Jeff Lorber was in Dallas last night at the Bishop Arts Theatre in the Oak Cliff neighborhood. This was an awesome concert, at least the second half. The first half was very smooth jazz with a couple of guest artists I did not recognize. They were great musicians but the music was that tedious style of smooth jazz that repeats the same chord progression over and over while solos are bogarted for the most part by the soprano sax.
Everything changed when Lorber took the stage. He sat down, got right down to business and started plucking out some of the funkiest rhythms on electric piano. The energy level was instantly pushed to a stratospheric level and stayed there for the rest of his set. Dr. Funk was in the house and the band instantly kicked into a precise groove with lots of intricate rhythms and melodic lines and plenty of surprises along the way.
One annoyance was that the bass player never seemed to clue in that his level was set too high and he constantly overshadowed the band. This was much less of a problem once Jeff Lorber took the stage as the keyboards were up a bit higher and the dynamic range of the group was much more broad. It was only a problem in the heavier and louder portions of the tunes.
The sound reinforcement was a little weak as well. Maybe this contributed to the overdrive of the bass, but it seemed that most of the problem was coming from the fact that he was amped as well as playing through the PA.
Bishop Arts Theatre is a very small venue and was about 80% full. Promoters must have followed the stealth marketing style for this concert as almost nobody knew about it. I talked to several local musicians later that night and none of them even knew Lorber was anywhere near Dallas, despite the fact that they were huge fans. I happened to run across it in a random "jazz events" search on the Dallas Observer web site a few weeks ago. Otherwise I'd have been ignorant as well.
The venue is a great place to hear live music in an intimate setting. All the people were extremely nice to us. The room is very small with limited seating. This was the last concert of the 2009 jazz series.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Elephant Room on Halloween
Last weekend I was lucky to visit The Elephant Room in Austin. Double the fun was that it was Halloween night in downtown Austin. Triple the fun was that the band was awesome.
We started with a taxi ride from the Arboreteum area of Austin to downtown. We did this to avoid the traffic gridlock that was expected (and experienced in the past) for Halloween night in downtown Austin. This turned out to be a great idea. Getting there was no problem as we zipped into downtown 10-15 minutes after leaving the house.
After getting out of the car and while standing outside the club on the street corner waiting for a second taxi of friends to arrive, we saw quite a few interesting costumes and people walk by. Outside the door was a somewhat convincing small man with a moustache and a hat that turned out to be one of the waitresses in the club. The breasts should have been a dead giveaway, but somehow I overlooked that.
Inside the club was very comfortable, aided by the fact that all of Austin bars are non-smoking. How nice to go out to a great jazz club and not have to worry about the need to burn clothes the next day from the rank smell of stale tobacco. A few nights before I had wanted to go into the Balcony Club in Dallas after the Bruce Hornsby concert to hear a couple of tunes and have a drink, but we could not bring ourselves to walk into the joint due to the overwhelming stench of stale tobacco wisping out of the entry door. The Elephant Room was a pleasant surprise in that area.
The band instrumentation was guitar, trombone, organ/piano, bass and drums. All of the musicians were great, but the guitarist was especially exciting. He played a very John Scofield sound and style. The drummer was also outstanding and his stylings reminded me of Ed Soph. The trombonist alternated between bass and trombone and sounded great on both. The organist provided the soul vaccination for the band with the rich B3 sound coming out of the organ. They started with a couple of standards, then played mostly a jazz-rock and fusion style for the rest of the night.
Some dork (who seemed to be an owner or manager of the place) insisted on standing in front of the mike on some tunes and providing poetic or narrative during vamp periods of the tune being played. Happily we were spared from most of the content as the mike was mysteriously turned off whenever he started talking or, um, singing. Thank you Mr. Sound Man. Other than this disturbing side show, the band was exceptionally professional and fun to hear.
Afterward, we had trouble getting a taxi back to the house. The streets were gridlocked and tons of people were walking around all the streets in the Congress area as well as the 4th to 6th street areas. Finally we were able to hail a couple of cabs and start the journey home. Once we got out of the inner city, traffic returned to normal and we were home in not time.
Great fun!
We started with a taxi ride from the Arboreteum area of Austin to downtown. We did this to avoid the traffic gridlock that was expected (and experienced in the past) for Halloween night in downtown Austin. This turned out to be a great idea. Getting there was no problem as we zipped into downtown 10-15 minutes after leaving the house.
