What live music are you going to see tonight?

[Utevsky]

In Seattle, the Earshot festival juggernaut rolls on. I'll be at the Royal Room tonight to hear Tamarindo, which includes Tony Malaby on sax, William Parker on bass, and Mark Ferber on drums. I haven't heard this group, but given the track record of its members, it should be great. Also on the bill is one of Wayne Horvitz's groups, Shuffleboil, with Joe Doria on organ, Tim Young on guitar, and Bobby Previte on drums.

This was not an obvious choice because Anat Cohen is appearing separately in the festival tonight at the PONCHO Concert Hall. I would have liked to see her, too!

[king ubu]

Lee Konitz is the mother. Amazing concert ... that somehow felt like a goodbye, too. The next best thing I can think of is late Pres - so darn vulnerable, so totally open ... and in the best moments: sublime. Yet at the same time he was grumpier than last time (March 2010), got on stage telling the sound guy to turn off all the mics and saying he hated that sound in here (he was unamplified, bass had some pick-up and a mic, drums and piano very few mics - it sounded nearly acoustic from where I sat, except for the double bass). Then he addressed the public, explaining that he will play some old standards like "Body and Soul" etc ... adding that some say they don't want to hear that old stuff anymore, but: "screw 'em!" - darn well we do! They played two sets, both around an hour long. In the first, he interrupted a tune (sort of, just for a second), telling the piano player (Florian Weber) "that's enough!", having him and bassist Jeff Denson stop, instead Lee went on in duet with drummer Dan Weiss (the most amazing sub for Ziv Ravitz, the trio's regular drummer). Weber was kind of put off and just comped at very low volume for the rest of set one and it took him a while to find his way into the music again in set two - not sure what Konitz' problem was, as Weber was playing beautifully for my ears.

The sets consisted entirely of standards, including a most beautiful "What's New", as well as "You Don't Know What Love Is", "You Stepped Out of a Dream", "I'll Remember April" and others. They ended set two with an encore, Lee up on the gallery, playing "Cherokee".

Lee seemed to be shorter of breath than last time, although he looked in better shape generally (and stood for long stretches, while last time he played seated most of the time, and just for one, ca. 80 minutes set, when only an hour had been announced). He came in and dropped out of the music often, playing a few bars, then leaving space for Denson/Weiss (and sometimes for Weber) who did a great job, keeping the music very alive and multi-directional (and Weber's comping was great, I found! in his short solo ventures in set two, he played lots of locked chords stuff and some very narrow harmonic things, keeping his hands very close most of the time - a most interesting player, in my book).

Anyway, the great event was of course Lee, who went into dialogue with Weber (in the first half of the first set, he was fed with ideas and took off on most of Weber's phrases and it was a joy to hear), later on with Weiss more often - and Weiss was truly great! Last time I caught him live was with Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition (third of that group was guitar player Rez Abbasi). Lee sounded weak and dangerously close to dropping out of tune at some moments, while at others, the old magic was there, his lines flowing in this weirdly rhythmicized manner that's all his ... and in a few tunes in set two ("What's New" being one of them), he was really singing on his horn - pure, yet fragile beauty.

Anyway, after a break with no music for two hours, I need some Pres (prime Pres, 1936/37) to slowly wind down ... Lee is the true inheritor of Pres' music, the last standard bearer of a forlorn, long-forgotten world.

[jeffcrom]

Just one band in New Orleans tonight, after my late night last night: The Tin Men ("America's premier sousaphone/washboard/guitar trio") at d.b.a. on Frenchmen Street. They play lots of guitarist Alex McMurray's strange songs, plus a bewildering variety of covers. Examples of the latter: "I'm a Cowboy" by Danny Barker, "Theme From A Summer Place," "Blackbird Special" by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and "Maybellene" by Chuck Berry.

