What live music are you going to see tonight?

[Ted O'Reilly]

"Blues For Bird": Lee Konitz

Where is Lee playing at?

The Charlie Parker 10th Memorial Concert, 3/27/65 at Carnegie Hall.

Doesn't this belong in "...Listening to?". 'Tain't a bit like going out to *see* music being made before your very ears.

For me, the John MacLeod Rex Hotel Orchestra: http://www.johnsjazz.ca/index.php. They play at the Rex on the last Monday of the month...

[PHILLYQ]

Caught Henry Threadgill last night at Roulette in Brooklyn. The venue opened a few months ago and they did a great renovation job on the space.The only drawback at the venue is that they have no food or drink, which I didn't know beforehand and left me a bit dry, but oh well. Threadgill and his band were seriously on fire last night, a lot of very intense music and a palpable musical telepathy among the group. He had acoustic guitar, acoustic bass guitar, cello, tuba/trombone and drums making up the group. I got to the venue about 20 minutes before the show was scheduled to start and I was lucky enough to hear them working out some tunes, so I knew I was in for a great show. They played two sets of jaw-droppin' stuff with excellent solos all around. Everybody was featured at some point in the show and every musician delivered in spades. Didn't recognise any of the music and I think it's all new music for an upcoming recording.If so, it'll be a whale of a recording, but I'd love just a live one of last night's show.

[sidewinder]

For me, the John MacLeod Rex Hotel Orchestra: http://www.johnsjazz.ca/index.php. They play at the Rex on the last Monday of the month...

Rex Hotel - brings back fond memories (apart from the beer price, that is !)

Tonight - an excellent Blue Note tribute band - 'The Sound of Blue Note', at my local club. Andy Urquart (trumpet), Torontonian ex-pat Terry Quinney on tenor, Guy Garner (piano), Pete Maxfield (bass) and Tony Mann (drums). Most commendably, they played some pretty off-piste stuff, including the likes of Tommy Turrentine 'Midnight Mambo', Kenny Dorham 'Brown Town' and Elmo Hope 'De Dah'. Thoroughly enjoyable and fine playing all round.

[BillF]

Lee Hallam and Duncan Winfield (trombones) with the Gerry Tomlinson Trio at Whitefield yesterday afternoon.

Played Jay & Kay charts, standards and a composition by a fellow trombonist based on "Killer Joe" called "Guerrilla Joe".

[bertrand]

Last night: the William Parker organ quartet (+1) at Bohemian Caverns. Apparently this is this band's first live gig.

Wednesday: Grachan Moncur III and the Brad Linde ensemble at the Atlas Theatre, performing the Exploration record.

Bertrand.

[BillF]

Last night: Alan Barnes (alt, clt, bar) and Amy Roberts (alt, clt, flt) with the Tom Kincaid Trio at Wilmslow.

Amy Roberts is an amazingly talented 22-year-old student at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester who has already appeared with the Chris Barber band. A great clarinettist and her forceful alto playing takes me back to the sound of Bruce Turner.

http://www.chrisbarber.net/bb-roberts.htm

[sidewinder]

Bruce Turner.

Now there's a fine player - sadly no longer with us. Saw him on one occasion (about 3 decades ago) with Humph (Kathy Stobart was on baritone, Mike Pyne on piano and Kenny Baldock on bass I think). Didn't he get tagged as a 'dirty bopper' by the Fygges?

Edited December 6, 2011 by sidewinder

[BillF]

Bruce Turner.

Now there's a fine player - sadly no longer with us. Saw him on one occasion (about 3 decades ago) with Humph (Kathy Stobart was on baritone, Mike Pyne on piano and Kenny Baldock on bass I think). Didn't he get tagged as a 'dirty bopper' by the Fygges?

He certainly did! But then he did study with Tristano!!!

[Steve Reynolds]

Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC Tonight:

Saturday, Dec 10 - 9:00PM & 10:30PM

GERALD CLEAVER

Gerald Cleaver, drums; Darius Jones, alto saxophone; Brandon Seabrook, guitar; Cooper-Moore, piano & diddly-bow; Pascal Niggenkemper, bass

will be my first time hearing Cooper-Moore live and I cannot wait - not many gigs feature the very unique pianist/instrumentalist/improvisor.

*especially* thrilled to be going to experience the wonder of the *great* Darius Jones live once more as the last time from about 3 feet away was beyond my wildest expectations.

