I had the pleasure of spending about eight hours at the Greenwich Village 11th Annual JazzFest this past Friday evening.
It is a three day event but I went on Friday largely because the artists I liked the most were playing that night.
I caught the last song of the Wallace Roney Quintet at the Bitter End. The last time I had been to the Bitter End was 1976 when I saw this stand up comic named Billy Crystal (yes same guy) and the headliner was a favorite Brit of mine Peter Hammill (highly recommended). The Roney tune was a combination of a Miles Davis composition and then Roney played the theme from Sly Stone's Stand. His young band were special as was the older drummer, Lenny White (from Chick Corea's Return to Forever).
Next I sat in at the Minetta Lane Theater with a vibe player. I then switched to the Minetta Lane Playhouse where Donald Murray had the clarinet summit which was fantastic -- Murray, Hammiett Blueitt, Don Byon and an excellent Slavic soprano clarinet player (forget his name).
I then went to Le Poisson Rouge to check out the ICP Orchestra which is old time avant gard'ish jazz led by Drummer Han Bennik. Bennik is an acquired taste but the last few songs I witnessed were pretty straight forward jazz.
Then to the beautiful Judson Church to see a few tunes by the Dave Douglas Quintet which was just a little disappointing, but still OK.
The remainder of the night was at the Minetta Lane Playhouse which had the best acts in my opinion. Unfortunately, I missed Donald Murray with Geri Allen and Terrie Lynn Carrington. Also unfortunately because a lot of people stayed for that show I had to wait 40 minutes outside in the sub 20 degree farenheit weather.
But === it was worth it.
Saw the last portion of Oliver Lake, with Andrew Cyrille and Reggie Workman and I swear that the inspiration of John Coltrane was in the house. My son Alex disagrees because I never got to see Coltrane so how can I know the essence of the 'Trane. I started listening to Coltrane in 1978 (about 11 years after his death and I was 11 years old when he died) so I do have close to 37 years of Coltrane listening experience. So, whether you agree or not, I felt that Coltrane was in the house during the Trio 3 (plus pianist Vijay Iyer).
The next band was Marc Ribot (who I wrote up in an earlier post) and the Young Philadelphians with Strings. This ensemble was quite unusual as there was a drummer and a bass (Calvin Weston on drums and Jamaladeen Tacuma on Bass -- he was fantastic as always and a highly recommended fusion artist in his own right). The rest of the band was another young female electric guitarist in addition to Ribot plus two violas and a cello. They played funky renditions of songs like Tenement Funster and 1970's style almost disco sound mixed with avant garde jazz. A truely unique and satisfying experience.
The last set I saw was a tribute to John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards (highly recommended if you have not heard of them). The eleven piece band was basically run by his brother Evan Lurie on Piano and the excellent Steve Bernstein on Trombone. They played just about an hour and it was after 1 30 am when the got off the stage.
It was great to reminisce about the downtown avant garde jazz scene that I have been experiencing since about 1980 through the tutelage of one Michael Gittleman, a former BFF (I guess nothing lasts forever). In another post I will expand on that scene and help you get exposed to some of this excellent but somewhat difficult music to listen to.
No comments:
Post a Comment