wulfman Posted June 20, 2004 Report Posted June 20, 2004 These guys are playing this Thursday night in Ottawa at kick off the Ottawa Jazz Festival. I picked up my festival pass today, and should be able to sit pretty close to the stage. Has anyone seen them so far this summer? It looks like they are playing a number of festivals. Quote
bertrand Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 I've been told it's actually a quintet with a young guitarist on board, Lionel ?, who was one of the students at the Monk Institute school. This cat is awesome. I wonder what material they'll play? They're in NYC next Friday, but I don't think I'll go. Bertrand. Quote
gslade Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 I saw them Friday the 18th This was their first performance of this tour. In Herbie's own words, "you are gettin it fresh off the griddle" The performance was at the Britt festival in Jacksonville Oregon, an outdoor venue. Shorter seemed uncomfortable with both his tenor and soprano all night as he constantly adjusted them. As they moved into a second composition, one called either “cut and paste or V” (Herbie was unsure and jesting Wayne about his markups) they started to gel. Shorter found his voice, still swapping horns throughout this and the next composition. The next was absolutely fantastic. Blade started the piece playing something, (I could not see what he was doing) but it had the sound of water running over falls, Herbie played the inside of his piano with his knuckles and then plucked with his fingers, Holland broke in with a fine groove and they were off. Hancock and Holland were great, Blade was fantastic, and when Shorter got going, he still had that originality that is mention in the “Kelly Great” thread. The only composition I recognized was the encore of Watermelon Man, a great version. I am sure as this tour continues they will find their synergy from the get go. Do not miss this show if you get a chance. p.s. just the quartet Quote
BFrank Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 Last night they played here at the SF Jazz Festival. Haven't heard anything about it yet, though. Quote
JSngry Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 (edited) Where can I get an itenerary for this tour? Talk about road trip-worthy! Edited June 21, 2004 by JSngry Quote
Joe G Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 Indeed. On second thought, make that in-FUCKIN-deed!!!! Quote
JohnJ Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 They will be in Japan for the Tokyo Jazz Festival on September 18 and 19. That would be a good road trip Jim. Quote
brownie Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 They will be in Paris next week. But so are Ornette Coleman and Anita O'Day (not together ). Will try for those two... Quote
king ubu Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 Prices in Zurich are 40-120 swiss franks (about 25-90US$!!!) - crazy bastards! I won't be willing to pay that much. Missed the Shorter/Perez/Patitucci/Blade concert for the same reason. The cheapest ticket of that was probably 50 bucks... ubu Quote
kdd Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 Word from LA is that they were incredible last night. I'm going to Saratoga. Quote
wulfman Posted June 21, 2004 Author Report Posted June 21, 2004 The Ottawa show is outdoors at Confederation Park in the heart of Ottawa. A ticket for the single show is only $25 Canadian. If you can get a cheap flight, the ticket shouldn't be a problem. Who knows, maybe we'll see a CD released from the tour. Quote
RainyDay Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 Well, I saw these guys on Saturday night and they were the stuff. Anyone know why they kicked this off in Medford Oregon? The SF show was not part of the original SF Jazz lineup, which might explain why it was not sold out. It was a very good crowd, but there were vacant seats in the last rows of orchestra. When they came out, the audience gave them a long, standing ovation. I don't know what they played for the first two numbers. After the second song, Herbie got up and rambled around in the weeds for a bit. He sounded as inarticulate as I've ever heard him. Perhaps explained by one comment where he said "It may not sound like it but we're doing a lot up here." An odd comment that drew laughter from the crowd, and from him. He introduced the third song that had gone through a metamorphis of song titles, from Cut and Paste to Going Nowhere to Going Somewhere. The tone of the set was restrained. I don't mean that necessarily in a bad way but, except for Brian Blade, and once or twice with Herbie, it was a pensive, reflective, set. Everyone seemed to be at ease, but the set did not have many scorching moments except a couple of short solos by Herbie and one particularly hot solo by Blade that drew shouts and yells from the audience. Shorter wasn't fumbling with his horns that night, although I've seen him do that on other occasions. For me, the real treat was Brian Blade, who for some bloody reason was literally kept in the dark for most of the set. He was so poorly lit you could hardly see what he was doing. But Blade is a wonder on drums, just incredible. They played a lovely deconstructed version of Footprints and when they came out for a brief encore, they played Cantaloupe Island. The whole set lasted for about two hours with no intermission. I enjoyed it immensely. It didn't set the world on fire but it was a very fine opportunity to see these masters together. They played very well. Calling it a work in progress is probably accurate but if you are fans of these guys, you definitely should check this out. I'm very glad I did. Quote
Quincy Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 Anyone know why they kicked this off in Medford Oregon? The small town of Jacksonville near Medford is host to the Britt Festival. Oh look, Kenny G. is coming soon! It's a wonderful outdoor venue and they do a pretty good job of booking talent. It probably helps as it's a day away for a tour from the Bay Area. That pocket of Southern Oregon has a surprising amount of culture as nearby Ashland hosts a Shakespeare Festival. Shorter was in Portland in February, Eugene in May, & now the Britt in June. I hope he doesn't get sick of us, cause he's nice to have around. Quote
