Medeski Martin and Wood @ Party in the Park

Well, I missed them twice in 2008, so it is nice to see them twice in 2009. Not quite as engaging as the show at the Smith, due in large part to the venue, but also the music just didn't get to the level of playing achieved previously. Last time I concentrated on the "and" factor, but at this show, as I am often drawn when I see MMW, I was magnetized to Wood. Being the free outdoor show that it was, the bass became the key in keeping the easily disengaged crowd rapt, and Wood delivered. Speaking of the crowd, it was an impressive turnout on a night when the skies threatened to open all night, and for a band who let's face it, doesn't exactly cater to the lowest common denominator after-work alcohol-fueled party in a parking lot. Speaking of the parking lot, what the heck is up with this great free music series still being held in the parking lot now that Manhattan Square Park is an available venue again? It was so much better when it was there and should be returned post-haste. Don't even wait until next year, do it now! Why not?

I missed the opener Giant Panda Geurrilla Dub Squad due to waiting out the storm that never hit. They continue to be one of those bands I always seem to miss for one reason or another.

Rochester International Jazz Fest - Night Nine

I couldn't stay long for the last night of jazz fest so I had a short and specific agenda. I arrived too late to get into Joe Lovano but seeing as though I would not be able to make the 10 show, I waited. I waited for a good 45 minutes before they let us in. Lucky for us stragglers, Lovano played for another 45 minutes, a lengthy set by this festival's standards. I arrived to the blissful noise of an odd-time-signatured polyrhythmic freely-improvised near masterpiece. I eyed the singer sitting at the side of the stage with trepidation. But when she, Lovano's wife, rose up to sing, no words came out, her voice was her instrument, an instrument that no man-made instrument could mimic completely. Her range was incredible. She would pick up where her husband's solo left off and travel on her own improvisational journey. Lovano switched often and seamlessly between his unique arsenal of intstruments, including his tenor sax, and what I later learned was an aulochrome (essentially two soprano saxes fused together -- an instrument Rahsaan Roland Kirk would be playing if he were still alive) and a taragot, a Turkish woodwind that looks and plays similarly to a clarinet. Equally interesting was Francisco Mela's drumkit, with its many cymbals, one of which was purposefully cracked, and many toys which he would throw onto his kit creating new and interesting sounds. Cameron Brown on bass was not content to hang back and bang out basslines, he was adjusting and shifting his lines constantly. And James Weidman might be the most selective piano player I have seen, hitting only the necessary notes, nothing more nothing less. I wish I had seen the whole set, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Perhaps I should have left the festival on that note, but I wanted to catch one more bit of Norwegian jazz, which was some of the most consistently good stuff I had seen all week. Delirium though, was a disappointment for me. The trumoet and sax up front were interesting enough, but I found the rhythm section to be completely lifeless, and the music just hung and died because of it. I gave them a good half hour before I called it a night and thus my first RIJF (not counting the lone Bad Plus set I caught last year) came to a close. I will try to add a summary post sometime soon. Already looking forward to next year, they should be selling next year's club passes at this year's festival, or at least immediately following, while it is still fresh in everyone's minds.

Rochester International Jazz Fest - Night Eight

Started night eight with Pat Martino at Kilbourn Hall. I wouldn't have thought that this show would feature the best B3 trio I saw at the fest, but it did. I have always loved Martino's playing, both his tone and his style of picking and strumming simultaneously. He plays some rapid fire notes but in a very unshowy way, it always makes sense and always sounds perfect. His band was quite good too, I especially enjoyed Tony Monaco on B3, he KNEW how to get the right sound out of that thing, really holding the right notes and for the right amount of time, sounded great. Martino told a great story that started with him a teenager playing 7 40m sets a night in the city under the tutelage of Les Paul, and ended with him eating an early morning breakfast after a night's work with Les Paul, George Benson, Wes Montgomery, and Grant Green. WHOA...

Passed through briefly to hear Norma Winstone sing with only a piano accompaniment. Great voice and interesting style, which I dubbed Mr. Roger's jazz, and I don't mean that as a slight. Rewatching that show with my daughter I found a new appreciation for the music behind that show, especially when they pulled back the curtain on one episode and revealed that the music was all played live in the studio while they recorded. Anyway, Winstone's music was very visual and carried a lot of feeling.

Grabbed a quick bite over the sounds of Po Boys Brass Band who I have previously really enjoyed, but the short segment I caught here was a cover of Carry On Wayward Son that was played WAY too close to the original and sounded kind of silly I thought.

Next was Arve Henrikson. It will be tough to do these guys justice in words, I have no idea what exactly was going on up on stage, but it was freakin amazing. Just two guys, Henrikson played trumpet and sang into two different mics hooked into some major effects, and another guy with a keyboard, multitudes of pedals, and what appeared to be his own soundboard type thing, I just say he was the electronic facilitator since he really didn't "play" anything. When Henrikson sang what came out was very jarring at first, a beautiful high-pitched woman's voice, not unlike the voice of Sigur Ros. That was most of the time, other times it was very low, like a throat singer almost. The other guy would loop and manipulate what Henrikson was playing and create new sounds and rhythms. At one point Henrikson played his trumpet in short percussive blurts that were then used as the beat for the song. In one of the final pieces they got the crowd to sing in two part harmony and recorded and looped it and kept us singing over the top of it all. I know it is against the rules of the RIJF, but I couldn't help but get a quick video of this, just too cool. In announcing the "band" Henrikson introduced the soundman, meaning either they travelled with their own soundman and he was integral to the music, or they just really wanted to thank the guy running the boards for the RIJF.


Then I headed down to see Robert Randolph do his thing. I was hoping to make it back and see some more jazz to end the night, but damn that stage is far, once you're out there there's no coming back...

I haven't seen the Family Band in a few years and have done a pretty poor job of keeping up with them. Though as I would come to find out, nothing much has changed in their act, still doing and teaching The March, still inviting oodles of young ladies up on stage to dance during Shake Your Hips etc etc. There were a couple of new tunes I had never heard, but for the most part it was old hat, and as good as it ever was. Fairly early into the set they got Phil Campbell from the Campbell Brothers to sit in on guitar which was good. But later they got Chuck to sit in on pedal steel and that was AMAZING. They were really going at it. Add to that Susan Tedeschi and Ryan Shaw on vocals and we had ourselves a good old-fashioned throwdown that was reminiscent of some of the first times I saw RRFB when they would play with anyone and everyone for a chaotic and crazy time. I had said earlier that there weren't enough sit-ins at the RIJF, leave it to Robert Randolph to fix that problem.

A fantastic night of music in downtown Rochester.

UPDATE: Robert Randolph recording up on LMA