Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Brian Wilson's Band: Live in Rhode Island

This past Friday, the buzz in the air was palpable as my wife and I entered the events center at the Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island. This was our first visit to the venue and parking have been confusing, but that all faded as we joined the crowd waiting for Brian Wilson's band to appear.  

Just after 8:00 p.m., the band began to take their places on the stage. I'd heard that Brian was recovering from some physical issues, but it was still a bit of a shock to see him being rolled behind his piano within a wheelchair. Moments later, the band played the crystalline early notes of California Girls and the show began. Brian's voice was a bit shaky, but he sang the lead vocal and was soon buoyed by lush background vocals.  

Brian's band is currently on tour and playing two shows entitled Greatest Hits and Pet Sounds: the Final Performances.  This show was the Greatest Hits version, but later we also got to hear about half of the Pet Sounds album played live.  So how did it feel?  It felt wonderful. Brian has assembled an incredibly talented band and the Greatest Hits mostly referred to the work of the band he co-founded over fifty years ago, the Beachboys.  Brian wrote most of the Beachboys music and his band plays a broad and deep version of the group's music and also played a few tunes from Brian's solo career.  

This version of the band also has several members besides Brian who played with the Beachboys at various time.  Al Jardine, sang lead vocals on numerous songs, including signature pieces such as Sloop John B and Help Me Ronda.  His son, Matt Jardine, first played with the Beachboys in the late Nineties and has a strong falsetto that can fill in the high notes Brian used to sing. Matt did a wonderful job singing lead vocals on Don't Worry Baby and anchored the high end of the group's harmonies. When I saw the Beachboys in 1997, Matt had just joined the band, so he knows the material very well. 

Another highlight of this concert was the participation of Blondie Champlin.  Blondie was with the Beachboys for a couple of years in the early Seventies and brought a hard rock edge to the group, plus strong vocals. His signature song is Sail on Sailor (co-written by Brian) and it was great to hear him belt it out live at this concert. His voice is not as sweet these days, but is still strong. He's a commanding stage presence and played some outstanding guitar solos on a gold Les Paul. He was also featured as lead vocalist and guitarist on Feel Flows (a Carl Wilson song) and Wild Honey.   

Another standout in the band is Darian Sahanaja, who has been an arranger and band leader for Brian for the past twenty years. He's extremely versatile as a musician, playing vibes, keyboards and several other instruments.  On this night, he sang a compelling version of Darlin', a soulful, upbeat song from the late Sixties.   

But truly words and a listing of songs don't really capture what we saw. This is a great band with lots of energy and versatility. Brian toughed it out and participated all night long, often singing the lead vocals. A highlight for me was their rendition of Add Some Music to Your Day, featuring lead vocals from Brian and several other band members and gorgeous harmonies.  By my count, the band played 29 songs in all.  The band finished with Brian's powerful Love and Mercy, a song he wrote in the late Eighties which ranks with his best work.  

If this band comes anywhere near your town, go and see them. Brian is a living legend and his music and the sound of the Beachboys lives on.  

 

A Deep Dive with Joni Mitchell

Last week I began to read the book, Joni Mitchell, The Anthology, authored and curated by writer Barney Hoskyns.  It's a collection of reviews, conversations and interviews covering all of Joni Mitchell 40+ year musical career. It's a fine way to cover her career, since over time her musical journey took many turns and it helps to hear the views of writers reacting to all of it and also get Joni's own insights through wide ranging interviews and conversations at different times. I burned through the book in just a few days, tugged by the many memories I have of her music, both as she has performed it and through the many other artists who have interpreted her songs. My own Joni Mitchell journey began in the summer of 1974. I was on an internship in Wisconsin and one of the other interns played the music of For the Roses for me. I was immediately hooked and dove in deep when I heard her next album, Help Me, just after that. From that point on, Joni was one of my musical north stars. She didn't know it, but we traveled on parallel musical journeys. As she began to delve into jazz, I started shifting my own music in that direction, getting instruction at a local music studio on jazz guitar and getting direct exposure over the next few years to musicians such as Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays as they were just breaking out.  

