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Posted
32 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

Sadly, the second weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is concluded. This year, over both weekends, I heard 32 complete sets by 30 artists/bands. It was a fantastic experience to attend the entire festival.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

On Locals Thursday:

Pat Casey and the New Sound (Jazz Tent)

Tatiana Eva-Marie and the Avalon Jazz Band (Cultural Pavilion). I was a bit surprised that I liked this group as much as I did. A gypsy jazz group in the Django Reinhardt style, the violinist and guitarist were both quite excellent, and Tatiana Eva Marie sings well, is very beatiful, and she radiates joy in the music. 

Terrrace Martin (Jazz Tent): The best set I heard that day, with Mono Neon on bass guitar (plus a second keyboard player and drums). Mr. Martin is in Herbie Hancock's band and I gather is a presence out in Los Angeles. He plays alto sax and keyboards. Mono Neon was quite the sight; he played bass guitar with his own style; I liked his playing alot. Nicholas Payton and Maurice Brown joined the group towards the end of the set.

Archie Shepp Quartet (Jazz Tent): Mr. Shepp was very elegantly dressed, and his silver saxophone was very impressive looking. The set was a bit disappointing; not bad, just somewhat flat. The prior week's octogenarian saxophonists (Kidd Jordan and Charles Lloyd) set a very high bar. And it seemed like Mr. Shepp's playing was bit bit less than I had heard previously. He sang a fair amount, which I assume indicates limited stamina. His rhythm section was quite nice (Avery Sharpe on bass).

Second Friday:

Brian Seeger Organic Trio (Jazz Tent)

Wess Anderson Quintet (Jazz Tent)

Jupiter and Okwess (Congo Square Stage and Cultural Pavilion). A rare trip by me to the third largest stage at the festival, followed by a second set at the smallest venue. An incredible band, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As the saying goes, they burned the building to the ground. And left a pit of molten lava in its place. That was frigging great.

Marcus Miller (Jazz Tent). After a break, somehow I recovered enough to greatly enjoy Marcus Miller's set. Russell Gunn was featured on trumpet.

Second Saturday: 

Louis Ford and His New Orleans Flairs (Economy Hall): Louis Ford is a fifth generation New Orleans jazz museum, and this excellent group plays traditional New Orleans jazz and features Jamil Sharif on trumpet.

Blodie's Jazz Jam (Jazz Tent): Gregory Davis (Blodie), trumpet player with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, plays a straight ahead jazz set with nine of his friends (including Roger Lewis on baritone, Khari Allen Lee on alto and Marlon Jordan on trumpet). This turned out to be a very fine set; very enjoyable.

Lurrie Bell and His Chicago Blues Band (Blues Tent): Mr. Bell was sounding pretty inspired this day; quite fiery guitar playing for sure. 

Jupiter and Okwess (Cultural Pavilion). The band played four sets over two days, which is unusual for the festival. I managed to hear three of them. Did they sound as awesome the second day as the first day? Yes.

Sean Jones Quartet (Jazz Tent): After recovering from the prior set, Sean Jones played with his quartet of the last 15 years, with Orin Evans on piano. This turned out to also be a very good set. The group sounds like a group together for 15 years, and the trumpet playing by Mr. Jones was superb.

Second Sunday:

Joe Lastie's New Orleans Sound (Economy Hall): Preservation Hall style New Orleans traditional jazz.

Leroy Jones and New Orleans' Finest (Economy Hall). This group is more of a hybrid of traditional New Orleans style jazz and modern jazz. Mr. Jones is a superlative trumpet player. His sounds is gorgeous, his technique is impeccable. I really don't know why he is not better known.

Lakou MIzak (Jazz and Heritage Stage): An excellent group from Haiti.

Mr. Sipp (Blues Tent): Mr. Sipp is quite a high energy performer. This set far exceeded expectations. In fact, it was one of the best sets I saw this year.

Terence Blanchard and the E Collective (Jazz Tent): The group has a new keyboard player and a new bass guitar player. Mr. Sipp's playing exhausted me, but this was also a fine set. Mr. Blanchard mostly let Charles Altura do that tatlking.

 

WOW that all sounds great!  I love Jazz Fest even  though I didn't hear that much jazz the year I went.  

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Posted

Jazz Fest is a great experience, even though it should probably be called the New Orleans Multi-Genre Music and Heritage Festival, or something like that. You can make the kind of festival out of of it that you wish; for me it is a jazz/blues/world music festival. Each year I learn more about the New Orleans jazz scene, which is vibrant and full of talent.

Just focusing on trumpeters I heard this year, these included: Maurice Brown, Terence Blanchard, Russell Gunn, Sean Jones, Leroy Jones, Jamil Sharif, Christian Scott, Nicholas Payton, Ashlin Parker, Shaye Cohn, Marlon Jordan, Gregory Davis... And I'm leaving out 15 or so members of the Trumpet Mafia.

