What live music are you going to see tonight?

[kh1958]

First Weekend of the 51st New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is complete.

First Friday: They seemed to have lost the ability to complete the entry process, resulting in very long lines and delays.

First up, Bombino (of Niger) in the Blues Tent. Great set of Saharan Desert blues. Fabulous and ecstatic guitar from the leader. So happy to be here.

Second, the very fine New Orleans trumpeter Jamil Sharif leads a tribute to Jabbo Smith. With guest appearances from Louis Ford on tenor sax and Dr. Michael White on clarinet. With Herlin Riley ably manning the drums. Very interesting material. It was a pleasure to hear this live.

Third, Aurora Nealand's The Monocle in the tiny venue, the Rhythmporium. Kind of avant jazz rock; very good band. With Aurora Nealand on accordion and vocals, plus guitar, drums and second vocalist. Very unusual original music.

Finally, I made a valiant attempt to listen to the day's jazz headliner, Arturo Sandoval. I did not care for the music. Left after 15 minutes and called it a day.

Pleasing set fragment: New Orleans bluesman Little Freddie King.

First Saturday:

Palm Court Jazz Band: The House band from the Palm Court Cafe sounds like the working group it is. Includes Sammy Rimington on alto sax and clarinet, Red Stafford on trumpet, and Shannon Powell on drums. Quite enjoyable in the pleasing venue, Economy Hall. The elderly gentlemen on trumpet, Red Stafford, was quite excellent.

Moving to the Jazz Tent for the remainder of the Day: The giant brass band, Trumpet Mafia (with 15 or so trumpets, two trombones, tuba and one tenor sax, plus rhythm section) evidences that New Orleans must have the deepest jazz trumpet bench in the world. Set was electrifying in an overflowing venue. Co-led by Ashlin Parker and Maurice Brown, with strong contributions from John Michael Bradford.

Next up, The Cookers (Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, Donald Harrison, David Weiss, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart). Not surprisingly, a wonderful set. 

Finally, the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, led by Delfeato Marsalis. Intensely swinging big band with some hot soloists (Rod Paulin, Khari Allen Lee). Herlin Riley on drums. Fun and joyous music.

First Sunday;

Rick Trolsen's  Neslorchestra. Just went on a whim. Leader of this 18 piece big band and composer arranger of this music is a trombone player. An unexpected delight. Sort of a jazz/rock fusion big band, with elements of late Gil Evans, but playing the leader's original music. Yet another interesting New Orleans based big band.

Alexey Marti. Unlike Arturo Sandoval's overbearing  Latin Jazz, this Cuban conga player presents a much better version of that music, with players from Cuba, Panama, Columbia, Ghana and the U.S. With a guest pianist from Havana, Vic Jacob, who was really fantastic. Very good set.

Relocating to the modest Lagniappe Stage, famed producer Daniel Lanois played a mostly duo set on guitar with Brian Blade on drums. A very fun guitar/drums jam ensued. Later in the set a bass player (Daryl Johnson of the Meters) and vocalist joined.

Pleasing Lagniappe set fragment: Eden Brent.

Back at the Jazz Tent, Terence Blanchard's E Collective joined with the Turtle Island Quartet to play the music from his latest Blue Note recording.

Left the festival early to head to the Hotel St. Vincent, where in their lovely courtyard, International Anthem Records was holding an evening presentation. Jeff Parker played a wonderful solo guitar set, then Makaya McCraven played a quartet set with Brandee Younger on harp, Jeff Parker, and Dezron Douglas on bass. I hope they recorded as it It was great. Wonderful sound for both sets. Really awesome concert.
 

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by kh1958

[BFrank]

59 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

First up, Bombino (of Niger) in the Blues Tent. Great set of Saharan Desert blues. Fabulous and ecstatic guitar from the leader. So happy to be here.
-> Saw Mdou Moctar at Big Ears and thought he would be similar, but he was too loud and all his songs sounded the same. Bombino is much more fun!