[BillF]

Lee Konitz is the mother. Amazing concert ... that somehow felt like a goodbye, too. The next best thing I can think of is late Pres - so darn vulnerable, so totally open ... and in the best moments: sublime. Yet at the same time he was grumpier than last time (March 2010), got on stage telling the sound guy to turn off all the mics and saying he hated that sound in here (he was unamplified, bass had some pick-up and a mic, drums and piano very few mics - it sounded nearly acoustic from where I sat, except for the double bass). Then he addressed the public, explaining that he will play some old standards like "Body and Soul" etc ... adding that some say they don't want to hear that old stuff anymore, but: "screw 'em!" - darn well we do! They played two sets, both around an hour long. In the first, he interrupted a tune (sort of, just for a second), telling the piano player (Florian Weber) "that's enough!", having him and bassist Jeff Denson stop, instead Lee went on in duet with drummer Dan Weiss (the most amazing sub for Ziv Ravitz, the trio's regular drummer). Weber was kind of put off and just comped at very low volume for the rest of set one and it took him a while to find his way into the music again in set two - not sure what Konitz' problem was, as Weber was playing beautifully for my ears.

The sets consisted entirely of standards, including a most beautiful "What's New", as well as "You Don't Know What Love Is", "You Stepped Out of a Dream", "I'll Remember April" and others. They ended set two with an encore, Lee up on the gallery, playing "Cherokee".

Lee seemed to be shorter of breath than last time, although he looked in better shape generally (and stood for long stretches, while last time he played seated most of the time, and just for one, ca. 80 minutes set, when only an hour had been announced). He came in and dropped out of the music often, playing a few bars, then leaving space for Denson/Weiss (and sometimes for Weber) who did a great job, keeping the music very alive and multi-directional (and Weber's comping was great, I found! in his short solo ventures in set two, he played lots of locked chords stuff and some very narrow harmonic things, keeping his hands very close most of the time - a most interesting player, in my book).

Anyway, the great event was of course Lee, who went into dialogue with Weber (in the first half of the first set, he was fed with ideas and took off on most of Weber's phrases and it was a joy to hear), later on with Weiss more often - and Weiss was truly great! Last time I caught him live was with Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition (third of that group was guitar player Rez Abbasi). Lee sounded weak and dangerously close to dropping out of tune at some moments, while at others, the old magic was there, his lines flowing in this weirdly rhythmicized manner that's all his ... and in a few tunes in set two ("What's New" being one of them), he was really singing on his horn - pure, yet fragile beauty.

Anyway, after a break with no music for two hours, I need some Pres (prime Pres, 1936/37) to slowly wind down ... Lee is the true inheritor of Pres' music, the last standard bearer of a forlorn, long-forgotten world.

Thanks for that excellent report. Intrigued that some things haven't changed since I saw him in a small room in the sixties - the repertoire was much the same and, yes, the grumpiness was there even then.

[king ubu]

Well, in Mach 2010, when he was announced to play one, roughly hour-long set, he started taking requests after some forty minutes ... and played another forty then, doing at least six or seven requests (none of them mine, I had no really cool idea ... last night I'd have wished "Foolin' Myself" I he had asked again, but he was way too grumpy for that).

Anyway, my parents joined, and they seem to have enjoyed it as well!

And that trio is really, really good, even with a subbing drummer (who did a really amazing job). Not sure what Lee's issue with the piano player was, his comping was mighty inspiring, I found.

[Steve Reynolds]

David - I am very interested to hear your take on the Malaby trio with Parker and Ferber.

As some might know, I see Malaby play often as he is one of the great tenor players in the game today - I just saw him with John Hebert's band on October 14th, and he was again stupendous depite the band sometimes not playing with type of energy and verve they were capable of.

I doubt that the Taramindo Trio would have that problem if Ferber is as good as Malaby told me he is

[A Lark Ascending]

Tomorrow night:

Opera North in Leeds.

[king ubu]

Just bought a ticket for Grigori Sokolov in Luxembourg, Nov. 26 - Rameau, Mozart and Beethoven ... hope I'll be indeed there that day

[Utevsky]

David - I am very interested to hear your take on the Malaby trio with Parker and Ferber.

As some might know, I see Malaby play often as he is one of the great tenor players in the game today - I just saw him with John Hebert's band on October 14th, and he was again stupendous depite the band sometimes not playing with type of energy and verve they were capable of.

I doubt that the Taramindo Trio would have that problem if Ferber is as good as Malaby told me he is

The Tamarindo trio was excellent. It was very free-flowing and all three members were on the money. They appeared to be totally keyed into one another, as if they'd been playing together for years. I've only seen Malaby once before, with Ralph Alessi. That was a fine group -- and I really dig Alessi -- but in this trio Malaby played with much more freedom and power. I was particularly impressed with his soprano work. (IMO most sax players who double on soprano sound much better on their primary ax.)