Claude Posted June 21, 2004 Report Posted June 21, 2004 (edited) Prices in Zurich are 40-120 swiss franks (about 25-90US$!!!) - crazy bastards! I won't be willing to pay that much. Missed the Shorter/Perez/Patitucci/Blade concert for the same reason. The cheapest ticket of that was probably 50 bucks... ubu Flurin, don't miss their JazzBaltica 2004 concert in Salzau (Germany), which will be broadcast on 3Sat (free TV ) on Friday night August 28th. http://www.3sat.de/musik/65763/index.html Edited June 21, 2004 by Claude Quote
RainyDay Posted June 22, 2004 Report Posted June 22, 2004 Anyone know why they kicked this off in Medford Oregon? The small town of Jacksonville near Medford is host to the Britt Festival. Oh look, Kenny G. is coming soon! It's a wonderful outdoor venue and they do a pretty good job of booking talent. It probably helps as it's a day away for a tour from the Bay Area. That pocket of Southern Oregon has a surprising amount of culture as nearby Ashland hosts a Shakespeare Festival. Shorter was in Portland in February, Eugene in May, & now the Britt in June. I hope he doesn't get sick of us, cause he's nice to have around. I'm from Portland and I know that there is a lot of jazz up there but I didn't know about southern Oregon. That's good news. Quote
Tim McG Posted June 22, 2004 Report Posted June 22, 2004 Hancock/Shorter/Holland/Blade...saw these guys last night at the Playboy Jazz Festival. Great set...just not geared for the festival-like atmosphere, IMO. Quote
7/4 Posted June 22, 2004 Report Posted June 22, 2004 Hancock/Shorter/Holland/Blade...saw these guys last night at the Playboy Jazz Festival. Great set...just not geared for the festival-like atmosphere, IMO. tell more? Quote
bertrand Posted June 22, 2004 Report Posted June 22, 2004 Through some fluke, I will be seeing them in NYC this Friday. I'm going up with my wife and son. A friend of ours will also be there with her son, and somehow she will pick up our son to watch him while we go to the concert. I can see it now: we'll be trading kids in front of Carnegie Hall ten minutes before showtime! If it all works out, I'll have seen my two favorite musicians, Wayne and Jackie, within three weks of each other! Quote
7/4 Posted June 28, 2004 Report Posted June 28, 2004 June 28, 2004 JVC JAZZ FESTIVAL REVIEW Lineup of Legendary Names in a Nascent Quartet By BEN RATLIFF A new quartet of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Brian Blade played at Carnegie Hall on Friday. As a measure of how strongly the serious jazz audience feels about this turn of events, Bill Cosby came out before them and simply said their names, to a general roaring. When they finished, the audience responded with a standing ovation that was longer and more vociferous than any other I experienced this year at the JVC Jazz Festival. What happened in between? Older compositions, sometimes played unrecognizably. A lot of free, open playing. A strong dollop of each player's individual trademarked sound. (Just convened this summer, the group is still not more than the sum of its parts.) Some juicy, poetic satori and some spacey grandiosity. Mr. Hancock and Mr. Shorter are herbieandwayne: the dyad that goes back to Miles Davis's great second quintet during the 1960's. As such they helped create the most lasting and widely influential group sound in jazz. They have reunited before, even at Carnegie Hall, where they played piano and soprano-saxophone duets in 1999. Mr. Holland has been around them: when the Miles Davis group started to change rapidly in the late 1960's, he joined it as the bassist on the album "In a Silent Way," and is now a composer and bandleader near the top of the heap. Mr. Blade, at least a quarter century younger than anyone in the group, plays drums with Mr. Shorter's current quartet, which has become one of the great collective communications in jazz. While the crowd might have been oriented around herbieandwayne, the quartet seemed oriented around Mr. Shorter and Mr. Blade. It was their interaction — pushing each other with short, rhythmic gestures that drew Mr. Shorter out of silence and into brusque engagement on tenor saxophone — that produced the biggest rise in energy. And though the set sounded most related to music played in the past by Mr. Hancock and Mr. Shorter, Mr. Blade seemed the binding glue. His sense of structure and dynamics — and his responses to stimuli from all sides — saved the music from becoming aimless and glib. He built up grooves and then destabilized them; he played featherweight sounds with brushes; at climaxes he raised his sticks, carefully picked his spot, and brought them down brutally. Mr. Holland, with strong rhythm and sound, deserves credit too. But his solid, repetitive vamping, perfect in the watchwork intricacy of his own band, felt odd in this loose quartet, which accommodates a much greater degree of personal, soloistic expression. The liquid set took a while to gain momentum. It included several long solo-piano introductions, excursions in the bright lower register of Mr. Hancock's Fazioli piano, with some Ravelesque chords. And there were some long group sequences rooted in a single chord, or in no determinate key. But there were themes, too, some of them run together, including Mr. Shorter's "Footprints" and Mr. Hancock's "Empyrean Isles." The group was getting back to some of the glories of jazz in the last 40 years, but the compositions were just vehicles. What these musicians are after — and I hope I get to see them together again — is a principle of motion, instability, constant invention. Quote
JSngry Posted June 30, 2004 Report Posted June 30, 2004 (edited) Richard Termine for The New York Times New arrangements: Herbie Hancock, far left, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Brian Blade in their new quartet, playing at Carnegie Hall during the JVC Jazz Festival. Edited June 30, 2004 by JSngry Quote
king ubu Posted June 30, 2004 Report Posted June 30, 2004 Prices in Zurich are 40-120 swiss franks (about 25-90US$!!!) - crazy bastards! I won't be willing to pay that much. Missed the Shorter/Perez/Patitucci/Blade concert for the same reason. The cheapest ticket of that was probably 50 bucks... ubu Flurin, don't miss their JazzBaltica 2004 concert in Salzau (Germany), which will be broadcast on 3Sat (free TV ) on Friday night August 28th. http://www.3sat.de/musik/65763/index.html Thanks! I'll make a note not to forget it! ubu Quote
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