In a similar manner, Mitchell's music expanded beyond the solo focused early efforts -- which culminated with the remarkable Blue album and began to be supplemented with other musicians. But as several writers in the anthology note, Mitchell's music was quite unique and didn't fit the normal rock and roll or folk modes as it evolved. So she started working with jazz musicians -- first the LA Express, led by the lyrical woodwinds player Tom Scott and then ascending up the jazz ladder to work with some of the most inspiring musicians of that time, bassist Jaco Pastorius and later, saxophonist Wayne Shorter. I saw her play live with the LA Express in August 1974. That show included a mix of her solo oriented material, mostly dating from Blue or earlier albums, and the songs from the Help Me and For the Roses, which were a good fit for the LA Express. The crowd seemed most enamored with her older material and in fact, hearing Joni play with musicians like guitarist Robbin Ford was a dramatic departure from solo renditions backed by her own piano, acoustic guitar or dulcimer. I was intrigued by all of it. I soon bought Blue and found she was already quite a mature songwriter by this point, which had been quite obvious at the show.  

A few years later, she produced one of my favorite albums, Hejira, which was the first to include Jaco Pastorius as a collaborator. I was already familiar with Jaco from Weather Report, but Mitchell's music showed that he could use his fretless electric bass to add extraordinary color to her compositions. A couple years later, Joni embarked on her most experimental album, when the ailing bassist Charles Mingus invited her to augment some music he had written. This most unlikely of partnerships resulted in the Mingus album, though Charles died of complications from ALS as she was putting it together. In the book, pianist Ben Sidran discusses the project with her and we also get a review from writer Sandy Robinson. Like most reviewers, he felt the album was flawed and was too big a leap for Mitchell to take on successfully. In my own view, the album had its moments, but didn't really work as a whole. But there was one extra bonus on the back end. 

Mitchell took the music on the road and was backed by a who's who of contemporary jazz musicians, including Jaco, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays and Michael Brecker. I saw this band play live in 1979 at Forest Hills in New York City and it felt like a dream to see so many of my favorite musicians on stage together. It didn't always work, but it was remarkable what these musicians were able to add to Joni's music and yet it still felt like Joni was the artistic director. A good example of this band was captured on the Shadows and Light album. As the reviewer Ian Penman notes, Jaco played very well. For example, I just pulled out my vinyl album and listened to The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines. On this song, Jaco shows he can play straight ahead jazz that totally kicks butt and he and Michael Brecker soar into the stratosphere along with drummer Don Alias during the highly collaborative solo part. It is such a joy to hear how well they played together and it's poignant to think how much the jazz world lost when Jaco's life spun out of control and he died young. My own band has been working on playing Free Man in Paris, so it's a lot of fun to hear what this hot band did when they applied their chops to one of my favorite Mitchell anthems. 

One of the delights of Hoskyns' book is that it compelled me to pull out my Mitchell albums -- both vinyl and on CD -- and go back and listen again. This is a journey I'd encourage any fan of Mitchell's music to take. I didn't like everything she has released, but so much of it stands the test of time and shows just how much an artist can grow even over the course of a long career. I don't know if we'll hear any more Joni Mitchell new music again, but the music she has already produced is among the very best of her generation.   

 

Back on the Cape Cod Rail Trail

Over this past weekend, I got re-acquainted with the Cape Cod Rail Trail, which is one of the premier bike trails on the east coast. My family first explored the trail in the Nineties, but it's changed a lot in the time since with a variety of expansions and new trail segments. After a couple of warmup runs, I decided to head from Eastham south toward Orleans and see how far I could get in a one hour round trip.  

Much of this portion of the trail runs through wooded areas, which makes riding comfortable even on a sunny day. Here's a portion of the trail in one of those wooded stretches:  

One aspect I like about bike trails converted from rail lines is the variety of the surroundings. As I rode through Eastham, on one side I passed an abandoned golf range, complete with overgrown fields and the remnants of yardage markers, interspersed amidst the backsides of local hotels, various types of construction businesses, a large workout facility and more. A half mile up the road, I recognized the local transfer station on the other side of the trail; the landfill portion has now been augmented by the addition of many solar panel arrays, which look a bit like alien invaders who decided to alight upon these manmade hills.  

A little further on, I passed a local landmark restaurant, Arnold's, which is known for its fried seafood, though other options are also available. The parking lot was packed on a Friday evening, but mostly deserted on Saturday morning.  Next, the path crosses under Route 6 and the views get more rustic as the trail veers into residential areas, but also passes by several gorgeous lakes. Here's a glimpse of a lake that visible on the left as one passes through a mix of water and wooded areas that also feature jack rabbits, chipmunks and birds flying by. 