[sidewinder]

Mike Westbrook Big Band at Barnstaple.

[BillF]

Just seen the Karen Sharp Quartet at Royal Northern College of Music.

Karen Sharp (tnr), Nikki Iles (pno), Dave Green (bs), Steve Brown (dms)

Concert hall performance with perfect miking and sound balance. Sat in best seat in the house - middle of 3rd row back from the stage. Some interesting material, including Kenny Werner's "Compensation" and Bill Evans' "Show Type Tune". I'm convinced that Steve Brown is a world class drummer, but I expect few people outside the UK will have heard of him.

[A Lark Ascending]

Just seen the Karen Sharp Quartet at Royal Northern College of Music.

Karen Sharp (tnr), Nikki Iles (pno), Dave Green (bs), Steve Brown (dms)

Concert hall performance with perfect miking and sound balance. Sat in best seat in the house - middle of 3rd row back from the stage. Some interesting material, including Kenny Werner's "Compensation" and Bill Evans' "Show Type Tune". I'm convinced that Steve Brown is a world class drummer, but I expect few people outside the UK will have heard of him.

Great line-up. I love Nikki Iles - I strongly recommend her trio albums. I recall seeing Dave Green at my first 'real' jazz concert back in '76 with Stan Tracey.

The Karen Sharp album is good too:

[BillF]

This afternoon at Whitefield: the Gerry Tomlinson Trio with two trombonists, Lee Hallam from Sheffield and A. N. Other from Leicester.

[paul secor]

Heard the Pacifica Quartet this afternoon. They played Haydn - too strident for my ears; Shostakovich - manificent; and Beethoven - a very fine performance.

[Chuck Nessa]

Heard the Pacifica Quartet this afternoon. They played Haydn - too strident for my ears; Shostakovich - manificent; and Beethoven - a very fine performance.

Sounds like a fine afternoon.

[paul secor]

Heard the Pacifica Quartet this afternoon. They played Haydn - too strident for my ears; Shostakovich - manificent; and Beethoven - a very fine performance.

Sounds like a fine afternoon.

It was.

[BillF]

Last night at Wilmslow: visiting American altoist Greg Abate with British mainstream trumpet stalwart Bruce Adams.

Great session - these two hit it off far better than I'd expected and a backing trio of the most talented and appropriate locals worked up a hell of a swing.

Greg told me there's an album coming out on which he plays baritone with Gary Smulyan recorded two years ago "live in New York on the Hudson". I guess it must be this session:

[ejp626]

I've seen Pacifica 6 or 7 times and have really enjoyed each concert.

Inspired by Ed S., I have tickets to see Steve Winwood tonight! He's leaning quite heavily on the Traffic material on this tour. Should be fun.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

The Who (.....or what's left of 'em)

[jlhoots]

Branford Marsalis Qt.

[ep1str0phy]

For Bay Area cats--Friday night (technically tomorrow, but fast approaching)--November 16, 2012, 8:00pm--I'll be releasing a new album at Berkeley's Jazzschool (2087 Addison St). The album is called Taglish--a sort-of essay on Filipino-American life. It's a feature for my group Grex (http://www.grexsounds.com) and a cast of Bay Area veterans--Asian Improv aRts cofounder Francis Wong, Grammy winner/Jim Pepper authority John-Carlos Perea on bass, local powerhouse Jordan Glenn, Moxie bandleader Bill Noertker, and many others. Here's a little preview video I threw together:

http://youtu.be/-ZrFuuOFENs

[Hardbopjazz]

I caught the Lou Donaldson Quartet at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola. Lou can still play, albeit his set list hasn't changed.

[Utevsky]

It was a few weeks ago, but I was blown away by the J. D. Allen Trio when they played in Seattle. Allen sounds good as a sideman but he is awesome when playing his own music. He sounds a little like Trane in the Atlantic period, with some Rollins. His most recent album, "Victory!," is also excellent.

[jlhoots]

Karrin Allyson

[marcello]

Please say hi to Ed Howard for me.

Edited November 18, 2012 by marcello