After getting out of the car and while standing outside the club on the street corner waiting for a second taxi of friends to arrive, we saw quite a few interesting costumes and people walk by. Outside the door was a somewhat convincing small man with a moustache and a hat that turned out to be one of the waitresses in the club. The breasts should have been a dead giveaway, but somehow I overlooked that.
Inside the club was very comfortable, aided by the fact that all of Austin bars are non-smoking. How nice to go out to a great jazz club and not have to worry about the need to burn clothes the next day from the rank smell of stale tobacco. A few nights before I had wanted to go into the Balcony Club in Dallas after the Bruce Hornsby concert to hear a couple of tunes and have a drink, but we could not bring ourselves to walk into the joint due to the overwhelming stench of stale tobacco wisping out of the entry door. The Elephant Room was a pleasant surprise in that area.
The band instrumentation was guitar, trombone, organ/piano, bass and drums. All of the musicians were great, but the guitarist was especially exciting. He played a very John Scofield sound and style. The drummer was also outstanding and his stylings reminded me of Ed Soph. The trombonist alternated between bass and trombone and sounded great on both. The organist provided the soul vaccination for the band with the rich B3 sound coming out of the organ. They started with a couple of standards, then played mostly a jazz-rock and fusion style for the rest of the night.
Some dork (who seemed to be an owner or manager of the place) insisted on standing in front of the mike on some tunes and providing poetic or narrative during vamp periods of the tune being played. Happily we were spared from most of the content as the mike was mysteriously turned off whenever he started talking or, um, singing. Thank you Mr. Sound Man. Other than this disturbing side show, the band was exceptionally professional and fun to hear.
Afterward, we had trouble getting a taxi back to the house. The streets were gridlocked and tons of people were walking around all the streets in the Congress area as well as the 4th to 6th street areas. Finally we were able to hail a couple of cabs and start the journey home. Once we got out of the inner city, traffic returned to normal and we were home in not time.
Great fun!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Bruce Hornsby at Lakewood Theatre
It was great to hear Bruce Hornsby at the Lakewood in Dallas last Tuesday night. I had not been to the Lakewood Theatre in a long time. The venue has a great old movie house vibe and the chairs are comfy.
I was expecting a warm-up band, so it was a pleasant surprise when Hornsby came walking out a few minutes after 8pm. He was accompanied by 4 other excellent muscians including sax, guitar, keyboards and drums. The second keyboardist played lots of organ and synth pads for the most part.
Hornsby wasted no time in taking a seat at the grand piano and immediately dropping hands onto some of his signature voicings. The first tune was solo piano and singing with lots of rich harmonic color and spontaneity.
The first set was good, but the second set was much better. My complaints about the first set were mostly around the overall live mix and the fact that the guitarist only took one solo. Most of the first set he played rhythm guitar while Hornsby and the saxophonist handled the solos.
In the second set, the guitarist had several solo opportunities, all of which hit the spot. At one point the second keyboardist was able to solo a bit on organ. Overall thought, the improvisation was restrained compared to a jazz group.
Hornsby's style, while incorporating improvisation, is much more eclectic and idiosyncratic than a jazz performance. His piano harmonizations are unique and his melodic style is very angular. Elements of jazz, folk, R&B and rock can be found in his music. His later music leans much more toward a hard rock folk sound than his earlier music that I remember. Of course, the only recording of his I know to some degree is Harbor Lights, which to me is the Bruce Hornsby music I really like.
I was expecting a warm-up band, so it was a pleasant surprise when Hornsby came walking out a few minutes after 8pm. He was accompanied by 4 other excellent muscians including sax, guitar, keyboards and drums. The second keyboardist played lots of organ and synth pads for the most part.
Hornsby wasted no time in taking a seat at the grand piano and immediately dropping hands onto some of his signature voicings. The first tune was solo piano and singing with lots of rich harmonic color and spontaneity.
The first set was good, but the second set was much better. My complaints about the first set were mostly around the overall live mix and the fact that the guitarist only took one solo. Most of the first set he played rhythm guitar while Hornsby and the saxophonist handled the solos.
In the second set, the guitarist had several solo opportunities, all of which hit the spot. At one point the second keyboardist was able to solo a bit on organ. Overall thought, the improvisation was restrained compared to a jazz group.
Hornsby's style, while incorporating improvisation, is much more eclectic and idiosyncratic than a jazz performance. His piano harmonizations are unique and his melodic style is very angular. Elements of jazz, folk, R&B and rock can be found in his music. His later music leans much more toward a hard rock folk sound than his earlier music that I remember. Of course, the only recording of his I know to some degree is Harbor Lights, which to me is the Bruce Hornsby music I really like.
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