What live music are you going to see tonight?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Never posted in this thread before, but here I am in NYC and just round the corner at Smoke, there's The Cookers, with Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, Azar Lawrence, George Cables, Cecil McBee & Billy Hart.

This isn't quite my stuff, but it'll be good music and really not to be passed up. Will report back.

MG

Phew! Billy Harper smokes - but he doesn't smoke never has, he told me.

I got put in a seat at the bar and, after a minute, someone addressed the guy sitting next to me as Mr Harper. So I said "Are you Billy Harper?" "Yes." @Sorry I didn't recognise you; I don't get out much." He thought that was funny.

Eddie Henderson seemed to be having trouble with his lip and also to be fighting a cold. Nevertheless, he made effective music - not flashy, but effective. Azar Lawrence impressed me, too. I've never heard him play before. Looks like I made a mistake not listening before.

Billy Hart drove the band like mad. He was heroic and Cecil McBee only slightly less so.

My only regret is that the band is slightly too big for everyone to get solos. But it does enable rather interesting voicings to be written - George Cables seems to be responsible mainly.

And I've made a HUGE mistake in not keeping up with Mr Harper after his recordings with Lee Morgan and Charles Earland. He was fire and had me jumping up and down on the stool, nearly falling off at one point. Oh, what an exciting player!

Damn good gig.

MG

[Larry Kart]

Probably Keefe Jackson's large ensemble Project Project at the Hungry Brain tonight. I saw the band last week and was impressed. They might play the same pieces, though.

[kh1958]

Never posted in this thread before, but here I am in NYC and just round the corner at Smoke, there's The Cookers, with Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, Azar Lawrence, George Cables, Cecil McBee & Billy Hart.

This isn't quite my stuff, but it'll be good music and really not to be passed up. Will report back.

MG

Phew! Billy Harper smokes - but he doesn't smoke never has, he told me.

I got put in a seat at the bar and, after a minute, someone addressed the guy sitting next to me as Mr Harper. So I said "Are you Billy Harper?" "Yes." @Sorry I didn't recognise you; I don't get out much." He thought that was funny.

Eddie Henderson seemed to be having trouble with his lip and also to be fighting a cold. Nevertheless, he made effective music - not flashy, but effective. Azar Lawrence impressed me, too. I've never heard him play before. Looks like I made a mistake not listening before.

Billy Hart drove the band like mad. He was heroic and Cecil McBee only slightly less so.

My only regret is that the band is slightly too big for everyone to get solos. But it does enable rather interesting voicings to be written - George Cables seems to be responsible mainly.

And I've made a HUGE mistake in not keeping up with Mr Harper after his recordings with Lee Morgan and Charles Earland. He was fire and had me jumping up and down on the stool, nearly falling off at one point. Oh, what an exciting player!

Damn good gig.

MG

Azar Lawrence (who played with McCoy Tyner in the '70s) has recently re-emerged and released a couple of excellent albums--Prayer for My Ancestors (a really good one) and Speak the Word. A third release is imminent.

Billy Harper's most recent (fine) recording is Blueprints of Jazz.

[jeffcrom]

Damn good gig.

MG

Sounds fabulous. I'll warn you in advance that Atlanta won't be quite as exciting.

The Panorama Jazz Band was better than I've ever heard them last night. Leader/clarinetist Ben Schenck and alto saxophonist Aurora Nealand just keep getting better and better. Those with a taste for traditional jazz, klezmer, and calypso should check out their album Come Out Swingin'. It can't quite match their performance last night, but it comes close.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Never posted in this thread before, but here I am in NYC and just round the corner at Smoke, there's The Cookers, with Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, Azar Lawrence, George Cables, Cecil McBee & Billy Hart.

This isn't quite my stuff, but it'll be good music and really not to be passed up. Will report back.

MG

Phew! Billy Harper smokes - but he doesn't smoke never has, he told me.

I got put in a seat at the bar and, after a minute, someone addressed the guy sitting next to me as Mr Harper. So I said "Are you Billy Harper?" "Yes." @Sorry I didn't recognise you; I don't get out much." He thought that was funny.

Eddie Henderson seemed to be having trouble with his lip and also to be fighting a cold. Nevertheless, he made effective music - not flashy, but effective. Azar Lawrence impressed me, too. I've never heard him play before. Looks like I made a mistake not listening before.

Billy Hart drove the band like mad. He was heroic and Cecil McBee only slightly less so.

My only regret is that the band is slightly too big for everyone to get solos. But it does enable rather interesting voicings to be written - George Cables seems to be responsible mainly.

