What live music are you going to see tonight?

[Dmitry]

1 hour ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Michael posts here under his real name. You could ask him if he knows that the acoustics are that bad. He could also clue you in on the drummer.

Really? Didn't know that. Yeah, I wonder how he feels about the sound in that place, because it's pretty bad from the audience's perspective. 

that Sonny Rollins tribute gig was a killer. Boy, can those cats play. James Carter was killin'. The chops on this guy are something else.

[BillF]

On 5/1/2017 at 8:26 AM, BillF said:

Rossano Sportiello (pno) and Liam Byrne (tnr) at Malcolm Frazer's house last night.

https://youtu.be/Ur1X83Xudes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeqh-PlNpxI

[kh1958]

The preceding Thursday to Sunday, I attended the second weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. This was the first time I attended the entire festival--6 and one-half days--the first Sunday having a delayed opening due to a violent thunderstorm. In total, I heard 28 complete sets plus two interviews and various partial sets. It was a great experience in every way (the food at the festival is great as well); alas, now a whole year to wait for the next one.

The best sets I heard the second weekend were:

Charlie Gabriel, an interview with short performances. A fascinating career in music and at 84 his clarinet and tenor sax sound great. Unfortunately his set as a leader was at the same time as Lee Konitz.

Cedric Burnside Project: Intense Mississippi Hill country blues from R.L. Burnside's grandson, who is a strong vocalist and drummer. A compact but powerful group (a duo of drums/vocals and guitar).

Lee Konitz Quartet: His alto sounded really beautiful and profound, with Dan Tepfer on piano.

Louis Ford and His New Orleans Flairs (with Jamil Sharif on trumpet). Superb clarinet and tenor sax in traditional New Orleans jazz context. 

The Ron Holloway Band: Jazz/Funk. I knew Ron Holloway was a fine tenor saxophonist, but was skeptical of this band with two pretty, curvaceous singers. In fact, both were good singers, and the band's set was incendiary.

Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet: He's a really nice vibes player, sounding a bit like Milt Jackson.

Terence Blanchard E Collective: I just heard this band in Dallas, and the concert was good. Here in New Orleans, their set was fantastic, one of the best I heard at the festival. Their usual closing song, Cosmic Warrior, was awesome.

Doreen's Jazz New Orleans: Street musician in traditional New Orleans style, she plays a mean clarinet.

Gregory Agid Quartet: Another clarinet led group, this was a fine set by an Alvin Batiste protege.

Jeremy Davenport: A really swinging group, with the leader's pleasing trumpet playing, his vocals not entirely to my tastes.

New Orleans Groovemasters (Shannon Powell, Herlin Riley, Jason Marsalis): A three drummer led cooperative group, with saxophone, bass and drums. A rather fine set.

Kenny Barron Trio: A superlative set with Jonathan Blake on drums.

SF Jazz Collective Plays the Music of Miles Davis: About midway through the Kenny Barron set and into the day-ending SF Jazz Collective set, the Jazz Tent went from packed to a sparser crowd, as throngs went to stand in a massive, jammed together crowds to hear Stevie Wonder perform, by all reports in truly appalling sound and with lots and lots of talking. Glad to not be one of them. Meanwhile, the SF Jazz Collective was performing its final concert for a six week tour, and I would be surprised if this was not the best concert of the tour.

Dayme Arocena: Cuban vocalist with a powerful voice.

Khari Allen Lee and the New Creative Collective: Khari Allen Lee is a New Orleans based alto and soprano saxophonist who turns up frequently as a sideman at Jazz Fest (this year, with Uptown Jazz Orchestra and Leah Chase). He's an excellent player and this group's set derived from his new recording, A New Earth, was quite fine.

Nicholas Payton and Afro-Carribean Mix Tape: This set was a mixed bag--he played keyboards more than trumpet, and the group included a DJ and two dancers. But the last piece, an original composition which added a string quintet to the group and began with a lovely extended trumpet solo with the strings, morphing into a melding of the strings with the larger group, all featuring trumpet, was by far the best of the set.

Chucho Valdes Quintet: This was Chucho Valdes with bass and three percussionists in the final set of the festival. This set was simply thrilling. That Cuban bass player, I don't know his name, but he was incredible. The place was packed, the crowd ecstatic, the encore really unbelievably exciting. A great set.

 

 

Edited May 9, 2017 by kh1958

[OliverM]

Australian trio The Necks last night in Paris.

Two sets. Was particularly inspired, and especially by the second set, very focused music, great densities, incredible sounds - it felt strange at times to see that there were only three acoustic instruments on stage (piano, double bass, drums), it had me thinking of some things completely different, like an accordeon or strange fridge noises, waves of sound that overlapped. Really wonderful!

[mjazzg]

6 hours ago, OliverM said:

Australian trio The Necks last night in Paris.

Two sets. Was particularly inspired, and especially by the second set, very focused music, great densities, incredible sounds - it felt strange at times to see that there were only three acoustic instruments on stage (piano, double bass, drums), it had me thinking of some things completely different, like an accordeon or strange fridge noises, waves of sound that overlapped. Really wonderful!

Wonderful experience each time I've seen them. They really are like no one else out there

[jlhoots]

Gerald Clayton Trio tomorrow

[BillF]

The Great Birmingham Trombone Company at Wilmslow last night. You can't beat five bones!

[mr jazz]

Cookers tonight

[mr jazz]

What a show the Cookers played! I saw them a few years ago and really enjoyed it but this was a topper and everyone seemed to be into the gig. Cecil McBee was absent and I didn't catch the name of his replacement but he did a good job with evidently little time to prepare. I can't recommend a concert more than this ensemble.

[BillF]

Alan Barnes (reeds) and Roy Williams (tbn) at Wilmslow last night with local  rhythm section.