As I got closer to Orleans, the terrain changed and miles of wetlands were visible to our right and in some cases we could see all the way to the inner coastline on the bay side of Cape Cod. Here an earthy mix of fragrances emerged from fields that sometimes get bathed in sea waters during high tides. We had learned about this phenomenon during a visit on the prior day to the Wellfleet Audubon sanctuary a few miles further north. Other fields were drier, but still extended out in undeveloped areas toward the coast.  

Eventually I came upon a portion of the path which I didn't remember from my earlier trips. At one time, as one left Eastham, the next stop on the trail was Rock Harbor, but in order to get there, bikers had to go along the side of the road. Now, the trail continues and extends over a bridge which rises above the roadways below and connects the Eastham side of the trail directly into Orleans. In Orleans, we formerly would have needed to follow roads to pick up the trail again, but now the trail is set aside from the road -- akin to a broad paved sidewalk -- and after a few stop signs and road crossings, the uninterrupted portions of the trail resume. Soon after that, I'd reached the halfway point of my trip, as my stopwatch indicated I'd been riding for a little over thirty minutes. But I felt really good to have reached Orleans and connected with this new portion of the path.  

I turned around and after a short break, resumed my ride for the return trip. I decided to lighten up the pace and kept my eye out for scenes to photograph, some of which I've shown here. I also discovered that the path to Rock Harbor was still available, but was now off of the main bike path.  

By the time I returned to my starting point in Eastham, I'd been riding for just over an hour. I decided to go just a little bit further north. At one time, trains from Boston actually ran on the tracks which have now been replaced by the trail. Here is the stone that marks the one hundred mile distance from Boston.   

The Cape Cod Rail Trail has changed some over the years, but still provides an incomparable view of Cape Cod's many and varied terrains as one rides from mile to mile upon this paved path.  

Walking in Asheville

This past week, I spent several days visiting Asheville, North Carolina. It's a great city for walking and I stayed in an apartment which wasn't too far from the downtown. I found myself taking long walks on most days, either in the city or nearby. On my first full day, the rains came. Merrimon Avenue filled with water on either side and I decided to wait out the storm in a fine music store called the Musician's Workshop. I tried out an Ibanez hollow body electric guitar and messed around with a crazy pedal called Superego + that had multiple effects and even allowed overlays of one effect on another. It was fun, but really getting the most out of this kind of effects pedal would take more time than I currently have. Maybe someday. 

When I looked up, the rain had stopped and I decided to take a walk at the Botanical Center right next to UNC Asheville just down the road. Normally, a quiet stream curls through the center, but not on this day. Here's a glimpse of the churning brown waters of the stream that afternoon. 

The next day, I walked into downtown late in the morning. Most of the trees in town were still green, but here's an exception I saw along the way walking on Broadway.  

My favorite stop in downtown is the Malaprop's bookstore. This week I had a gift card at the store, so I had the luxury of browsing through titles in various sections of the store.  I did my research on one day, then bought the books on another day.  I like science fiction books, so I looked at those possibilities, but I also checked out books of regional interest and the general fiction area as well. The store is replete with other sections such as Banned Books and Staff Picks, so those books are also worth checking out. On prior visits, I had seen books such as 1984 and the Just Kids memoir from Patti Smith that I later read.  

But since it was lunchtime, I walked downhill toward the Green Sage on Broadway. This restaurant has great coffee and tea selections, and also has innovative fare for lunch or breakfast.  On this day, the temperatures had dropped a bit, so I wanted a lunch with both hot and filling foods. After asking a few questions when I got to the head of the queue, I made my selections and they were brought to my table a few minutes later. My sandwich was called a Rainbow Wrap and its mix of veggies included beets, carrots, lettuce and alfalfa sprouts, augmented by olives and small hunks of feta. Very tasty. My soup was intriguing and warm -- lentils served in a curry-based soup.  The piece de resistance was a spicy chai cider which brought the rest of the meal together and whose hot spicy taste felt like a pure burst of autumn. Green Sage is a magnet for a diverse group of people -- single, couples or in groups -- and ages ranging from students to retirees. Across the street, a new building is being erected, which will house a mix of condos and hotel rooms; the city continues to evolve from the one I first encountered about 8 years ago, with a big push toward providing more rooms in and around the downtown. 