And I've made a HUGE mistake in not keeping up with Mr Harper after his recordings with Lee Morgan and Charles Earland. He was fire and had me jumping up and down on the stool, nearly falling off at one point. Oh, what an exciting player!

Damn good gig.

MG

Azar Lawrence (who played with McCoy Tyner in the '70s) has recently re-emerged and released a couple of excellent albums--Prayer for My Ancestors (a really good one) and Speak the Word. A third release is imminent.

Billy Harper's most recent (fine) recording is Blueprints of Jazz.

Thanks Ken.

I had a quick word with Azar afterwards and apologised for having ignored him for forty years, although I was well aware of his Prestige recordings. He said to get onto his website, which I shall do, once I get home. I got the impression he's selling his own stuff. Good.

A further gloss on the gig - David Weiss didn't get through to me at all. We've discussed showbiz and jazz in a number of threads here. Weiss struck me as the most un-showbiz jazz musician I've ever come across.

I don't expect jazzmen to come on in short spangly skirts and kick their legs up But I do expect open body language that tells me they're glad to be there playing their music, which I feel shouldn't be hard for a jazzman 99% of the time. I also expect a bit of eye contact with the audience - not necessarily with me; Harper was standing sideways on to me; Cables was hidden behind the corner of the stage, except his hands, but they were eloquent anyway - even though it is probably hard to pick out individuals in a dark room when the stage is lit.

For the whole set, David Weiss held his trummpet close to his body, pointed at the floor, and looking at the floor. That kind of tight, locked into himself body language, not interested in whether he was getting through, put me right off. It didn't matter what he was playing, I wasn't listening.

MG

[Van Basten II]

Going out to see the Gebhard Ullmann Clarinet Trio

[jeffcrom]

New Orleans has a staggering number of accomplished traditional jazz bands. Jeffery's choice tonight was the Palmetto Bug Stompers at d.b.a. I've been vaguely aware of this band for a couple of years, but my level of interest went up last night when I learned that Carl LeBlanc has been playing guitar with them of late. LeBlanc (with Sun Ra in the late 80s) did some great playing tonight, as did clarinetist Bruce Brackman and trumpeter William Smith (who has not impressed me in the past). The Stompers play living music, not tourist Dixieland or museum artifacts; they attracted lots of dancers, and a good time was had by all. At one point, 79-year-old New Orleans icon Uncle Lionel Batiste (bass drummer with the Treme Brass Band) walked in, looking like a million bucks: white suit, lavender shirt, striped tie, and panama hat. He sang "I Got a Big Fat Woman," "Crazy," (which elicited a great Brackman clarinet solo), and "Caldonia."

I love New Orleans.

[Michael Weiss]

Tom Harrell's quintet at the Vanguard. Still one of the best BANDS in the business. And there aren't too many bands out there. Particularly ones that SOUND like working bands. And this one really does.

Wayne Escoffrey, Danny Grissett, Ugonna Okegwo, Jonathan Blake.

[mikeweil]

Jeremy Pelt was in town tonight - with J.D. Allen, Xavier Davis, Dwayne Burno and Gerald Cleaver.

I have to admit I was a bit underimpressed. Allen sounded like a cleaned-up version of mid-sixites Wayne Shorter - the whole band was very accomplished, relaxed, to the point, really knew their stuff - but it all sounded to me like they were all working hard to digest all the jazz created during the last 50 years but had no idea how to do something new with it. A very classicist approach, a simmered-down Jazz Messengers approach filtered through Miles' 1960's quintet, but all without the freshness or excitement of their idols. And way to little humor in the music, not very much communication. Cleaver was the most interesting player, with a featherlight touch and very alert, but not given enough room to display his facilities. 

Very good music, but not a bit raw or exciting.

[jeffcrom]

I'm going to Fritzel's in New Orleans tonight to hear one of my favorite NO clarinetists - Tim Laughlin. In all my trips here, it has never worked out to hear him, although I have a half dozen or so of his albums. I'm looking forward to hearing him in a small club.

[jeffcrom]

Tim Laughlin has the most beautiful clarinet sound I've ever heard - this is what Irving Fazola must have sounded like. And he can play - with fire and imagination. Jon-Erik Kelso sat in on cornet for much of the night. A magical evening of music.

[jeffcrom]

OMG, y'all. This evening was weird.

I was so knocked out by Tim Laughlin last night that I checked out his website this morning and saw that he was playing with his mentor, Pete Fountain, at a Mississippi casino about 50 miles east of New Orleans. So I passed up the Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf (don't worry - I've heard them there many times) and made the drive.