[king ubu]

tonight:

Fabrikjazz

Sa, 10. Dezember 2011

Ingrid Laubrock Oktett

+++ Ingrid Laubrock, tenor-/sopranosax/composition; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Tom Arthurs, trumpet/flügelhorn; Ted Reichman, accordion; Liam Noble, piano; Ben Davis, cello; Drew Gress, bass; Tom Rainey, drums/percussion +++

[A Lark Ascending]

tonight:

Fabrikjazz

Sa, 10. Dezember 2011

Ingrid Laubrock Oktett

+++ Ingrid Laubrock, tenor-/sopranosax/composition; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Tom Arthurs, trumpet/flügelhorn; Ted Reichman, accordion; Liam Noble, piano; Ben Davis, cello; Drew Gress, bass; Tom Rainey, drums/percussion +++

Good to see Ingrid hasn't forgotten her English comrades of many years.

[Steve Reynolds]

waiting for full report, Ubu

Love a larger band with the *great* Tom Rainey

I plan on putting my report in by tomorrow!

[king ubu]

Well, then, here goes my report... good but not great concert. The music - all composed by Laubrock, though both set-openers were fully improvised, it seems - left me a bit puzzled. Some of it was good, some of it was a bit on the cute side, some of it just seemed to go nowhere and left me hoping for more improvisational parts. Those improvisational parts were too few, I found. There were plenty of interesting combinations of sound, that's for sure. Mary Halvorson's guitar, Ted Reichman's accordion, Liam Noble's piano (all three had fine solo spots), Ben Davis' cello and Rainey switching to what seemed to be a vibraphone but without the motor turned on (maybe it was a marimba or a large xylophone, I couldn't see it was it was back on stage) - that all made for large sonic and textural possibilities. There were parts when the music made good use of them, but other parts just seemed like lose sketches (and then one of those cutesy melodies would turn up, picked by the cello) and the whole effect was lost again. However, what was great was how different instrumental pairs emerged time and again to form duos within the band for sometimes quite lengthy bits.

Needless to say that Laubrock's tenor and soprano and Tom Arthur's trumpet as the only horns were front and center a bit more often than most others - and both did very well and had some mighty fine spots. Laubrock on tenor has a slightly shady sound - reminded me a bit of Joe Henderson (whom alas I've never heard live). Arthurs went from chopsy highnote stuff that was always lyrical and melodic to harmon mute, plunger, and just producing air sounds and whimsical noises.

And Drew Gress - he was a bit low-fi and low in the mix, too - and Tom Rainey both did a great job anchoring the music. Gress' bass and Davis' cello often merged together to form a bottom that was quite strong, and every now and then the presence of the one allowed the other to do some flageolet playing. Rainey was a bit subdued, too, but had many great moments and in the second set really came to live!

The music was presented in two gap-less sets of roughly 50 minutes, I guess (didn't watch the clock). Reinhard Kager from SWR2 was there to present the band and the music and talked a bit too long and explained a bit more that what I found appropriate for an audience that most likely was much more "in the know" as he thought. The concert was the final (I think) stop of this year's SWR "New Jazz Meeting 2011" tour - bits of the three concerts will be broadcast in February and a CD will be released on Intakt as well. Guess it will be interesting to revisit the music and check if the cutesy bits still sound cutesy if you listen on your hifi rather than live. Can make a big difference with music of this kind (also the other way 'round, that great concerts don't work at all on CD).

All in all, I'd have enjoyed it more if there'd been: a) more solo space for individual voices, and b) more tightly-knit (and less rumbatious) ensemble parts. But it was still interesting and often pretty good. And it's always a thrill to hear Mary Halvorson, at least for me... and agreed: Rainey is great! First time I caught him live.

[Steve Reynolds]

thanks, Ubu

my report:

Gerald Cleaver Quintet NYC 12/10

Gerald Cleaver, drums; Darius Jones, alto saxophone; Brandon Seabrook, guitar; Cooper-Moore, piano & diddly-bow; Pascal Niggenkemper, bass

walked up early with my friend Chris who has seen 1 great jazz band in his life - the incomparable Instant Composers Pool this past spring...

We see the bassist go in the club - never heard of him or seen him before - oh another young guy maybe who is filling in for someone I should know....

we sit 2 tables away and see the big man smiling walking around felling comfortable with himself and checking out the piano he will play..the rest of the band is on the stage @ 9:05 and a different looking youngish early 30ish man with a little cassette recorded starts fiddling with it against his guitar strings..and it starts. With a few sheets of music in front of Jones and Seabrook the music had started.