Later on the trip, I took a ride up into the hills of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Asheville has beautiful views even from the downtown, but it's magnified up on the parkway. Here's a couple glimpses of what I saw:  

 

 Back in Asheville, one can encounter some surprising sights. Here's the side of the original Moog studio off of Broadway:  

 Whether it's music, books, food, wine. beer or the outdoors, it seems there's always another adventure lurking around the corner in Asheville.  

British Invasion of Norwood

Last evening. my wife Cindy and I went with friends to see a highly entertaining musical performance at the re-modeled Norwood Theater in Norwood, Massachusetts. The show was called The British Invasion Years and used a clever premise to transcend the typical tribute band scheme. The four musicians played music from The Beatles and their Sixties contemporaries and then back stopped that with music they called The American Response. Even better, they didn't limit the music to the 1963-1965 period, but stretched out to cover music throughout the decade as long as it fit the themes.  

The four musicians managed to play music from some very different groups and still make it succeed musically. The band's co-leaders are guitarist Lee Scott Howard and bassist Bobby M.. They've played together nearly 30 years and their musical rapport contributed to the band's tight musical feel. Lee and Bobby play their instruments well, but also are fine and versatile vocalists. Lee has unusual gifts -- he can hit the high notes akin to the Zombie's lead vocalist Colin Blunstone, but also plays some fine guitar. He mostly stayed with Sixties style licks, but couldn't resist occasionally adding some sizzle from more contemporary rock guitar licks.  Bobby M. sang lead vocals on numerous tunes and anchored the bottom on his cherry-colored Rickenbacker bass guitar. Bandmate Jon Wolf adds versatility on keyboards and guitar, along with harmony vocals and the occasional turn on lead vocals. The fourth member of the regular group, Jeff Alai, is off the tour for now, but the substitute drummer played well and looked the part with his long blond hair.  

So what about the music? The band kicked off the night with three songs from the early Beatles including I Saw her Standing There. Both Lee and Bobby were able to sing McCartney style vocals and the three singers added a nice harmony blend. The music then shifted both in time and style, as the band played Time of the Seasons from the Zombies. I saw the Zombies play a few years back, but this band did the songs justice. Lee's vocal range is outstanding, so did well on the lead vocals, with the band filling in the rest.  Then Jon Wolf played the Rod Argent keyboard parts with verve.  They followed with She's Not There, which was equally good. And so it went.  In the British Invasion section, they flash cut between multiple groups of diverse styles including Herman's Hermits, the Kinks and notably, The Rolling Stones.  

The Stones mini-set was impressive. It kicked off with Satisfaction, with Bobby on vocals and then they followed in quick succession with Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown and Jumping Jack Flash. Both of the latter tunes were done extremely well, with a mix of Jagger style vocals and expert guitar work from Lee Scott Howard. Here the guitar was much like the records, but had the verve of life performance. A bit later, the band did Back in the USSR and noted that the Beatles' White Album was celebrating a 50th anniversary.  

After an intermission, the band shifted to music from American bands. For me, this section felt a bit weaker, but mainly due to the inclusion of a few chestnuts of bubble gum music and several tunes from the Monkees. But there were outstanding moments. The band launched into Love Her Madly and Lee Scott Howard dropped his voice into the bass register vocal and neatly captured the Jim Morrison style. Howard had a tough task, needing to both do the lead vocal and add the Robbie Krieger guitar parts, but he did well and the rest of the band were rock solid. The band did an obligatory rendition of Sweet Caroline -- Neil Diamond's song which has improbably made the journey from the NYC Brill Building to become the anthem for the local Red Sox.  The band also played a Vietnam era song, Fortune Son, by the Creedence Clearwater Revival and captured that song's bittersweet mood. Earlier, the band had spent time with local Vietnam Vets and this song closed the circle.  

The band closes the show with more Beatles music. On this night, Twist and Shout got folks dancing in the aisles and Got to Get You Into My Life was a rousing rocker. That was it for the formal set, but they stayed on and Howard began to sing the familiar vocals of Hey Jude and got the crowd revved up one more time.  Afterward, the band members came out to the lobby and we chatted a bit with them as we headed out.  This was a great show and I'd recommend it if they come to your area.  They tour throughout the US and you can find their schedule at their web site. 