I've already booked my hotel for next year.

Posted

Just came back from seeing the Mark Morris Dance group and at the piano was Ethan Iverson who had written the original music for the evening and arranged the rest of the music which was by the Beatles. 

Posted

Hoping to catch Sheila Jordan again tomorrow night ... and then off for Padova for a short vacation, including catching Chicago London Underground while there. Too bad that Randy Weston is playing the same night nearby ... but I've seen him twice and Mazurek is never around here, plus I made my decision long before took note of the Weston gig (which hopefully has long ago sold out anyway), so ...

Posted

Tonight at SFJAZZ:

Scott Amendola drums, electronics
Wil Blades Hammond B-3 organ
Jeff Parker guitar
Cyro Baptista percussion

Should be a lot of fun and they're here all weekend. I might have to catch another show.

Posted
15 minutes ago, BFrank said:

Tonight at SFJAZZ:

Scott Amendola drums, electronics
Wil Blades Hammond B-3 organ
Jeff Parker guitar
Cyro Baptista percussion

Should be a lot of fun and they're here all weekend. I might have to catch another show.

I was sad to learn from saxophonist Caroline Davis that Jeff Parker is based in California now, as I've only seen him once here in Cleveland.  

Posted

Debashish Bhattacharya on slide guitar and Nilan Chaudhuri on tabla at the Allen Public Library Auditorium. That was rather profound. An amazing concert dedicated by  Debadish Bhattacharya to his guru, recently deceased slide guitar master Brij Bhushan Kabra.

Posted
On 5/19/2018 at 5:25 PM, Justin V said:

I was sad to learn from saxophonist Caroline Davis that Jeff Parker is based in California now, as I've only seen him once here in Cleveland.  

Didn't know that. He's coming back to SFJAZZ in a few weeks to play with his own group, the "New Breed"

Posted

The Rolling Stones

I've never felt the urge to see them but my partner has always wanted to and they're not getting any younger. I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised...

Posted
5 hours ago, mjazzg said:

The Rolling Stones

I've never felt the urge to see them but my partner has always wanted to and they're not getting any younger. I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised...

I was tempted but physically I’m not up to attending a stadium gig. Instead I’ll continue to see the fortnightly jazz at the Outhouse and next month Elvis Costello!! . As indicated elsewhere I’ve followed him with varying degrees of obsession for nearly 40 years😅

Posted
16 hours ago, mjazzg said:

The Rolling Stones

I've never felt the urge to see them but my partner has always wanted to and they're not getting any younger. I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised...

Well, that was a very fun couple of hours.

Keith Richards is really just there for effect now as he plays little guitar of any significance, Ronnie Wood was on fire taking the vast majority of lead guitar. Charlie Watts is still the coolest of the lot and Jagger is just Jagger. Obviously the back catalogue is huge and full of classics but it's still a surprise when they pull yet another gem out of the bag. Expectations fully exceeded (and partner ecstatic).

Posted (edited)

She needs wider recognition!

32793504mt.jpg

ANNA-LENA SCHNABEL QUARTET: BOOKS, BOTTLES & BAMBOO. ENJA ENJ-9636 [2016]

Tonight f.l.t.r. Florian Weber (p), Anna-Lena Schnabel (as, fl), Phil Donkin (b), Björn Lücker (dr)

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Edited by optatio
Posted

Last night heard Pierre Favre (celebrating his 81st birthday today!) with a quintet and an all Monk programme ... gee, that was fun!

Line-up: Nils Wogram (tb), Samuel Blaser (tb), Philipp Schaufelberger (g), Bänz Oester (b), and Pierre Favre (d).

They were crazy enough to do "Brilliant Corners"! :excited:

Posted (edited)

Last Night - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Patti Smith, Psychedelic Furs

Patti Smith was just sensational. I've seen her four or five times in the last few years and she gets better. She hushed an outdoor crowd of thousands by opening her set reading excerpts from Howl in recognition of Ginsberg's birthday - very special

Edited by mjazzg
Posted
8 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Last Night - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Patti Smith, Psychedelic Furs

Patti Smith was just sensational. I've seen her four or five times in the last few years and she gets better. She hushed an outdoor crowd of thousands by opening her set reading excerpts from Howl in recognition of Ginsberg's birthday - very special

Interesting lineup! Was that a festival?

I've seen Patti a lot over the past several years, too. Always a good show.

Posted
26 minutes ago, BFrank said:

Interesting lineup! Was that a festival?

I've seen Patti a lot over the past several years, too. Always a good show.

Yes, it was the final day of a weekend of one-day line ups in London over the last couple of weekends

https://www.allpointseastfestival.com/presents/

I'm of the vintage now where I go just for the latter part of the day rather than try and make it all the way through!

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