eld was a great groove: not the tightest band in the world (yet) but TONS of soul and fun. And as we all agreed, we'd prefer the soul and fun and the joy of sharing music with LOTS of people to anything else. (We did agree, however, that a few more all band practices might be in order!) In the course of the night, about 250 people came through - and the groove was so good that the owner has given us a standing gig each first Thursday through June (when we leave for Istanbul) - so it felt like a success (in an early Stones kind of way.)If I haven't said it before, it is a humbling privilege to play with these cats as they are ALL professional musicians - and I mean top drawer players! What's more, they are jazz boys and I'm an aging rock and roller. So it has been a wildass crash course in both jazz aesthetics and style and I am loving it on a host of levels. As the premier improvisation sax player, Sonny Rollins, once said to an interviewer: Jazz is about freedom - on every level - and making it swing. And last night had some swinging moments:
+ Gershwin's "Summertime" - which we've never played before - was sizzli
ng. So was a sultry "Come Together" by the Beatles. Herbie Hancock's take on Hugo Santemaria's "Watermelon Man" had authentic funk. And the jazz standards from "Paper Moon," "Blue Skies," "Till There Was You" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come" were beautiful and well played.
ng. So was a sultry "Come Together" by the Beatles. Herbie Hancock's take on Hugo Santemaria's "Watermelon Man" had authentic funk. And the jazz standards from "Paper Moon," "Blue Skies," "Till There Was You" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come" were beautiful and well played.+ We threw in some rock and roll for fun - like the Georgia Satellite's "Keep Your Hand to Yourself" and rockin' little take on Ray Charles' "Hallelujah I Love Her Son" and Hall and Oates' "Sarah Smile" - and had fun playing cool jazz with "Girl From Ipanema" and "Take 5." (Diana Krall does this here...)
+ We brought up some friends - Ben Garver sang a few rock tunes and our little blues man from church, Ethan Wesley, brought down the house again with "Steam Roller Blues" -and then the band got tight on "One Note Samba" and Sonny Rollins's, "Tenor Madness" (with a little "Flintstones interlude mixed in for fun before finishing up double time!)
A t
on of church folk came out to be supportive - and lots of friends from the wider community, too - and that was sweet. It helped having the excellent piano of Ben Kohn cooking and experimenting this month so that both Andy and Charlie could soar and solo. And John Haddad on the drums is a monster of finesse and pure joy - he really helps me put down a solid bottom as the new bass player. Dianne felt very much at home this time, too, and she just belted out the standards with confidence and was playful in all the right ways - her take on "C'est Magnifique" was pure butter.
on of church folk came out to be supportive - and lots of friends from the wider community, too - and that was sweet. It helped having the excellent piano of Ben Kohn cooking and experimenting this month so that both Andy and Charlie could soar and solo. And John Haddad on the drums is a monster of finesse and pure joy - he really helps me put down a solid bottom as the new bass player. Dianne felt very much at home this time, too, and she just belted out the standards with confidence and was playful in all the right ways - her take on "C'est Magnifique" was pure butter.Over Guiness and/vodka afterwards we all agreed - we need to play more gigs and do a little more group practice - to tighten the sound. At the same time, we want to keep the groove going with our friends and audience and invite them into the mix from time to time so that the show feels like a "peoples band" celebration rather than a tightly knit group of experts. And here's a fascinating spiritual insight: these guys are all creatively working at balancing their commitment to beauty in the music with the joy of living. It is never one or the other, always both, dig?
Ralph Ellison, famous for his incredible book 
The Invisible Man (about a young black man from the South who enters a variety of white worlds and experiences different types of invisibility), has also written a number of insightful essays about jazz. One of his on-going themes speaks to this balance - especially as he critiques the bebop aesthetic. He understands both the artistic and intellectual creativity of that genre - and celebrates the genius of its best players - but also notes that too often the beboppers became a force onto themselves. They turned their backs - literally - on the audience. Ellison doesn't mince words when he says, "In fact, they started to treat the mostly white, middle class audience the way white shop keepers treated them in the hood." With disrespect, rudeness and neglect - a very different attitude and experience from the early jazz greats like Armstrong, Ellington and Basie.
The Invisible Man (about a young black man from the South who enters a variety of white worlds and experiences different types of invisibility), has also written a number of insightful essays about jazz. One of his on-going themes speaks to this balance - especially as he critiques the bebop aesthetic. He understands both the artistic and intellectual creativity of that genre - and celebrates the genius of its best players - but also notes that too often the beboppers became a force onto themselves. They turned their backs - literally - on the audience. Ellison doesn't mince words when he says, "In fact, they started to treat the mostly white, middle class audience the way white shop keepers treated them in the hood." With disrespect, rudeness and neglect - a very different attitude and experience from the early jazz greats like Armstrong, Ellington and Basie.Ellison's point - and my jazz buds know this in their souls - is that what we are doing is a group thing: we are working to tap into beauty and a groove but it isn't just for ourselves. It the people don't feel the swing, then it don't mean a thing, right? This is soul food stuff in the very best way. Theologian, Eugene Peterson, puts it like this about artists:
I am 
saddened when friends tell me, "I'm swamped with must reading; I don't have time for novels or poetry." What they are saying is that they choose to attend to the routines andnot to the creative center. (I would add music and FUN into this mix, too.)
saddened when friends tell me, "I'm swamped with must reading; I don't have time for novels or poetry." What they are saying is that they choose to attend to the routines andnot to the creative center. (I would add music and FUN into this mix, too.)There is no "must" reading; we choose what we read (and do!) What is not fed does not grow; what is not supported does not stand; what is not nurtured does not develop. Artists are not the only peple who keep us open and involved in this essential but easily slighted center of creation, but they are too valuable to be slighted.
So as I play with these cats - learning and grooving - I can't help but think: What a treasure to be a part of joy! (Now we're off to see the kids in NYC - more upon our return.)
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Our best review of the night last night: "We didn't know we could have this much fun in Pittsfield!" Amen!!!
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