Here's a picture of the band in the theater last night.  

 

On The Vietnam War from Burns and Novick

The Vietnam War documentary from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on PBS offers 18 hours about one of the most traumatic periods in my lifetime. The program begins in 1945, as World War II was ending and the cold war was about to begin. Vietnam had been under colonial rule under the French, but hopes were emerging that the country could become independent. Most Americans knew very little about Vietnam until the early Sixties, but the battle between France and the local Vietminh armies ended with Vietnam being divided between North and South portions, split by a de-militarized zone.  Some viewed this development as a last gasp of colonialism, others as a skirmish in the proxy war between the West and Communism. Even under Eisenhower, Americans were drawn in as advisers to help the South Vietnamese government fend off a military challenge from an insurgency group called the Vietcong, who were supported by the North Vietnamese and to some degree, the Soviets and Chinese. 

The television series pulls the viewer into this history with a mix of television footage, stories from American and Vietnamese participants and a wide variety of audiotapes, journals and other information that give an inside perspective on how Vietnam was being viewed and acted upon by American presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon.  As a baby boomer, I lived through this period, but most of the series focused on the period up until 1970 before I went to college. I remember first hand the marches, the anti-war movement, the horrible clash in the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic political convention and so much more. We were seeing scenes about the war on the evening news on TV and young men from our neighborhood were being drafted and sent to Vietnam. 

The powerful thing about this series for me was to learn so much about what was not obvious at the time. I didn't really hear the stories about the experiences of the veterans until many years later when compelling books like Michael Herr's Dispatches and Neil Sheehan's A Bright Shining Lie brought back stories of the life vets had been living while fighting the war. Sheehan, who was a journalist covering the war, is one of many people who recount their experiences  and those of hundreds of people he talked to while over in 'Nam for the documentary.  At the time, politicians like Johnson and Nixon seemed to be lying about what was really happening over there, but the tapes of their conversations during this period were staggering in highlighting the differences between what they said publicly and what they were saying behind closed doors.  

We also learn a bit about the leadership of North Vietnam and the dynamics of how the Chinese and Soviet communists influenced the leaders of this country.  We heard a lot about Ho Chi Minh in news coverage at the time.  Ho was the spiritual father of the North and a brilliant politician, but the series hones in on Le Duan, who wrested power from Ho in the mid-Sixties and who pushed for a very militant strategy in executing the war. In a huge irony, Le Duan pushed for what became known as the Tet Offensive in early 1968 and it turned to be a military disaster for the North and the Vietcong.  Lyndon Johnson touted this win after the battles, but he'd lost so much credibility with his previous claims of progress that one of the few clear-cut military victories for the Americans became a turning point as the opposition to the war continued to rise. 

One can draw many lessons from this series and the events it depicts. One obvious one is that the US can't win a war if the leadership we support is corrupt and not supported by the people of the nation. Over 58,000 US participants died in the war, but the various US presidents couldn't really explain why we needed to be there other than to fight the communists. But if the leaders in a country aren't supported by the people, even the best military forces can't change that political reality. It's a sad truth we've seen in other wars since Vietnam. On the other hand, the leaders in the North were brutal and even refused to treat captured American's as POWs. At the time, Vietnam just didn't seem like our fight and this documentary reinforced this. Nonetheless, the commentary from South Vietnamese people in the series made it clear that there was strong opposition to the North and communism in South Vietnam, and the clash had strong elements of a civil war as the US involvement lessened.  

The war in Vietnam divided our country and set in motion political and cultural divisions which still exist. But the truth about what happened was complex and not easily boiled down into simple slogans. Burns and Novick have done a great service to the US and likely to the Vietnamese as well in diving deep into this war and the times which surrounded it and letting viewers choose what to make of this mosaic. The ending is poignant, as veterans from both sides of the war, Americans and North Vietnamese, meet many years after the war ended and found understanding at a human level with the surviving warriors of the opposition.  

