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Locavore Jazz: This week(end)

4/30/2015

Local jazz seems to have quieted down after the Art of Cool Festival, & we're at the time of the month when I'm waiting for some May performance schedules. But, pending last-minute revelations, there are still things to take in:

Tonight I'll catch up on alto saxophonist Aaron Hill at the Beyu at 7p.
Friday night the cello-drum instrumentalists Yandrew at at the Shed at 8p; recently graduated (from UNCG) saxophonist leads a quartet at 8 at Sharp Nine; & the Stephen Anderson duo is at Irregardless.
Saturday night I'll see the Keith Ganz Quartet (featuring trumpeter Al Strong) with guest vocalist Kate McGarry at Sharp Nine at 8p.
If you want swing jazz yayas on Sunday, the Mint Julep Jazz Band is at Common 414 in Raleigh.

If I hear of any last-minute gems I'll post them...

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Locavore Jazz: Art of Cool Festival (II)

4/27/2015

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First, I ask all those reading this who went to the Festival to reply to this blog or email me (link at top right of page), letting me know what you felt about the performances you saw & about the Festival in general. As an Art of Cool Project board member, your feedback is very handy...

Of the four performances I expect to be straight-aheadish, three were good: Kenny Garrett coltraned through most of his set before showing what real funk jazz should sound like; the Ben Williams quintet demands more than the 45 minutes it was allowed & should be brought back by someone soon to show how good it is; & Alan Hampton & Gretchen Parlato went against the grain with a quiet set of self-penned acoustic tunes that didn't fit the rest of the Festival but was fine with me.

Kris Bowers unfortunately hid his light under a bushel basket; his playing was a souljazzrock muddle with a smash-ing drummer with no great finesse. Disappointing.

How about you? If you were there, what did you see? How was it?

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Locavore Jazz: Art of Cool Fest (I)

4/26/2015

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I really felt how shallow contemporary pop music is--& I include neo-soul in that (& hip-hop despite its lyric-ism)--listening to an average neo-soul singer & then Kris Bowers hide his jazz skills in a jazzsoulrock muddle Friday night at Motorco. The difference with harmonically complex jazz was accentuated when Kenny Garrett coltraned his way through most of his set, before showing what funk jazz should sound like in his final two tunes.

That's not new news. However, pondering why 3/4 of the crowd built up during Kris Bowers's anemic set drifted off during Kenny Garrett's fine set, I've concluded that that AOCF crowd I was with preferred the muddle to "full" jazz (or had something else important to hear).

I experienced another aspect of crowd preference Saturday night. After a much too short Ben Williams set of "full" jazz that used funk rhythms (& did it much better than Kris Bowers), multi-string instrument player/singer Alan Hampton & singer Gretchen Parlato tried to shift gears into acoustic, non-songbook tunes. That was not what that audience wanted! More than half the audience bolted in stages between tunes, going off to whatever other music was available (pretty much of which lives in the jazz-soul-rock-hiphop borderlands).

What to make of this? Well, there was other more straight-ahead jazz on tap. I heard good things about the Al Strong & Eve Cornelius sets Friday night. I also heard from a local musician who listens primarily to my generation's jazz that, when he caught some of Robert Glasper that the latter "was fooling around" & that the Armory sound system was terrible. Lastly, I didn't catch Marc Cary's midnight set. So I need to hear/read more about all that jazz before drawing any conclusions.

I can say I'm already thinking about AOCF 2016 but need to be realistic about what the audience is for the jazz I want to hear...

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Locavore Jazz: This week(end)

Locavore Jazz: Art of Cool Festival (II)

Locavore Jazz: Art of Cool Fest (I)

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