What live music are you going to see tonight?

[A Lark Ascending]

10 hours ago, BillF said:

Same here.

Seems to vary. Usually unobtrusive non-flash snapping is accepted. But at a Crucible gig a couple of months back there was some pretty strong enforcement of no photography by stewards. Maybe the performer had insisted (it wasn't Jarrett!). I've taken the occasional snap at outdoor events but never bother indoor. Prefer trees to people.   

[BillF]

1 hour ago, A Lark Ascending said:

Seems to vary. Usually unobtrusive non-flash snapping is accepted. But at a Crucible gig a couple of months back there was some pretty strong enforcement of no photography by stewards. Maybe the performer had insisted (it wasn't Jarrett!). I've taken the occasional snap at outdoor events but never bother indoor. Prefer trees to people.   

Mind you, there can be embarrassments. At a small local gig a musician spotted me taking a photo of him and said into the microphone that he hoped I wasn't from the income tax authorities. 

[A Lark Ascending]

1 hour ago, BillF said:

Mind you, there can be embarrassments. At a small local gig a musician spotted me taking a photo of him and said into the microphone that he hoped I wasn't from the income tax authorities. 

Cash in hand?! He should have said he was working for Google. "No, problem sir." Exit tax official.  

My favourite was a concert in Sidmouth by folk musician Chris Wood who is outspoken at the best of times. In the middle of introducing a song he stopped and in a polite but withering voice asked someone at the front to please not video the gig in order to stick it on YouTube in crappy quality. "Hey, let's keep this between ourselves." Got a round of applause from the audience. The offender must have been gutted. 

[relyles]

20 hours ago, kh1958 said:

Question for regulars at the Stone--what does one do/where can one go in between sets?

Like Steve - when I go I usually just hang out in the venue. There are a couple of grocery stores close by if you want a snack, but otherwise not much to do.

[HutchFan]

5 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

My favourite was a concert in Sidmouth by folk musician Chris Wood who is outspoken at the best of times. In the middle of introducing a song he stopped and in a polite but withering voice asked someone at the front to please not video the gig in order to stick it on YouTube in crappy quality. "Hey, let's keep this between ourselves." Got a round of applause from the audience. The offender must have been gutted. 

I saw Lee Konitz do (pretty much) the same at a Birdland gig in NYC a few years ago.

Konitz pointed at the offending videographer and sternly said, "Off!!! No music 'til that's OFF!"

[kh1958]

1 hour ago, relyles said:

Like Steve - when I go I usually just hang out in the venue. There are a couple of grocery stores close by if you want a snack, but otherwise not much to do.

I would have done that but the guy running the place for the evening told  me I couldn't stay inside between sets.

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

I saw Lee Konitz do (pretty much) the same at a Birdland gig in NYC a few years ago.

Konitz pointed at the offending videographer and sternly said, "Off!!! No music 'til that's OFF!"

Tania Maria was the worst I've seen--she had a screaming fit yelling at a professional photographer who was working for the club and taking non-flash photos (and sitting at my table).

[Steve Reynolds]

Of the people volunteering, most of them are good dudes and if it's real cold, they certainly let you hang out. Sometimes the band likes the room cleared for a sound check if it's a different band for the 10:00 set. Plus I don't want to hear the warm-up/sound check. Just an idiosyncrisy of mine. I don't want hear except what they present for the actual set of music. 

[king ubu]

had a terrific concert weekend ... already wrote up at length in german here for those that are interested ... shorter english version:

Decoy & Evan Parker - Novara (Italy) - January 30, 2016

Left Zurich in the mists, just to arrive in the even thicker mist of northern Italy's rice region - had a stroll through the lovely centre of the town in the afternoon and after pizza and a couple of beers walked out to the odd place the concert was scheduled in ... glad to see the Leslie was already turning when I got there, and that ol' hammond organ looked great indeed! Later on, warm greetings from Alex before the concert, and of course I was looking foward a lot to hearing this. It was obviously not the first time that these guys met, but it was the first time they played in this very constellation.