Return to the Cape

This past weekend, my wife Cindy and I returned to the Cape Cod to celebrate our 28th anniversary. Our Cape history goes back to the early years of our marriage and it's always been a special place for us. Richard Russo wrote a novel called Cape Cod Magic and truly it's always felt that way to us. Going to the Cape brings back old memories, but there's often new bits of experience in store. 

After a scrumptious seafood lunch at Seafood Sam's on the Sandwich side of the canal, I dropped Cindy at a local beach and strode back up a hump-backed boardwalk to my car. A few young men in white shirts and ties were unloading a truck and I wondered what that was all about. I'd find out later. I'm not much of a beach person, so I drove to the nearby Sandwich village and stopped in at the local library. Outside I saw this stone plaque in the shape off a book. 

The inscription had always been a favorite of the pastor at our church and it was a reminder that we all have choices about how we spend our time now and going forward. I relaxed with a favorite pursuit - reading in the library for a while - and recharged my phone. Then I set out on walk through the village. For about five years, some close friends had lived in Sandwich. It's a classic New England village, replete with homes that go back over 150 years, cute cafes and a cornucopia of bushes, beach grasses, and other greenery filling the  nooks and crannies between houses and shops. At one time, Sandwich connected dIrectly to the mainland before the canal was dredged and along my walk, I saw this stone which dated from that earlier time.  

 

 A while later I returned to the beach. As I again followed the boardwalk to the beach, I encountered an attractive, young woman in a open-backed, white dress accompanied by several other young women in light tan outfits -- a bridal party. Just ahead on the beach, a crowd had gathered by the water.  I found my wife about 100 yards further down the beach and we watched briefly as the wedding ceremony began. Just another bit of that Cape Cod magic.   

We drove up the Cape to our hotel in Wellfleet. A while later, we donned our swim suits and swam in an outdoor pool whose waters had been warmed using an array of solar panels. Our stay at the Cape had begun. We had a fine meal that evening at Van Rensselaer's a few miles down the road, which began with the local specialty -- fresh Wellfleet oysters. The rest of the meal was equally good and we began to settle in for a fun weekend. 

The next morning, we took to the bike path. The Cape Cod Rail Trail extends from Dennis to Wellfleet, so we were on the final portion heading up toward Marconi Beach.  Here's a look at a view of the bay side looking out from the trail:  

I'll close this post with a view of the bike trail itself looking towards it terminus. We'd been on the Cape less than a day, but we were already much more relaxed as we let the beauty of the outdoors weave its spell upon us. 

 

 

 

 

 

ACS Jazz Trio - Tribute at Newport

My first experience seeing jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding was at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2011, after she had won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. This year, she was booked as part of the jazz trio Allen, Carrington and Spalding. Christian McBride, musical director for the festival, introduced the group and noted that the pianist Geri Allen had died about a month ago. However, the group wanted to play anyway as a tribute to her. To complete the trio, three pianists had agreed to sit in, beginning with Christian Sands, who had just finished playing a set with Christian McBride's Big Band.

On the first song, Esperanza began by singing a high pitched aria and then added her upright bass. Terri Lyne Carrington added polyrhythmic drum parts to drive the music forward. During Spalding's solo, her singing and bass felt like a single well honed unit, the bass driving the bottom and her vocals soaring high above, and all the while interacting with the pushes and prods of the other musicians.  This version of the band hit its stride on the second song, which was high speed, straight ahead jazz. Carrington propelled the group forward and added flourishes which reminded me of Elvin Jones. In this setting, Sands played in a more free flowing style than I seen when he was playing in the big band. The communication among the musicians was wonderful here, but begged the question of how it would have sounded if Allen had been there to add her own unique piano sounds.    

Here's a view of Spalding and Carrington with Christian Sands in the piano chair.  

After the third song, Sands left and Carrington offered some heartfelt words about how much they had enjoyed playing with Geri Allen and how they were offering this day's music as a tribute.  

The next pianist to join was Vijay Iyer, fresh off a set played with his own sextet. Piano is an amazingly versatile instrument and Vijay took it to different places. His flowing lines reminded me of the work of Chick Corea and Hiromi.  On this song, the structure reminded me of the Steve Swallow song Falling Grace, particularly when Esperanza was soloing over the passing chords and warm major key sounds. Here's a shot with Vijay.  