I don't even know where to start. Casinos seem to be based on some principle of over-stimulation: noise, color, activity. It was loud and disorienting. I'm not much of a gambler, and it's been seven or eight years since I've been in a casino. That last time I broke a twenty into quarters and blew it in the slot machines. I wasn't even going to do that tonight, but I thought I would at least use all the quarters in my pocket. Well, this Luddite didn't even know that, at least in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, none of the machines take quarters. I think you have to buy a card like a debit card, but I couldn't figure out the procedure, so I ended up not gambling at all.

I had pictured the show being in an theater away away from the gaming floor. But no - it was in the middle of the casino, separated from the slot machines only by columns. I shared a table with an older couple - I'm in my 50s, but I was the youngest person in the "theater." I kept trying to catch the waitress's eye to get a beer, but she never stopped at our table. By the time she finally stopped by, it was about 15 minutes from the end of the show, and I had already decided to leave the casino without spending a dime.

The show started promptly at 8:00. Fountain had a nine-piece band, with several New Orleans heavyweights. John Royen was on piano, and the trumpet player was Connie Jones - a real New Orleans "musician's musician." He's the favorite Dixieland trumpeter of lots of New Orleans guys, and I understand why - his solos were thoughtful, interesting, and "told a story." But the music competed with the noise of the slot machines, as I knew it would. But I thought they would at least turn down the Muzak that was blaring in the rest of the casino - they didn't. Any time the music was less than forte, you could hear some pop song along with it, as well as the din from the machines. As I looked around, nobody else seemed bothered by this. But it drove me crazy. By 30 minutes in, I was a nervous wreck and couldn't really listen anymore.

Fountain didn't sound too good, to tell the truth. He still has his sound, but it's kind of uncontrolled, and he no longer has the coordination to do anything very technical. That didn't stop him from trying. I wish he had just stuck to some more lyrical stuff, but he tried a lot of things that didn't come off. On the other hand, Tim Laughlin sounded great, and it was nice to see Fountain's expression after every one of Tim's solos - he looked like a proud parent. The whole vibe was of a kind of show-biz jazz I didn't know existed any more - but I'm glad it does.

It was a strange evening. After trying to listen to show-biz Dixieland, Muzak, and slot machines all at the same time, I was a wreck. But I'm glad I made this choice tonight. And I'm glad I never have to do it again.

Edited April 7, 2010 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

My last night in New Orleans. (Sigh....) I went to d.b.a. to hear The Tin Men, "America's best guitar/sousaphone/washboard trio" - Alex McMurray on guitar and vocals, the great Matt Perrine on tuba, and Washboard Chaz on vocals and, well, you know. They play obscure standards ("He Ain't Got Rhythm," "Lulu's Back in Town"), New Orleans R & B ("Smoke That Peace Pipe," "Palm Court Strut"), and McMurray originals - and he writes some strange songs. It was surreal to see people dancing to his "Baby," a bizarre song about selling a baby.

[jlhoots]

Gretchen Parlato

[jlhoots]

Tim Armacost Quartet (Benny Barth, Kenny Davis, Billy Hart)

[jeffcrom]

A full evening of music. There's a music festival going on in the park about a quarter mile from my house; today's headliner was the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. My wife and I walked over and heard about 45 minutes of their set before I had to go to my gig. They're as much a funk band (albeit with a tuba) as a brass band these days - the guitar and drum set keep it from really sounding like a New Orleans brass band. But funk is its own reward, as George Clinton said, and they were good.

Then the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra, in which I play sax and clarinet, opened for the psych/funk/jam band Noot d' Noot at the Star Bar in Atlanta. I like the energy of playing in a rock club, but the sound guys never know what to do with us except make us all really loud. The folks dug us, though.

I stayed for some of the Noot boys' show. Even though I play on their first album, it's not really my thing. But it was a fun evening.

[ep1str0phy]

tonight:

Zachary Watkins & Tiffany Lin

at The Chapel Performance Space

http://waywardmusic.blogspot.com/

Hey--I know (not that well) Zachary Watkins! He's a Mills guys.

Completely tangential, but I'm playing in Eddie Gale's group on a bill with Bobby Hutcherson on it next Tuesday. Considering "Destination Out!" was like my bible in college, and that I spent a good two months last year listening to nothing but "Out to Lunch," forgive me while I geek the f*** out.