[BFrank]

Saw Hudson tonight at SFJAZZ. A 'super group' of musicians who live in the Hudson Valley of NY: Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, John Medeski, John Scofield.

I think this was their first show. Definitely a loose conglomeration more focused on 'jamming' than tight arrangements and particularly focused on Sco (I don't think he can help himself ). Aside from a few originals, they cover 'popular' songs from the 60s-70s - tonight playing 2 Hendrix tunes, "Wait Until Tomorrow" and "Spanish Castle Magic, Dylan's "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall", Joni's "Woodstock", the Band's "Up on Cripple Creek" among others. Jack even provides a few vocals here and there! Usually, I have problems with jazz covers like this but they deconstruct these tunes to such an extent that they're barely recognizable.

Anyway, a good show worth seeing if they come your way. The album drops tomorrow (June 9).

[kh1958]

Last Friday, Ally Venable Band in Denison, Texas, blues/rock downtown in the birthplace of Booker Ervin.

Monday night, Giovanni Rodriguez Band at Rudy's Jazz Room in Nashville. Good band (four Cubans, one Venezuelan and an American) in a pleasing new jazz club.

Tonight, Jean Luc Ponty at the Granada Theater in Dallas. Never paid much attention to Ponty except for some of his early work, but it seems my tastes have changed over the years and the fusion that I disdained in the 70s and 80s I now enjoy. Highlights were a trio piece (Violin/acoustic guitar/keyboards) and a duo piece (solo violin joined by the keyboards), but I also liked much of the full band's higher volume repertoire, mostly derived from his Atlantic recordings in the 1970s and 1980s. The theater (one of the best live music venues in Dallas) was sold out and the crowd was very enthusiastic for an all instrumental band.

Edited June 17, 2017 by kh1958

[BFrank]

Last night saw Donny McCaslin Quartet and Antonio Sanchez Migration.

Sanchez group was competent, but I didn't find the music very inspiring. Part of the problem was that he performed one extended piece for about an HOUR. Not sure what the point was, as it meandered and the 'passages' never seemed to add up to a common 'whole'. It easily could have been multiple pieces that were more focused.

McCaslin's band was a breath of fresh air after that. He has an endearing personality and each member of the quartet were allowed to show off their skills and unique personalities. Mark Giuliana (d) was amazing!

[kh1958]

Last night, Eric Gales at the Oak Point Amphitheater in Plano. Really good set, it appeared that virtually the entire audience lined up to buy his newest CD after the set.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

last nt- Pharaoh Sanders/William Henderson duo.  boy was i surprised to walk in and see just the 2 of them no quartet- it elevated the music like 10-fold

[sidewinder]

3 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

last nt- Pharaoh Sanders/William Henderson duo.  boy was i surprised to walk in and see just the 2 of them no quartet- it elevated the music like 10-fold

Those two must be joined at the hip !

[BillF]

Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band at Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester this evening. Impressed!

[Larry Kart]

9:00PM

 

at the Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont 

• Chicago Edge Ensemble : Hamid Drake, Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams, Dan Phillips, Krzysztof Pabian

[Larry Kart]

4 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

9:00PM

 

at the Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont 

• Chicago Edge Ensemble : Hamid Drake, Jeb Bishop, Mars Williams, Dan Phillips, Krzysztof Pabian

Great to hear Jeb again, back in town from Boston for a visit. Mars was strong. Phillips, the leader, new to me, reminded me some of Joe Morris. There may be louder drummers than Hamid Drake, but probably no one hits a drum harder -- if that distinction makes sense. Hamid and Jeb were really locked in.

[Steve Reynolds]

11 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Great to hear Jeb again, back in town from Boston for a visit. Mars was strong. Phillips, the leader, new to me, reminded me some of Joe Morris. There may be louder drummers than Hamid Drake, but probably no one hits a drum harder -- if that distinction makes sense. Hamid and Jeb were really locked in.

I have the CD - gift from the drummer. First spin and it's burning. Jeb Bishop was great in a small yet highly defined role in Harris Eisenstat's 9 piece band I saw in May. 

[kh1958]

Friday night, Lucky Peterson at the Granada Theater. Sunday evening, Larry Lampkin at Poor David's Pub.

[ejp626]

I had hoped to get to Hudson (the DeJohnette/Scofield group), but the show was sold out up here in Toronto!  I generally have been so busy at work that I wasn't able to focus on the first week of the jazz festival at all. 

However, I did manage to see The Claudia Quintet at a free show!  This is apparently their 20th year as a fairly stable ensemble around drummer/composer John Hollenbeck.  It also was their first concert in Toronto (and apparently 2016 was their first time in Montreal)!  Anyway, quite an interesting show.  The audience clapped so hard I couldn't actually hear the names, but apparently the bassist was Drew Gress, whom I had heard of from his own albums.  I'm not sure I've seen him live before.  He was particularly good on A-List, which was sort of the closest they came to straight-ahead jazz during the set.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

in the last 30 days ive seen:

King Crimson x2

The Moody Blues x2

Pharaoh Sanders x2 

Ziggy Marley

Santana

Roger Waters

Queen x2

[Hot Ptah]

Since the end of April I have seen:

Jack DeJohnette (with Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison)

Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya, with Terence Blanchard

Joey Alexander

Kermit Ruffins

Harry Connick, Jr.

Mokoomba

Dr. John

Pedrito Martinez, with Terence Blanchard

Joe Louis Walker

Deacon John

Usher

Tom Petty

Trey Anastasio

Garth Brooks

Roger Waters

Regina Carter

Brian Blade Fellowship (outstanding!)

Zac Brown Band

Steve Miller

Tonight I am going to see Charlie Musselwhite.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Hot Ptah

[kh1958]

Last night, David Gerald in Denison.