The group played a mix of standards and Allen's own compositions. On The Drumming Song, written by Allen, pianist Jason Moran joined the group. This song had a stark, spare beginning, before evolving into a ballad. Moran played precise flowing arpeggios, leaving space for Esperanza's bass lines and exquisite brush work from Carrington. Moran seemed the most comfortable of the pianists in this unusual context. His playing was supportive and also added color to the alchemy produced by the duo of Spalding and Carrington. Here's another shot of them in action.  

Before they finished, Esperanza talked about the ACS band and how they had wanted to play the standards within a trio format. She added that Allen's own compositions fit well and were standards in a sense. She again emphasized that this was a tribute, not just a set of all star jazz trios. The crowd sounded restless and she said, "we've got more for you."  

On the final song, all three pianists took turns. Early in the song, Esperanza cut loose on a fast-paced bebop solo and then segued into a melodic line as Christian Sands jumped back in. At this point, it felt like something special was happening. The music was clearly unrehearsed, but replete with energy. Sands stepped aside and Vijay re-joined with his much more vertical piano style.  In response, Spalding simplified her bass lines and Carrington banged out fills on her toms. As she shifted to her ride cymbal, Moran   took his turn and brought the music back to a bright melodic feel. Here's the trio with Moran playing.  

At the end, Esperanza chanted "Thank You, Geri" several times in succession with high energy, reaffirming that what we had just seen was a tribute and made possible by the music and spirit of Ms. Allen, not to mention all of these wonderful musicians. This peformance was one of my favorite moments in the years that I've attended Newport Jazz.  Thanks so much to all of the musicians for this special tribute.  

 

 

Notes on Newport Jazz - 2017

This year's excursion to the Newport Jazz Festival started with rain, but the skies eventually cleared and the great music of the day prevailed. The ride in was faster than usual, likely owing to the clouds overhead and a mixed forecast. Equipped with an umbrella, LL Bean rain jacket, a foldup chair and small pack, I rode the bus from the upper lot to the entrance. After a quick check through security, I got my program and headed to the main stage area and picked out a spot to the right about 150 feet back.  I checked the program and decided my next stop would be the Quad Stage, where a special show called Jazz 100 was just beginning.  

The seats by the Quad Stage were filled, so I skirted to the left. Rivulets of water scattered off of the tent's edge, but the music had begun. Jazz 100 featured an ensemble hand-picked by bandleader and pianist Danilo Perez and celebrated the music of Dizzy, Ella, Mongo & Monk.  The front line was fabulous: Chris Potter on saxophones, Avishai Cohen on trumpet and Josh Roseman on trombone. As I arrived Cohen played some melodic lines over a latin beat. A little while later, Potter took over. He played a powerful solo with echoes of Coltrane on tenor sax and the band drove hard behind him. The sound shifted to percussion. Roman Diaz stood behind an array of congas and other drums, laid down a Cuban jazz beat on his congas and accompanied them with energetic vocals in Spanish. At one point, drummer Adam Cruz joined him and overlaid cymbal work and Perez also jumped in to help  Eventually Cruz and Perez returned to their own instruments to restate the song's melody and bring it to a close. Perez followed with an angular solo piece dedicated to Thelonius Monk.  Next was the classic song Afro Blue. Here the rhythm section built a strong foundation between the drummers and bassist Ben Street, then sparse piano notes segued into the song. Josh Roseman led the front line on this one, then Cohen and Potter filled in harmonies on the melody ala the hard bop Blue Note sound of the late Fifties.  Here is what the band looked like at work (Perez is hidden by one of the many umbrellas):  

One treat was to hear Potter playing much of the time on soprano sax. Potter's tenor lines ripple through the history of jazz with nods to bebop, Dexter Gordon and more, but his soprano work is more ethereal and had sweet tones that reminded me of Wayne Shorter's best work on the instrument. As the band's music drew to a close, Potter's high notes floated above us all.  

I returned to the main area, formally called the Fort Stage.  The next band up was Christian McBride's big band.

