What live music are you going to see tonight?

[jlhoots]

Ingrid Jensen Quartet

[Guest Bill Barton]

Tonight I saw Paul Rucker's Project 12 Finale at the Chapel Performance Space.

This was an absolutely superb show! Solo cello with electronics for one set and his quintet for another set plus interactive video/audio installations and interesting visual art...

[Tony Pusey]

Orchestra Baobab from Senegal, at Dunkers in Helsingborg, their new album is up near the top of the pile this year, so it could be gig of the year!

[sheldonm]

Mel Rhyne!

[Guest Bill Barton]

I just returned from an afternoon show at The Seattle Asian Art Museum. The "Jazzipino" vocalist Charmaine Clamor was delightful. She performed with a trio including Seattle pianist Victor Noriega. Not being much of a fan of most singers I count myself among "the converted" in her case. In short: hear her.

[Chuck Nessa]

Last night I heard Von Freeman, Ed Peterson, Willie Pickens, Brian Sandstrom and Robert Shy at the Green Mill. After the show Von said I'll tell brother George you said hello. I asked how George was doing and Von replied "He's 80 years old" and I said "How old are you?" - Von laughed and said "85". He told Ann she was more beautiful than ever. God, I love that man. You can expect a new cd by Vonski in the near future.

[Guest Bill Barton]

Last night I heard Von Freeman, Ed Peterson, Willie Pickens, Brian Sandstrom and Robert Shy at the Green Mill. After the show Von said I'll tell brother George you said hello. I asked how George was doing and Von replied "He's 80 years old" and I said "How old are you?" - Von laughed and said "85". He told Ann she was more beautiful than ever. God, I love that man. You can expect a new cd by Vonski in the near future.

Makes me wish that I lived near Chicago (well, sort of, other than the weather...) One of my most treasured memories is hearing Vonski live for the one and only time so far a few years back at Tula's in Seattle. I certainly hope that he makes another trip to the West Coast soon. What a great musician and what a sweet man.

[JSngry]

You can expect a new cd by Vonski in the near future.

You got something to tell us, Chuck?

[BillF]

Tonight I saw Simon Spillett, rising British tenor star in the tradition of Tubby Hayes.

[BillF]

On Monday I'll be hearing Alan Barnes and Bruce Adams at the Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club.

(I'll be leaving my politics at the door.)

Am I allowed to say that in a non-political thread?

Edited January 12, 2008 by BillF

[tonym]

Last night we attended a Cello recital at the Sir Jack Lyons Hall, York.

The cellist has played with my wife's orchestra before and the pieces were very well chosen and all very interesting.

Janáček Pohádka (A Tale)

Schumann 5 pieces in a Folksong Style, op. 102

Debussy Cello Sonata

Shostakovich Cello Sonata, op. 40

I could have listened all night to the pianist's Shostakovich lines.

[Peter Johnson]

Is anyone going to the Curtis Fuller 75th Birthday celebration at Iridium in NYC tonight (or over the weekend)? I'm going to be hitting up the 10:30 show tonight--Curtis with Rene McLean, Eddie Henderson, Wallace Roney, and Red Halloway.

Saw Stefon Harris and Blackout at "Dizzy's Club Coca Cola" on Monday. Great show--terrific improvisations.

Might check out Don Byron with Uri Caine tomorrow night at the Vanguard.

[sjarrell]

Last night at Duke University: The Dr. Lonnie Smith trio w/ Lou Donaldson, Houston Person and Fathead Newman.

[kh1958]

Last night at the University of Texas at Dallas: Monty Alexander Trio, with Herman Riley and Hassan Shakur.

[A Lark Ascending]

Dave Liebman with one of the UK's best young(ish) guitarists, Phil Robson plus Aiden o'Donnell (bass) and Jeff Williams (drums).

Wonderful mix of standards - 'In Your Own Sweet Way', 'Speak Low' - and originals from Robson. Liebman started a great version of 'India' by playing a MacDonald's straw - a party piece?

Edited January 31, 2008 by Bev Stapleton

[Chalupa]

Here's a review of an incredible show I saw on Tuesday night....