BAM and they're off! The quartet played a very intense, mostly pretty dense long set, energy levels were high from the git-go, the free grooves Edwards and Noble locked into or chugged along jaggedly, without ever imposing anything on the others, were quite amazing, and obviously Mr. Parker dug the wealth of offers and possibilities opened up by the band - and he dug in deeply. He stuck to tenor (Mr. Noble later told me that he'd only take one instrument when he's traveling since it got so complicated), and I just love his sound on tenor, it's really gorgeous! And Alex' organ playing with Decoy is quite something - far removed from any jazz organ clichés, often sounding more like some old analogue synthesizer I thought, yet still making very good use of the power the organ has to offer.

In the second half of the continuous set, there was this part where it sounded to me like Parker was channeling Coltrane - a mix of "sheets of sound" and lose-but-not-free early 1965, that's how it sounded to my ears ... and of course it was still all Evan Parker.

As a listener, it actually took me 10 to 15 minutes (I guess - I lost any feeling for time) to get adjusted to the music, to deal with its richness, to kind of figure out how to listen, what to pay attention to etc - there was simply too much music to pay attention to all in detail, but that made it all the more powerful and impressive.

After the concert - they closed with a great encore, maintaining the energy level, it was clear that they were here to play! - I hat chats with Edwards and at some length with Noble, very interesting at that (that's Edwards, Corrado who's one of the organisers, me, and Parker). Then I was summoned ( ) to join the gang for drinks, shook hands with Evan Parker as well, and had a lengthy chat with Alex at the bar we ended up. They were happy having their negronis (I needed a large beer first, at the venue, there was water only for the musicians, and it was packed and stuffy).

I ended up in my hotel room at 2 a.m., set the alarm clock for 7 and tried catching some sleep ... up again way too early (luckily the hotel was just across the railway station). My head was throbbing, I bought a wrong train ticked (first class ... not even sure there'd have been any first class coaches) and forgot to validate it, too - luckily there was no one checking tickets. I played Rubinstein's great recording of Mozart's piano concerto KV 491 with Krips conducting - the train ride was measured to be just long enough. Off at Milano Centrale, the impressive neo-classical/fascist main train station in Milan (have a look at it here).

Once in Milan, I had two hours, so I took a walk again, first into the centre, walking past all the homeless sleeping in front of the large and ugly business buildings. Then took a detour passing La Scala, the dome, the famous Galeria Vittorio Emanuele II etc, finally ending up at Teatro Manzoni, where at 11 a.m. the Muhal Richard Abrams Quintet was scheduled to play. There was a nice surprise regarding the line-up, with Leonard Jones (instead of Brad Jones) on bass. The others were Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Bryan Carrott (vibes), Reggie Nicholson (drums), and of course Abrams on piano.

The music was totally different from the one the night before, of course. Again, they did one long set and another fine encore - they seemed very focused. There was this typical of Chicago jazz quality of opening up spaces, letting things gradually evolve and waiting what was going to happen. More like options opened rather than options used - some of them were used of course, but it was most fascinating to observe which ones, what turns the performance took etc. All the musicians had their solo spots, and one of the most beautiful moments happened when after Leonard Jones' bass solo - deep, full-bodied, reverberating sound - the master joined in on piano again. But in the end, Finlayson (without ever showing off) and Carrott were the main attractions as soloists, and I might have enjoyed hearing a bit more by Abrams himself. On the other hand, no matter who was actually soloing, it all bore the handwriting of the leader of the group. For the encore, they showed up one by one, Carrott starting off just playing with his four sticks in the air and then gradually approaching his vibes from its sides, finally ending up the keys (or whatever these plates are called).

