Swish
10-15-2006, 05:55 PM
... and Jerome Harris, but it seemed to me that Jack, the highly acclaimed jazz drummer, was the headliner. The show was in the lower level of the World Cafe in Philadelphia, which is more like a dinner theater type of atmosphere. There is a long, large bar along the back wall as you enter, with a bunch of tables near it, while we were down on the floor lever in the second section of tables, perhaps about 20 feet from the stage. This place is very new, very clean and modern, was built for sound and has excellent acoustics, unlike many of the "dive" venues where I see most of my favorite bands.
We got there a bit later than we wanted, thanks to the knuckle-head at the hotel who lost my valet ticket. I gave them a description of my car but it still took about 20 minutes for them to locate it, then we fought downtown traffic for another 15 minutes or so to get to the club. We ordered a couple of IPAs, some really awesome veggie soup with curry, and meatloaf platters. Due to our lateness, we were still eating when the band came out, making it a bit tricky with the lights turned down very low.
Anyway, Jack described the first 5 tunes they were going to do while Bill didn't speak one bit. As in most stage setups, the drum kit was in the center of the stage, but instead of being in the background, the three musicians were pretty much all lined up about the same distance from the front. We were seated to the right, and what really drove me crazy was that Bill, who was also postitioned on the right, faced Jack the entire time, so we basically saw his back throughout the entire show. He never faced the audience except at the very end when they took their bow, and I have to say I've never seen a guitarist who did that. Never. I don't know if he suffers from some kind of stage fright or whatever, but it was pretty odd if you ask me. It was just unnerving to see a musician who refused to face his audience.
In addition, while there were plenty of drum and bass solos, Bill never soloed, although his playing was pretty much flawless throughout the night. One funny thing that happened involved the couple seated right behind us. They got there even later than we did, and at one point, she went to the ladies room and didn't return for quite a long time. When she finally came back, he asked her if she was flirting with the guys at the bar or something like that, and she just giggled. Then she asked "did you know this was a jazz concert?". That really cracked us up, although we didn't laugh out loud or anything. Then shortly after that question, Jack did a drum solo that, while pretty dang good, was also at least 10 minutes long, and this guy proclaimed, "I hate drum solos", then they both got up and left. What a couple of goofs!
Anyway, with the exception of a few selections that were pretty self-indulgent, with all kinds of noise-making effects that just wore me out, they put on a pretty good show. Harris is one fine bassist to go along with the excellent playing of DeJohnette and Frisell, but I would have preferred they canned the noisy crap and stuck to jazz. The only tune that I knew was Flamenco Sketches, from Kind of Blue, and was the only time Jack played piano (a Korg electric that was set up to sound like an acoustic piano) instead of drums, and it was quite nice.
I'm not a huge jazz fan by any means, but I do appreciate seeing fine musicians in any configuration, but if you ever have a chance to catch a show at this place, GO! The place is truly outstanding, the food is good and reasonably priced, and you can eat and drink before and during the show. Califone will be there on November 11th, which is a Saturday, so I will likely be going to that one.
Swish
We got there a bit later than we wanted, thanks to the knuckle-head at the hotel who lost my valet ticket. I gave them a description of my car but it still took about 20 minutes for them to locate it, then we fought downtown traffic for another 15 minutes or so to get to the club. We ordered a couple of IPAs, some really awesome veggie soup with curry, and meatloaf platters. Due to our lateness, we were still eating when the band came out, making it a bit tricky with the lights turned down very low.
Anyway, Jack described the first 5 tunes they were going to do while Bill didn't speak one bit. As in most stage setups, the drum kit was in the center of the stage, but instead of being in the background, the three musicians were pretty much all lined up about the same distance from the front. We were seated to the right, and what really drove me crazy was that Bill, who was also postitioned on the right, faced Jack the entire time, so we basically saw his back throughout the entire show. He never faced the audience except at the very end when they took their bow, and I have to say I've never seen a guitarist who did that. Never. I don't know if he suffers from some kind of stage fright or whatever, but it was pretty odd if you ask me. It was just unnerving to see a musician who refused to face his audience.
In addition, while there were plenty of drum and bass solos, Bill never soloed, although his playing was pretty much flawless throughout the night. One funny thing that happened involved the couple seated right behind us. They got there even later than we did, and at one point, she went to the ladies room and didn't return for quite a long time. When she finally came back, he asked her if she was flirting with the guys at the bar or something like that, and she just giggled. Then she asked "did you know this was a jazz concert?". That really cracked us up, although we didn't laugh out loud or anything. Then shortly after that question, Jack did a drum solo that, while pretty dang good, was also at least 10 minutes long, and this guy proclaimed, "I hate drum solos", then they both got up and left. What a couple of goofs!
Anyway, with the exception of a few selections that were pretty self-indulgent, with all kinds of noise-making effects that just wore me out, they put on a pretty good show. Harris is one fine bassist to go along with the excellent playing of DeJohnette and Frisell, but I would have preferred they canned the noisy crap and stuck to jazz. The only tune that I knew was Flamenco Sketches, from Kind of Blue, and was the only time Jack played piano (a Korg electric that was set up to sound like an acoustic piano) instead of drums, and it was quite nice.
I'm not a huge jazz fan by any means, but I do appreciate seeing fine musicians in any configuration, but if you ever have a chance to catch a show at this place, GO! The place is truly outstanding, the food is good and reasonably priced, and you can eat and drink before and during the show. Califone will be there on November 11th, which is a Saturday, so I will likely be going to that one.
Swish