The call of Russia's steppes heard in Tuva's folk music

By David R. Stampone

For The Inquirer

Otherworldly is an apt word to describe Tuvan throat-singing. On Tuesday at the Rotunda, as the three members of Tuva's Alash gave deep voice to the first of a dozen numbers, listeners having their first live encounter with the Central Asian folk genre could be identified by their startled looks.

Developed over centuries among the semi-nomadic herdsmen of Tuva, where they could sing to each other over long distances, the eerie vocalizations have long been a national passion in the land bordering southern Siberia. The singers use the larynx to simultaneously produce multiple tones.

As exotic as they are, however, the sounds and songs soon yielded familiar points of reference. The ultra-low quaking tones that first emerged from the singers suggested cartoon voices, like Popeye chanting in measured phrases. The subsequent higher tones sounded like a synthesizer or pleasantly modulating electric device.

And then there were the nature sounds, melodic representations of bird tweets, baying wolves, winds sweeping across the steppes and, above all, horses - key in Tuva's equine culture. Sean Quirk, the young Chicagoan who manages and interprets for Alash, introduced a solo vocal from drummer Ayan Shirizhik (on a goatskin-covered kengirge), in borbangnadyr style - literally "to cause something to make itself round" - and asked the 200-plus listeners to imagine a cyclically burbling stream. Easily done.

Quirk also introduced the important "Lament of the Igil" selection, which relates the folk tale of a beloved horse's ghost instructing the grieving owner to make and play an igil, a bowed, two-stringed, horse-head fiddle. (Nice synchronicity at the anniversary of Barbaro's passing.) Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, 23, began on the instrument (he can be seen on YouTube making his American TV debut at age 9 with Alash artistic director Kongar-ool Ondar, the master vocalist who was featured in the award-winning 1999 documentary Genghis Blues).

Philadelphia's eight-piece Extra (Special) Terrestrial (Guests) - half of the band coming from the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, the first American jazz band to play in Tuva, in 2004 - later did a rousing set of free jazz improv. Their performance featured worldly groove assistance from South African percussionist Mogauwane Mahloele, and renowned local musician Elliot Levin, matching eruptive sax chops with octogenarian Arkestra leader Marshall Allen. The show closed with Alash coming out to lead a sublime group jam on the Tuvan standard "The Caravan-Driver Song."

[kh1958]

Last night, the Monterey Festival All Stars at McFarlin Auditorium, Dallas. The rhythm section was okay; and I'm not a particular fan of Benny Green on piano. There was too much of Nnena Freelon's vocals. And is it really necessary to introduce the musicians 20 times in the course of a concert? But it was a pleasure to see 82 year old James Moody. The whole proceeding was elevated, however, by the fantastic playing of Terence Blanchard, who seems to have reached quite a peak in his playing. The highlight of the concert was the quartet performance by Blanchard of two pieces from his Katrina suite.

[jimi089]

Von Freeman at the New Apartment Lounge last night. Killin' as usual. Vonski never ceases to impress, amaze, and surprise.

[papsrus]

I grumble to myself about the limited jazz opportunities here, and what do I stumble across?

Terrence Blanchard is playing here Monday (Monday!) in a sextet under the banner "Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Tour" (???), and the Ken Peplowski Trio with Bucky Pizzarelli is performing here on Feb. 23.

Things are picking up. I'm in.

[Guest Bill Barton]

I just returned from hearing the Cuong Vu Trio with special guest Bill Frisell at the University of Washington's Meany Hall. This was a great show, one long set. Frisell did some of the best playing I've ever heard from him live. Strangely enough I've always enjoyed him more playing with other people's groups than with his own. As I sort of expected he was delving into the louder, rockier side of his playing personality for the most part. Vu's trumpet and electronics never fail to create some varied soundscapes, ranging from the atmospheric and ambiant to the downright raucous. He is a real master at using looping in live performance. At one point he built up a beautifully meshed series of interlocking loops (I counted either 13 or 14 layers) that practically lifted me out of my seat: one hell of a big band for a quartet! His pure acoustic sound is gorgeous too and he can play in the high register with amazing control at very, very low decibel levels as well as anyone I've heard. Then there's the maniacal Stomu Takeishi on electric bass... The guy's a wild man. Vu, Takeishi and Frisell had lots of the latest and greatest digital toys to play with, twisting dials, pushing pedals, adjusting this, tweaking that, but for me the highlight of Takeishi's playing came when he was using what looked like a plain old tin can as a slide on his bass and standing in front of his amplifier's speaker to obtain controlled feedback. Awesome set! Ted Poor was okay on drums. He didn't really knock me out like the others did. Be sure to hear "Accelerated Thoughts" from the new artistShare CD Vu-Tet; they played a fine version of this twisting, turning, hyper-fast almost-bebop tune tonight. The Vu-Tet disc is exceptional. Check it out.