Then I had some antipasti with Corrado (the guy on both pics above) and some of his friends, but had to quit before they started ordering main dishes as I had an appointment with Claudio Fasoli, which turned out very nice and interesting indeed - we switched some of his albums (I'd been in touch a few weeks back about a bronzed/semi-unplayable disc of his, "Land", with Kenny Wheeler and JF Jenny Clark, then managed to obtain a perfect copy from another guy in Germany and created another copy for Mr. Fasoli, which he happily accepted - he had sent me his best copy of the album before, but it turned out to be quite similar to the two I already had ...) - either way, I asked him some questions (how did he end up playing jazz and the like) and it was wonderful to see how someone his age and of his pedigree can still be so much of a fan and so enthusiast about all things jazz! He really adores Lee Konitz, and hearing Lee, after having gotten acquainted with NO and Chicago trad jazz initially, was what prompted him to become a jazz musician himself. He also mentioned that he, as well as Franco d'Andrea and Enrico Rava (roughly the same age, all three) were entirely self-taught, and that he actually plays without any pressure on teeth and lip ... no idea how that would work, but the results he gets prove him right, that's for sure!

So yeah, that's the *short* version ... I get carried away. As I couldn't take any useful pictures from my seat at the MRA concert, here's one more from Decoy & Parker:

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks for the report.

[Steve Reynolds]

Wonderous. Thanks so much.

I'm going to find out how to get pictures posted on the board so I'll send some of my pictures of recent shows along - except there will be no pictures of me!!

[king ubu]

Thanks - glad some bother to read it

Next up: Mulatu Astatke on Saturday night, again with Alex on keys!

Uploading pics is quite easy - the bigger part is storing them somewhere first (I'm using photobucket), then you just have to get the URL from where the pic is stored and use the "Insert other media" button, pick "Insert image from URL" and paste that URL there.

[Steve Reynolds]

I'm working on it but I'm very technically challenged. I just downloaded the photobucket app. I do have a few close up photos of my favorites that I hope to share. My recents favorites are Mary, Ingrid & Tom or the duel drummers, Billy Mintz & Randy Peterson (with Malaby, Gerstein & Formanek)

Yeah Baby!!

[Steve Reynolds]

[Chuck Nessa]

congrats.

 

[Leeway]

Those are some cool photos, Steve.  Thanks. 

[Steve Reynolds]

Thanks, Leeway

I hope this gives some a bit of perspective of what it is like to be so close. The bottom picture is taken about 3 or 4 feet from the great Joe McPhee. I had to lean back to get most of him in the picture. 

I will wait for someone who is curious who doesn't know to ask who/what the band is with the white bearded dude. I know a couple of you know but please don't tell. 

I might now tell the really incredible story of that night if Clifford approves. What you think, Mr. Allen?

[king ubu]

Nice!

Thanks for sharing! 

[A Lark Ascending]

Evocative pictures, Steve. 

I share your preference for small venues like that (regardless of the type of music being performed). I've only been to a stadium once - you'd not get me back even if you promised me the Beatles doing Revolver.

[kh1958]

That looks like the Corneila Street Cafe and The Stone.

[Steve Reynolds]

51 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

That looks like the Corneila Street Cafe and The Stone.

Correct

care to guess the band with the pink drums?!?!

[kh1958]

3 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Correct

care to guess the band with the pink drums?!?!

Santa on saxophone?

[paul secor]

Thanks for the photos, Steve.

[Steve Reynolds]

28 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

Santa on saxophone?

He lives in Connecticut. Born 1948, I believe. Plays the two horns as shown in the 2 pictures. Don't answer, Leeway

[jlhoots]

Looks like Joe Maneri - but he wasn't born 1948 & he's dead.

 So - I don't know.

[bluenoter]

1. I'll bite. The white bearded dude bears a superficial resemblance to Mat's late, great papa. Who is it? Edit: I had to put this post aside and didn't see that jlhoots had already noted that resemblance.

2. Of course I recognize a few people in your pics, but I could use brief IDs in general.

3. Congratulations from me too!

4. Please post a pic of yourself sometime, or PM me one. Getting to meet you at some show in NYC seems to have incurred a multiyear delay.

Edited February 3, 2016 by bluenoter