Son-of-a-Weizen Posted April 5, 2005 Report Share Posted April 5, 2005 (edited) I stayed at the Kitano Hotel in NYC this past weekend and had the good fortune to catch Jason Lindner who was playing in the hotel's small jazz lounge in a quintet and trio setting on Fri./Sat. night. I'd only read small bits about him and knew little more than he'd played with Roy Haynes and had steadily built a solid reputation as a somewhat innovative big band oriented composer/post-bop pianist. Thought about catching both shows but decided to zero in on the trio show and headed off Fri. to see Eric Alexander & Vincent Herring (as an aside: when the 'live' cd of this show at 'Smoke' comes out it's going to be a killer!!!) Anyway, on Saturday, Lindner had John Benitez w/him on bass (a monster of a guy in person! ...must be 6'6 & 275!?) and Jonathan Blake on drums -- both super nice guys. I can't remember the last time I saw a small group have so much fun. Lindner improvising like mad and grinning like a kid at Blake while slowly turning up the heat...and Blake just eating it up & hammering the drums toward the end. During one number, Lindner deftly changed gears and moved into carrib/latin land which really got Benitez all ginned up and playing like mad and delivering two or three 'Oooay' calls with that deep voice (he told me that he got hooked on jazz listening to Philly Joe recs as a kid in Puerto Rico). I'll always have this mental image of Lindner grinning at the two throughout and just leading 'em on and on.....great stuff! We stayed for both sets and it was a shame that there were so few folks there....no cover either. When they started up at 8:15, my wife and I were the only two sitting there....and a handful of others trickled in during the set. By the end of the 2nd set there were about 30 bodies....the lousy weather probably had something to do with it. Anyway, he said he'd just put the finishing touches on a trio recording....so that's definitely one to look forward to. Edited April 5, 2005 by Son-of-a-Weizen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted April 5, 2005 Report Share Posted April 5, 2005 Wasn't Linder on that JAZZ UNDERGROUND: Live at Small's disc? I really enjoyed his tunes on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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