Left the festival early to head to the Hotel St. Vincent, where in their lovely courtyard, International Anthem Records was holding an evening presentation. Jeff Parker played a wonderful solo guitar set, then Makaya McCraven played a quartet set with Brandee Younger on harp, Jeff Parker, and Dezron Douglas on bass. I hope they recorded as it It was great. Wonderful sound for both sets. Really awesome concert. 
-> Saw Parker & the New Breed w/McCraven, Josh Johnson and Paul Bryant, also at Big Ears. They didn't knock me out, but I enjoyed the show.

 

[kh1958]

I like the solo Jeff Parker record better than the group one.

Earlier in the day, Brandee Younger and Dezron Douglas also played a duo concert, though I missed that one.

All of this was free. I guess the label owners were taking a nice vacation in New Orleans.

[BFrank]

5 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

I like the solo Jeff Parker record better than the group one.

Earlier in the day, Brandee Younger and Dezron Douglas also played a duo concert, though I missed that one.

All of this was free. I guess the label owners were taking a nice vacation in New Orleans.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

Paul

[Aggie87]

14 minutes ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

Paul

Paul Carrack is great!

Oh wait, you meant Paul Simon!  You can call him Al.

Oh you meant Paul Westerberg, he rocks.

Maybe Paul Anka, he's old school cool.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

Carrack is great but i saw mccartney 

[mjazzg]

back from Kahil El 'Zabar at Ronnies

blues drenched 

[kh1958]

The 51st New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is complete.

On Locals Thursday, I spent the entire day in the Jazz Tent. First up, Blodie's Jazz Jam, which is present and former members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, plus a few friends (Marlon Jordan, Rod Paulin), playing a straight ahead jazz set. Quite a good set in fact.

Otherwise, the last two sets of the day were the clear highlights. Herlin Riley's group, with Emmet Cohen in piano, Godwin Louis on alto, and Bruce Harris on trumpet, played an outrageously hard swinging set. It could hardly have been better.

This was followed by the very different Antonio Sanchez and Bad Hombre. Also an excellent set, with Big Yuki performing on a wall of keyboards and synths, Thana Alexa on vocals and loops, and Lex Sadler on bass guitar and bass synthesizer.

On Second Friday: The clear highlight was the Newport Jazz All Stars, playing a tribute to George Wein. Except for a couple of standards, it was an all Ellington set. With Randy Brecker, Lew Tabackin, Anat Cohen, Christian Sands, Howard Alden, Lewis Nash and Jay Leonhart. They all sounded fabulous.

Also good that day were Uncle Nef (jazz drummer Shannon Powell's blues band), Steve Pistorius playing a tribute to the New Orleans Rhythm Kings (great to hear their material played by a group live), and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (another good New Orleans based big band).

On Second Saturday, the closer in the Jazz Tent was David Sanborn. He played basically a straight ahead jazz set, with trombone, acoustic bass, drums and Geoffrey Keezer on keyboards. A pretty good set. Also that day I heard some Louisiana blues from Kenny Neal, yet another good big band from New Orleans, the Jesse McBride Big Band, a fine hard boppish set by Jason Marsalis, and the end of a set by the powerful New Orleans based vocalist, Meschiya Lake. I have mixed reactions to her material, but she has pretty spectacular pipes, and she unleashes them at full force on her last and best song, the traditional gospel song, Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down. 

On Sacred Sunday, two sets at the Lagniappe Stage. First, Mahmoud Chouki, making his debut at the Festival, with his New World Ensemble. He is from Morocco, and plays acoustic guitar, oud, and banjo. This set was one of the best heard at the festival, really beautiful and intense fusion of jazz and Moroccan music. That set was thrilling. Followed by comparable excellence from pianist Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand (vocals, soprano sax, Clarinet, piano). Set started with the Maple Leaf Rag, included two Sidney Bechet compositions, and a four handed piano duet. A second clarinetist and conga player were added for a few of the songs. Also a wonderful set.

Next is Nicholas Payton in the Jazz Tent for a highly unconventional set (Quarantinin' with Nick). His band is himself on trumpet, bass, and keyboards, with Sasha Masakowski on looping, and Cliff Hines on synths and guitar. More wires than I have ever seen on a stage. Payton actually sounded great on trumpet. He cycled through all of his instruments, against a background of synths and loops. Actually, I rather enjoyed the set. 