McBride was a busy guy on this day. He's recently become the musical director for the festival, but here he was out front as the band leader.  The band has a huge brassy sound coupled with a healthy dose of funk. It was fun to see a bassist (McBride) leading the band and the material dipped deep into the music of jazz greats who'd influenced him including Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson and George Duke.  On Black Narcissus (by Henderson), saxophonist Ron Blake played a fine sax solo and was backed by Christian Sands on the piano. Next, McBride introduced a special guest, Warren Wolf on vibes. Wolf added another dimension to the band with his highly percussive approach to vibes and also filled out the bottom with ringing tones.  The last part of the song was very effective as Wolf laid the foundation and the tight horn section punched out its lines on a Cedar Walton tune.  McBride had a large band, but gave all of the musicians a chance to shine with lots of solos and tight ensemble work. The band put on a great show and had me smiling by the time they closed it out. And the rain had stopped and was over for the day.   

I'll write another post on Newport to talk about a special tribute that took place later that Saturday afternoon.  

Ode to the Last Allman Brother

The year before I went to college, a friend came back from his university with a new discovery -- a new group called the Allman Brothers Band.  My friends and I loved the music, but it was beyond the capabilities of the fledgling band we formed a few months later. The intensity of the dual guitars of Duane Allman and Dickie Betts were powerful and Duane's slide guitar work was like nothing I'd ever heard.  Younger brother Gregg wrote some fine tunes such as Whipping Post and the group quickly became one of my favorite bands.  

All of this came to mind when the news came that Gregg Allman had passed at age 69, some 45 years after his older brother Duane died. The Allman Brothers had been a big part of my musical roots and my passion for the band endured.  

When I went to college, I told all of my friends about the band, so we were excited when we saw the following poster about an upcoming live concert at Skidmore College, just about 30 miles north of our school RPI in Troy, New York as we approached the end of our freshman year.  

We didn't have a car, but managed to get some rides up to the concert area and were there when the band set up.  This was just weeks before the band released its Live at Fillmore East album. The music was phenomenal, even though we were hearing some songs like Elizabeth Reed and Statesboro Blues for the first time or in much more extended renditions than I'd heard on the studio versions.  My recollection was that they played two long sets.  Duane was clearly the leader and introduced all of the songs in addition to playing slide and lead guitars on his Les Pauls. Gregg's hair had grown long and blond, and he anchored the group on keyboards and vocals. 

That fall I returned to college after a summer break and bought tickets to see the band again in November, 1971. We were all stunned to hear the news of Duane's death in late October that year. We'd expected the band would cancel, but the remaining members re-grouped and played the concert as scheduled. On some tunes, both Dickie and Gregg played guitar, and Dickie filled in the missing slide guitar parts, but the loss of Duane was palpable.  

Tragedy continued to visit the band and by the next time I saw them in 1972, bassist Berry Oakley had also died. But the Allman Brothers Band carried on and forged a different sound with contributions from newcomers like pianist Chuck Leavell and bassist Lamar Williamson.  

Duane had created a framework that was designed to last and you could never forget that there had been two Allman brothers in the original band.  I saw the group several times during the next few years before they went through a period of breakups.  As a musician, I learned from both Duane and Dickie on guitar and also learned to play some of Greg's best songs such as Midnight Rider and Melissa. Gregg's first solo album worked well and he did a fine job both on his own music and on songs like Jackson Browne's These Days.  

During the Nineties, the band got new life as guitarist Warren Haynes joined the group and brought back the dueling guitars concept that had worked so well when Duane was in the band.  Later in the decade, a young player, Derek Trucks, started filling in as yet another amazing slide guitarist.  

I took my oldest son to see the band in 2007. This version featured both Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks on guitars -- both slide and electric -- and Gregg sang most of the vocals.  It had been thirty years since I'd seen them, but the band played wonderfully and Duane's spirit was still present in the the band's style and intensity. 

I've been in a rock group the last several years and I've brought in several of the Allmans' songs into the bands repertoire, including songs like "Statesboro Blues" and "One Way Out."  Just last week, I played on the porch with several musicians from my church and we jammed on acoustic instruments on songs like "Midnight Rider", "Rambling Man" and "Melissa."

And now the youngest Allman brother has joined his older brother in the ranks of the departed. The two men leave a rich legacy of music that will stand the test of time. The Allman Brothers Band created a remarkable blend of southern rock and blues and bought an improvisatory ethos into the world of rock. Gregg managed to carry the flag as the surviving Allman and it's hard to dispute how well the band turned out even as the membership changed over the years. And his songs also live on, telling tales of life on the road and both the light and dark side of life. He will be missed.