[clifford_thornton]

Wowowwwowwwowwwwwww....just got home after the Art Ensemble show in Philly, with Roscoe Mitchell fronting on soprano and alto sax. I don't even know what to say about this incredible show. The band hit a groove from the first note from William Parker from an African bass of some sort, and swung like hell for an hour and a half. I did not know until tonight that Roscoe was a master of circular breathing; at one point, he played what must have been a 15 minute solo without an "air break." The audience was completely into the show, other than a few walkout stragglers (their loss); loved hearing someone shout for "Jackson in the House" at the encore. My AACM knowledge is regrettably not as comprehensive as it should be, so I can't report as to the specific songs played--but the concert just kicked some serious, groovin' ass. Many thanks to Chuck for getting this music out there.

Sounds like it was a great show! I didn't know Parker was part of the Art Ensemble now.

Can we start calling it the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble again?

[david weiss]

Never posted in this thread before, but here I am in NYC and just round the corner at Smoke, there's The Cookers, with Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, Azar Lawrence, George Cables, Cecil McBee & Billy Hart.

This isn't quite my stuff, but it'll be good music and really not to be passed up. Will report back.

MG

Phew! Billy Harper smokes - but he doesn't smoke never has, he told me.

I got put in a seat at the bar and, after a minute, someone addressed the guy sitting next to me as Mr Harper. So I said "Are you Billy Harper?" "Yes." @Sorry I didn't recognise you; I don't get out much." He thought that was funny.

Eddie Henderson seemed to be having trouble with his lip and also to be fighting a cold. Nevertheless, he made effective music - not flashy, but effective. Azar Lawrence impressed me, too. I've never heard him play before. Looks like I made a mistake not listening before.

Billy Hart drove the band like mad. He was heroic and Cecil McBee only slightly less so.

My only regret is that the band is slightly too big for everyone to get solos. But it does enable rather interesting voicings to be written - George Cables seems to be responsible mainly.

And I've made a HUGE mistake in not keeping up with Mr Harper after his recordings with Lee Morgan and Charles Earland. He was fire and had me jumping up and down on the stool, nearly falling off at one point. Oh, what an exciting player!

Damn good gig.

MG

Actually I wrote all the arrangements.

I think everyone gets to solo each sets. The horns and piano all get a bunch of solos each set and the bass and drums usually at least one.....

Never posted in this thread before, but here I am in NYC and just round the corner at Smoke, there's The Cookers, with Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, Azar Lawrence, George Cables, Cecil McBee & Billy Hart.

This isn't quite my stuff, but it'll be good music and really not to be passed up. Will report back.

MG

Phew! Billy Harper smokes - but he doesn't smoke never has, he told me.

I got put in a seat at the bar and, after a minute, someone addressed the guy sitting next to me as Mr Harper. So I said "Are you Billy Harper?" "Yes." @Sorry I didn't recognise you; I don't get out much." He thought that was funny.

Eddie Henderson seemed to be having trouble with his lip and also to be fighting a cold. Nevertheless, he made effective music - not flashy, but effective. Azar Lawrence impressed me, too. I've never heard him play before. Looks like I made a mistake not listening before.

Billy Hart drove the band like mad. He was heroic and Cecil McBee only slightly less so.

My only regret is that the band is slightly too big for everyone to get solos. But it does enable rather interesting voicings to be written - George Cables seems to be responsible mainly.

And I've made a HUGE mistake in not keeping up with Mr Harper after his recordings with Lee Morgan and Charles Earland. He was fire and had me jumping up and down on the stool, nearly falling off at one point. Oh, what an exciting player!

Damn good gig.

MG

Azar Lawrence (who played with McCoy Tyner in the '70s) has recently re-emerged and released a couple of excellent albums--Prayer for My Ancestors (a really good one) and Speak the Word. A third release is imminent.

Billy Harper's most recent (fine) recording is Blueprints of Jazz.

Thanks Ken.

I had a quick word with Azar afterwards and apologised for having ignored him for forty years, although I was well aware of his Prestige recordings. He said to get onto his website, which I shall do, once I get home. I got the impression he's selling his own stuff. Good.

A further gloss on the gig - David Weiss didn't get through to me at all. We've discussed showbiz and jazz in a number of threads here. Weiss struck me as the most un-showbiz jazz musician I've ever come across.

I don't expect jazzmen to come on in short spangly skirts and kick their legs up But I do expect open body language that tells me they're glad to be there playing their music, which I feel shouldn't be hard for a jazzman 99% of the time. I also expect a bit of eye contact with the audience - not necessarily with me; Harper was standing sideways on to me; Cables was hidden behind the corner of the stage, except his hands, but they were eloquent anyway - even though it is probably hard to pick out individuals in a dark room when the stage is lit.