Next up in the Jazz Tent was Norah Jones, but I bailed out. There were way too many people coming to hear her by the end of the Payton set (I didn't need to be one of them).

[jlhoots]

Vijay Iyer Trio

[kh1958]

Last night at Ruins in Deep Ellum, Bombino. The small club had a surprisingly good sound system. The crowd was a whopping 25-30 people. It was a pretty awesome set.

[Hardbopjazz]

Just in case anyone is interested.  

[OliverM]

Hermeto Pascoal sextet at New Morning in Paris, phenomenal!

[BFrank]

Monday at SFJAZZ

Nicole Mitchell: Black Earth Sway / Brandee Younger

[Steve Reynolds]

Illegal Crowns @ Jazz Gallery in NYC

7:30 & 9:30 sets

Taylor Ho Bynum: trumpet/cornet

Mary Halvorson: guitar

Benoit Delbecq: grand piano

Tomas Fujiwara: drums

 

YEAH BABY!!

 

[Steve Reynolds]

Vision Fest / day 2

very excited to see & hear some of my favorites for the first time since before the pandemic

Hamid & William at the top of the list. I’m sure it will be very emotional for me.

 

[jlhoots]

James McMurtry

[BFrank]

5 hours ago, jlhoots said:

James McMurtry

Always good!

[jlhoots]

8 hours ago, BFrank said:

Always good!

He even did Choctaw Bingo. Called it a "medley of our hit".

[BFrank]

15 hours ago, jlhoots said:

He even did Choctaw Bingo. Called it a "medley of our hit".

Well ... he DOES play it a lot! 

[miles65]

Yesterday i saw The Rolling Stones at the Johan Cruyff arena (Amsterdam)

The show started with a In Memoriam for Charlie Watts

A good mix of very well known and lesser known songs (by me not a rocker). Highlight of the concert: a long version of Miss You.

The was also a short lookback to their first gig in the Netherland at the Kurhaus (their first outside the UK) wich lasted 15 min. and let to vandalism

Rolling Stones - Kurhaus Scheveningen, The Netherlands 1964 - YouTube .

[kh1958]

Last Thursday, Tom McDermott, solo piano, at 3 Muses on Frenchman Street in New Orleans. Followed by Delfeayo Marsalis Sextet at Snug Harbor, with the groove master Herlin Riley on drums, tenor saxophonist Rod Paulin, and Jesse McBride on piano.

Last Friday, Will Smith at Preservation Hall (a mistake, leader was not good), followed by Jason Marsalis (vibes) Quartet, featuring Oscar Rossignoli on piano, and a tribute to Lionel Hampton, at Snug Harbor.

On Saturday, the excellent drummer Joe Lastie was the leader of a much better version of the Preservation Hall All Stars at Preservation Hall.

Edited July 11, 2022 by kh1958

[sidewinder]

I caught Simon Spillett leading his Tubby Hayes Tribute Big Band last night. Original Tubby arrangements played with precision and power, sounding at least as good as the real thing !

Earlier in the day Trevor Watts ‘Eternal Triangle’ and Henry Lowther’s Group, amongst other things. The Watts group performance was superb !

Similar goodies on Saturday including Yazz Ahmed’s Quintet and Mike & Kate Westbrook with Chris Biscoe.

Edited July 11, 2022 by sidewinder

[BillF]

Sounds great!

For one reason or another all my jazz venues round here (and there were about 8) seem to have collapsed during the pandemic.

Edited July 12, 2022 by BillF

[sidewinder]

3 hours ago, BillF said:

Sounds great!

For one reason or another all my jazz venues round here (and there were about 8) seem to have collapsed during the pandemic.

Bill - Simon and the Tubby Hayes Tribute Big Band were actually playing a festival in Wigan a week ago !  They are not to be missed, when you get the chance. Appearing in Scarborough in August I think. They kicked off the first half with a really storming ‘Dear Johnny B’.

It was good to be attending live music without the recent restrictions again (although I missed Greg Abate due to the clash with Yazz Ahmed’s set and only caught 20 mins of an excellent sounding Alan Barnes Octet).

Edited July 12, 2022 by sidewinder