Your Favortie Live Performance!!!!

[jazzman54]

Id like to know if there were any live jazz performances you went to that really blew you away. What group? Where was the performance? What was so great about it.

A while ago before Danillo Perez sp? (piano) was kind of a big name I heard him play in Boston while I was traveling through the area. I forget the name of the club (I think it was in a hotel) but he was incredible. At that time I knew he would make a big impact. Phenominal player!

[jazzalive]

Terrance Blanchard! We just saw him at Yoshi's in Oakland. Caught the matinee show on Sunday. What a show. My kids (12 and 16) were attending their first jazz concert and they loved it! Terrance has a great tight band. The piano player, just 17 years old has great chops. Quite the show! We plan on seeing Winton in Stockton next month.

[dizforprez]

Joshua Redman/Brian Blade, Jan. 2001 IAJE, New Orleans.

[kerouack]

HELLO:
Danilo Perez is from panama.

One of the best concerts for me was in San sebastian, the Dave douglas quintet, with Chris Potter and Uri Caine.

[TangneyK]

Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie, and Marc Copeland in Munchen (Munich for all you English-speakin MoFo's). Their ears were the size of a small country!!! They'd start out with a "head", then move to God-knows-where for 15-20 mins, then come back (sometimes) to the head. Unbelievable.

Getting there was literally a trip, too. Almost got my foot cut off by the door on the train from Nurnburg to Munich, the cab driver didn't know where the club was so I had to show him how to get there (that being only my second time at the club and in the city of Munich), and when I got there, there was only one seat (stool) left. When I went to go sit down on it, some jack-ass put his and his girlfriend's coats on it. I asked if someone was going to be sitting there, and he said, "No." So I asked if I could sit there instead of his coats. He said, "No." So I ended up sitting on the floor five feet away from John Abercrombie. I guess everything works out in the end!!!!

--Kevin

[TangneyK]

Oh yeah!!!!

Tom Harrell at the Jazz Bakery in L.A. two months before he recorded the "Tom Harrell Live at the Village Vanguard" album. Talked to the bassist (Ugonna Okegwo) after the show, and 90% of the tunes they played were written by Tom on the plane from New York!!!!!!! What an awesome show/player/arranger/person. My favorite trumpet player.

--Kevin

P.S. And if you haven't bought "Tom Harrell Live at the Village Vanguard", what are you waiting for!?! He does the standard "Everything Happens to Me", and every time I here it, I want to cry.

[Japle]

In late 1963 I was 17 years old. A couple of friends and I went to Birdland to see Maynard. I'd met him the previous August when he'd been the guest artist at a jazz camp hosted by arranger Art Dedrick.
We sat in the "bleachers" near the back wall. We were all underage, but had found out that beer and Coke came in identical 12 oz paper cups. First, buy a Coke. Then, work your way up to the bar and get your "draft beer" refilled.
About a third of the way through a set, I was headed back from the bar when I detoured past the left side of the stage. The bass player, Link Milliman, was having equipment trouble. The set screw holding his peg was backing out and the bass kept slipping. He was only a few feet away. I was on my 3rd beer. I stepped up, sat on the stage and grabbed the peg. Got some looks, but that didn't stop me. I found that by keeping thumb pressure on the screw, it would stay tight.
When the number was over we did some experimenting and found that I could l lie on my side, hold the peg and still drink my beer. The next number was "Got the Spirit" and that bass was really jumpin'! Pee Wee Marquette, Birdland's midget master of ceremonies, brought me another beer on Link.
What a great set that was! I was 17 and on the stage at Birdland with Maynard Ferguson! And my friends were watching!! And don't forget the beer!!!
After the set, Maynard came over and thanked me. I reminded him of the jazz camp and he remembered me. At least he was nice enough to say so, even if it wasn't true.
One of the sax players had something like Loc-Tite in his case and the bass was stable for the rest of the night.
Back in the bleachers, I tried to be cool, but failed. Who cares?

John
home.cfl.rr.com/themuterack/
Cape Canaveral

[jamesfrmphilly]

john coltrane on any given night.
one night we were all sitting around the bar after the first set drinking beer and some fat white kid came up to 'trane and asked him about music.
john took the kid in the back and gave him a 20 minute lesson/demonstration!
the kid left with a big smile on his face.
at that moment i realized that if i wasn't so cool, i might have asked 'trane for a lesson.

[Tootsall]

(Mental image.....teenager laying on the stage hanging onto the bass peg with a death grip by one hand and a beer in what was undoubtedly another death grip from the other hand).


Naaaa, can't top that. Ain't even going to try.

You win, John.

[romey1]

jamesfrmphilly said:

john coltrane on any given night.
one night we were all sitting around the bar after the first set drinking beer and some fat white kid came up to 'trane and asked him about music.

James,

I find "some fat white kid" racist and insensitive.

romey

[Japle]

romey,

I think the point may be that 'Trane didn't care what the kid looked like. He saw through that to the kid's desire to learn.

John
Cape Canaveral

[jamesfrmphilly]

i was trying to show Coltrane's humanity and maturity compared to the rest of us "being cool".
the reason i loved 'trane so much was that in addition to being a genius he was the most "normal" and unassuming human being.
if you saw him on the street in philly, you could talk to him.
he would tell you what books to read and what teachers to go to.
Coltrane spread LOVE around!
i miss him.

[Trptmaster]

He was a monster player! Thanks for your story James!

Very cool!

TM

[bnbtrpt]

Chris Potter at smalls in NYC would have to be my favorite live performance.

jd