[Aggie87]

Sounds like an interesting show, Bill. Do you know if this is a tour or a one-off performance? I checked Vu and Frisell's websites, but neither mention this lineup.

[Guest Bill Barton]

Sounds like an interesting show, Bill. Do you know if this is a tour or a one-off performance? I checked Vu and Frisell's websites, but neither mention this lineup.

It was basically a one-off show although they are playing with the same line-up tonight at Egan's Ballard Jam House for two shows, both of which are sold out (it's a pretty small venue compared to the U-dub's Meany Theater).

[Shawn]

Went and saw High On Fire.

Matt Pike is a sensational heavy guitarist, I think he's the bastard stepchild of Lemmy & Tony Iommi.

Here's a little blurb from the Village Voice from 2006, sums up the band nicely.

"Along with Mastodon, High on Fire might be the best available entry point to America's dense and insular metal underground. The trio's credentials are impeccable: frontman Matt Pike previously led the doom-metal giants Sleep, whose final album, Jerusalem, was just one 52-minute song, and new bassist Joe Preston was a member of grunge OGs the Melvins. But more importantly, the band's thunderous roar, though undiluted to these ears, is catholic enough to make sense to anyone with a few Black Sabbath and Metallica tapes lying around her apartment. Pike's riffs are huge and monumental, fast enough to pack a fierce wallop but slow enough to swing. Onstage, Pike is a walking distillation of all things hessian, long hair and no shirt and big chest tattoos and black leather gauntlets and inaudibly shouted stage banter and goofy facial expressions. Friday night, he walked out puffing on a blunt, which he passed to someone in the audience before he said a word or played a note. Preston, meanwhile, looked like Lungfish's Dan Higgs after a summer spent working on Alaskan oil rigs, grizzly beard and piercing eyes and slept-in clothes. He let Pike's flailing guitar heroics take center stage, standing back and playing hired gun, nothing theatrical about him. (I couldn't really see the drummer.) After a few songs, the band's caveman groove begins to feel oddly familiar; it's big and punishing, but at the same time there's something pleasant and comforting in knowing that people are still making this kind of old-school riffed-out powerstomp. High on Fire might not exactly challenge, but they do the trick."

Edited February 8, 2008 by Shawn

[pepe]

Tonite I'm seeing Petter Wettre Quartet. They're playing JaLC next week (monday, I believe, at Dizzy's CCC). Tenorist Wettre has a kick ass group far from what people consider Nordic, or European, jazz - he's a hot Trane/Dex/Brecker-man with lots of guts, technique and invention - receiving Norwegian Grammy last week.

[ejp626]

I saw the new "opera" Ainadamar by Golijov, performed by the core cast of Dawn Upshaw and Kelley O'Connor here in Chicago. First up, I should admit that I hate opera. I've seen 4 or 5 and never enjoyed them. I've really tried listening to a couple of the Russian ones where I care for the composer (Prokofiev, Shostakovich) but can only enjoy the instrumental suites pulled from them. I don't know what it is exactly, but probably the artifice and the elevation of the voice to an instrument in contrast to the fairly insipid content of most arias. It's the same reason I don't like wordless vocals in jazz.

So I had pretty low expectations (only went because it was part of a subscription series), but it was definitely more interesting than I thought it would be, precisely because there is such a mixture of Spanish rhythms, even a touch of jazz in the score, some electronic sampling, and the music was definitely foregrounded. The orchestra play on the main stage (not in a pit) with the singers standing in front of them. I could even see listening to this again. Of course, most opera purists don't like this and call it a PC mis-mash, but that's probably exactly why I found it listenable and very enjoyable in spots.