finding out about Alan because of Rough Cut, a duo album he rec...

Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. With me in the cupping room today is Ron Buel who was the founder of Willamette Week in the days when journalism was made on paper. He has a unique perspective on the history of journalism in Oregon, and of the current state of it because he has seen it all…and participated. If you’re wondering where the music angle...

You are, by association at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. If you are among those who carry the spirit of New Orleans around with you, then you know that we are in the middle of Carnival, that magic period of time which leads up to Mardi Gras. We have a lot of people like that in Portland and I’m one of them. We also have our own...

At World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Very happy to have the perpetually cool, recently named 2018 PDX Jazz Jazz Master and fellow KMHD host Art Abrams. His Swinging Machine Big Band will be appearing at the Festival on Thursday, February 15 at Revolution Hall playing with singers Ernie Andrews and Barbara Morrison in a program called “West Coas...

Back in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation Mini-episode. With me today is Wayne Harrel who wrote the book of the musical theater production of Just This One, based on the life of the late Paul deLay, the beloved Bluesman from Portland. The music and lyrics are all Big Paul’s. Performing are Portland Blues stars Lisa Mann, LaRhonda Steele and Ben...