For the whole set, David Weiss held his trummpet close to his body, pointed at the floor, and looking at the floor. That kind of tight, locked into himself body language, not interested in whether he was getting through, put me right off. It didn't matter what he was playing, I wasn't listening.

MG

Azar actually records for a newish label called Furthermore Records. Besides a great upcoming CD from Azar, they also recorded Eddie Henderson; a quartet record with John Scofield that sounds great.

The guy running the label has great taste.

As for the other comments, I don't know what to say. It's interesting what people read into things.

We recorded a CD right after these gigs that will be out in the Fall in Europe and next year in the US. I think it came out great and one can listen to it (and hopefully enjoy it) without being distracted by one's lack of stage presence.

Edited April 21, 2010 by david weiss

[BillF]

Just got home from an afternoon gig at Wigan: Simon Spillett and the Swingshift Big Band playing the big band charts of Tubby Hayes. Great stuff!

[king ubu]

Actually I wrote all the arrangements.

I think everyone gets to solo each sets. The horns and piano all get a bunch of solos each set and the bass and drums usually at least one.....

Do you usually do?

I saw a DVD (off european TV) which I enjoyed a lot, recorded in Burghausen, Germany, on March 20, 2009.

Mighty fine concert, too bad I never had a chance to see The Cookers live! But at least I have that DVD!

(In case anyone wonders: Craig Handy was on alto then, not Azar Lawrence, and EJ Strickland on drums.)

A further gloss on the gig - David Weiss didn't get through to me at all. We've discussed showbiz and jazz in a number of threads here. Weiss struck me as the most un-showbiz jazz musician I've ever come across.

I don't expect jazzmen to come on in short spangly skirts and kick their legs up But I do expect open body language that tells me they're glad to be there playing their music, which I feel shouldn't be hard for a jazzman 99% of the time. I also expect a bit of eye contact with the audience - not necessarily with me; Harper was standing sideways on to me; Cables was hidden behind the corner of the stage, except his hands, but they were eloquent anyway - even though it is probably hard to pick out individuals in a dark room when the stage is lit.

For the whole set, David Weiss held his trummpet close to his body, pointed at the floor, and looking at the floor. That kind of tight, locked into himself body language, not interested in whether he was getting through, put me right off. It didn't matter what he was playing, I wasn't listening.

MG

[...]

As for the other comments, I don't know what to say. It's interesting what people read into things.

We recorded a CD right after these gigs that will be out in the Fall in Europe and next year in the US. I think it came out great and one can listen to it (and hopefully enjoy it) without being distracted by one's lack of stage presence.

Interesting discussion there!

On the DVD I mention above, that never even occurred to me. I guess there's plenty of variety as far as expectations to jazz musicians go... I can kind of take it all, from aping around nervously or a gentelmanly conferencier (Benny Golson, telling the same stories over and over again...) to the most introspective kind - as long as it seems to be natural and in line with the personality/character of the performing artist!

Never thought anything was weird about your behaviour on said DVD, David!

[Van Basten II]

Going to see Marcus Miller tonight featuring Christian Scott in a project called Tutu revisited. Just hope when I'll get out the city won't be burning

[Niko]

Mike Reed's People Places and Things Octet in Cologne... had to leave early, very nice concert... had been a bit sad that Ira SUllivan was no there (hope he is doing well...) but his replacement Ari Brown was the best soloist imho so... big surprise was an interview in the beginning with Arrt Hoyle, Julian Priester and Brown conducted by a guy named Larry Kart...

[king ubu]

Saw Gianluigi Trovesi's electric quintet last night (Gianluigi Trovesi as,alto-cl,e-flat cl, Massimo Greco tp, Roberto Cecchetto g, Marco Micheli b, Vittorio Marinoni dr)

Quite good, not a big relevation or anything, but very enjoyable!

Not hearly as "electric" as the band name made me expect, Cecchetto was always felt and present but never loud or overpowering, Greco was ok in the first set, then had a beer at the bar and took a second with him back on stage and was loose and godo in the second set. Trovesi was his usual self, full of ideas and melodies, and highly virtuosic when it was called for. I enjoyed the folksy stuff a lot, and as encores, they did two of their New Orleans staples (second encore was "High Society", first I recognised but can't tell what it was... also in the opening number of the second set Trovesi and Greco had a call and response thing going on with the lick of a corny Bert Kaempfert tune, I think... ha!)

[jeffcrom]

I'm about to head out the door. If I have the energy, I'm going to two Atlanta shows tonight:

Janiva Magness (w/ Jim Alfredson on organ) at Blind Willie's.

Then to Kavarna to hear a very interesting band whose name tells the story: Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel.