Benny Golson's "We Remember Clifford Group

[White Lightning]

Benny Golson's All Stars group is playing in T-A this week. I was fortunate enough to interview Benny Golson and to take some pics of the show and the soundchecks before.

I'll have a short video clip of the interview for you tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, here are the pics I took from yesterday's gig. Enjoy!

(click the thumbnail to enlarge)

http://einatbarak.hurvitz.org/photos/We_Remember_Clifford/

[mikeweil]

I intended to catch them at Darmstadt on Thursday, but have to leave to Vienna for a gig on Friday in the evening .... too bad. You don't have too many chances to see so many greats in one place. Would have been a great display of jazz legend to show to my wife. I saw Golson in Schwetzingen last year, and he was playing fantastic, and a very nice man to talk to he is.

Thanks for sharing!

Edited April 4, 2006 by mikeweil

[White Lightning]

Here's a very short clip of the interview and the gig. enjoy!

->Click<-

[king ubu]

Barak, was the concert good?

He'll play in Zurich on April 11, but this being some kind of all star package and a very negative review about their Burghausen concert in March make me a bit hesitant...

On the other hand, he'll appear in a fairly small club and he's quite old and I never saw him before, so...

[White Lightning]

Well, it wasn't a session that you'll remember forever as one of those special moments in your life, there was nothing adventurous or thrilling about the gig, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Randy Brecker and Eddie Henderson played wonderful. Brecker soloed was "I remember Clifford" and Henderson was the soloist in "Portrait of Jennie". Golson wasn't as good. Too bad he didn't stick to the more slow-tempo pieces, where his failing chops wouldn't be so obvious and his lyricism would shine through. Golson also gave his usual schtick of story-telling, which can be nice and engaging if you hear it for the first time. Al Foster was great.

The set list consisted of several Brownie tunes (Dahoud, Joyspring etc.) some Brownie-related tunes (Portrait of Jennie etc. ), some bebop tunes (confirmation etc), and only one Golson standard (I remember Clifford, of course).

[Dmitry]

Nice photos, Barak.

[king ubu]

Thanks for that review... kind of a mixed bag, then. I should have gone to see Golson when he played that gig of which I had a tune on my BFT, back in 2000 or so...

Henderson is another musician I'm not sure about... I saw him with the Mingus big band and he was weak, weakest of the bunch to be honest. Like, his first solo was more like him warming up his horn and chops. The second turn then was ok and pretty lyrical. But surrounded by the likes of Frank Lacy, Wayne Escofferey and Jaleel Shaw, and also his fellow trumpeters, Alex Sipiagin and Kenny Rampton, he looked pretty weak - biggest name, worst performance... (the concert all in all was terrific, though!)

I guess I'll try and go to see Golson - might well be the last chance I get, alas.

[king ubu]

Nice photos, Barak.

Oh yes!

[mikeweil]

I guess I'll try and go to see Golson - might well be the last chance I get, alas.

When I saw him last summer he played very well - all known phrases, but the way he did it was great. There is enough talent in that band to get some out of it.

[king ubu]

I saw the group last night, was a fairly nice concert, but Golson was not that great, either. Brecker was too tough, hard, harsh, loud and high for my likings, and not really into the music with his heart, it seemed - merely doing his job, which was to shine... Claus Reichstaller was there for Henderson, and he was definitely the most convincing musician, doing "Once in a While" on the flugel, and that was definitely the most beautiful and most touching piece of the whole concert. Other than that they played the same tunes Barak mentioned: Set 1 was "Joy Spring", "Confirmation", "I Remember Clifford" and one more tune, set 2 was "Jordu", "Once in a While", "Take the A Train", "A Night in Tunisia", and "Now's the Time" as an outro - they don't seem to play encores on this tour.

Besides Reichstaller I liked Al Foster a lot, and Mike LeDonne did some great things, too. Buster Williams, alas, had an ugly pick-up eighties bass-sound, but it seems it was all his equipment, so it's him who is to blame. Yuck. If he stayed down low it was ok, and of course he played great, but if he went toward the upper region of his instrument's range, it started sounding twanky ugly metallish... and you heard his fingers and the noise of the string just as loud as the actual tone of the bass.

Anyway, it was worth seeing, for sure!