Darius is playing slow and soft and only accompanied by Seabrook who is taping him and rewinding and feeding it back through his strings - wtf....

and it gets good - long 22-25 minute piece with all involved - multiple themes with Cleaver and that young bassist subdued with one solo by the big man, that man, the guy I was really there to see no matter what for my first time live, who I found out really was the wonderous, the *great* Mr. Cooper-Moore - yeah I heard him on record and all, but this was Cooper-Moore with guys 20 years his junior.

next was a ballad that turned into a stilted, off kilter exposition of guitar and alto with what might have seemed like some pianist from what might some sort of romantic era of jazz or other musical history - then they transformed into the next tune which was the most upbeat with the bassist and drummer emerging into what I hear as ghosts of Louis Moholo-Moholo filtered through Andrew Cyrille into what is a unique and synchronzied groove that appears and dissappears without seeming being planned - very nice set.

one never leaves before a second set if at all possible unless the wife or the club forces one too.

they come on @ 10:40 and blow the fucking roof off the place - first piece Darius Jones and especially the guitarist take this music that might be called jazz and bring it too places that I rarely hear - jazz is dead, Nicholas?? holy fuck and Cooper-Moore and Seabrook who if it like the bassist, Pascal who told me he never met the pianist before this past Monday - maybe the guitar man never did either - They played off each other played the same notes when they were never played before and it was a maelstrom of greatness - all of them the bassist and guitarist using their bows, all organically woven into the compositions - a beautiful cacophony, indeed.

then the massive crunch of the bows of each string instrument, with Pascal using a silverish bowl, with Cleaver scraping one cymbal extraordinarily morphed into that distant and then immense swing/beat tight groove with Jones always playing the ground force, with that Lyonesque alto always up front and powerful not out of place as maybe it should have been taking into account what we heard from the piano and guitar.

Brandon Seabrook is the best guitarist I saw this year despite seeing Nels Cline and Mark Ducret - so how about that? and Cline and Ducret were and are great - but what I experienced last night....

and the band and the music, not good, not excellent, simply spectacular - they had played all week - the previous night @ Cornelia Street and the other nights @ other venues - and maybe they hit their peak for the second 45-50 minute set.

my friend Chris said it was the best concert of any kind he has ever attended, I wonder if he could sleep last night??

you know how some say - if I could have been there when so and so played or it must have been something in 1958 or 1966 or whatever, it was something last night, jazz is dead, indeed - totally unlike any other band I have ever seen, all unique and strong voices unlike any others - and there is nothing like Cooper-Moore when is clapping or shouting when he is so damn inspired when he is not even playing hitting all of those 88 keys with might, grace, fingers elbows, forearms and in orders that have never been played before - he is a force of nature and he sat down with me, told me about David S Ware, William Parker and having dinner in Italy with Joe Maneri, and he staring to tell me poem he wrote about Peter Kowald and how he will play with some young guys at Peter's former home this spring, and with smile and grace that it uncommon in this world, I loved the meet you Mr. Cooper-Moore -you make my eyes water and you made my heart sing last night - with all those young guys in Mr. Gerald Cleaver's band - jazz is dead, alas not even thinking about not breathing....

they missed nothing it was surely the sound of surprise...had high expectations but it was totally different than I imagined, like some sort of alternate jazz I had never heard before even though besides the guitarist who played like no other I have ever heard, I know this music a bit - but they still trasnformed it into something new, fresh, organic - wow.

[king ubu]

Sounds great, thanks for that report!

[BillF]

Munch Manship (tenor and flute) with the Gerry Tomlinson Trio at Whitefield this afternoon.

[alankin]

Tonight:

Elaine Hoffman Watts and Susan Lankin Watts & The Fabulous Shpielkahs

http://crossroadsconcerts.org/?p=3111

In collaboration with the Philadelphia Folklore Project, Philadelphia’s greatest klezmer dynasty returns to Crossroads Music.

December 11, 2011 at 7:30 pm

At the Calvary United Methodist Church, 801 South 48th Street (at Baltimore Avenue), Philadelphia

[king ubu]

Just decided to squeeze in one more concert before the year ends... Schlippenbach 3, Moods, Dec. 14, 2011

Saw Parker and saw Schlippenbach, but never together and never in that group (not sure if I've seen Lovens yet)

[Steve Reynolds]

we are in sync, Ubu

would kill to see the Schlippenbach Trio

on the 14th for me:

The Stone NYC:

8 pm

Matt Maneri with Ed Schuller, Randy Peterson, Oscar Noriega, Craig Taborn

Matt Maneri (viola) Ed Schuller (bass) Randy Peterson (drums) Oscar Noriega (sax) Craig Taborn (piano)

10 pm

Michael Formanek Group

Michael Formanek (bass) Gerald Cleaver (drums) Craig Taborn (piano) Tim Berne (sax)

[king ubu]

Well, I saw Taborn's trio w/Cleaver a month ago - in sync indeed!

[king ubu]

Just decided to squeeze in one more concert before the year ends... Schlippenbach 3, Moods, Dec. 14, 2011

Saw Parker and saw Schlippenbach, but never together and never in that group (not sure if I've seen Lovens yet)

HOLY SMOKES! :excited:

Top concert next to Brözzimonsteronzetett and Dylan... holy smokes! Sat two metres from Lovens (no, I definitely hadn't seen him before, I would have clearly remembered!)

Fantastic concert, great tenor by Parker, and Lovens was amazing every second of it!

Schlippenbach was - not unexpectedly - the weakest link, sometimes he seemed to be rumbling, often he fell into Monk clichés, but every now and then he kind of switched and was *on*, all of a sudden, spitting out stuttering lines of stark beauty, humming along and delving into a zone. As a unit the trio was fantastic, really! Forgot to add: holy smokes! (Or should I make that - seasonally fitting - constipated christ!)

[Steve Reynolds]

maybe I write more later - the second set with Formanek's quartet was fine, albeit a little straight and to my ears, a little bit of maybe I have heard this before - despite stunning piano from Taborn and fine drumming from Cleaver although Cleaver was far more interesting last Saturday in his band. Berne was also good and immersed in Formanek's compositions but after what I heard in the previous set....

Mat Maneri, Oscar Noriega, Craig Taborn, Ed Schuller and the *great* Randy Peterson.

much minute and detailed and soft textures with a quiet extreme intensity organically evolved a few times into the most intense jazz from another world improvisation I may have ever encountered. Schuller was immense, creative, beautiful especially with the bow and a stick he used on the closing mostly intense piece and yet nothing too flashy, Noriega on bass clarinet about half the set and on alto on the last 15 minute piece was extraordinary in his scope of soft, slow, fast, loud and a combination of all those descriptors.

Mat Maneri is simply one of the greatest musicians in the world - he is a rock star in a musical idiom that draws 30 people to see one the greatest bands I have ever heard. Some parts of the set were played on a level of jaw dropping genius - sounds and visions from a place far from what is known or heard before.

and...not being a fanboy - but Randy Peterson upped the ante over the 2 sets a couple of months back - mother of god - on a level of Hemingway, Drake, Bennik, Rainey, Waits, Elvin Jones, Edward Blackwell, Andrew Cyrille, Sunny, Philly Joe and whoever else ever sat behind a drum kit - and maybe even Paul Lovens - but propbaly the polar opposite of Lovens, with broad full strokes and that great anti-swing swing - like no drummer in the world. the duet section with Taborn was over the top and when Mat creates monster riffs at full volume with the horn echoing his lines and Peterson dropping fucking atomic bombs and extreme cymbal crashes - nothing more exciting in the wordl of improvised jazz music than that.

and then to see a young guy sitting next to me in the front row for the Formanek set buy an old out of print copy from his hero who he said was Mat - having heard him for the first time about 2 years ago by mistake - that copy of the classic Joe Maneri quartet recording Dahabenzapple with Papa Joe, Mat, Cecil McBee and Randy at the kit in all his glory recorded a way back in 1993 - I havn't seen a new copy in 10 years at least - there is life to this music that few are willing to hear.

second set sold out as expected, but there were only about 30 for the first and as nice as the second set was, it wasn't in the same league as what I heard from 8:15 to 9:10 last night....

if a band led by Mat comes within flying distance....

Get Ready To Receive Yourself

[Hardbopjazz]

I just caught the Cedar Walton Trio at the Village Vanguard on Wednesday. In the house were several musicians, such as Jimmy Heath, and Peter Washington.

[Peter Johnson]

Heading to D.C. tonight to see Benny Golson at Bohemian Caverns. Betrand, you going (we're hitting the 10:30 set)? Rooster?

[BillF]

John Hallam with the Gerry Tomlinson Trio at Whitefield this afternoon.