Jazz in Town

© 2005 Cultuurprijzen 2007 (more Wayne Shorter Quartet photos at Flickr)

As you may have gathered from my concert list (see page navigation at the top), I have just been to two Jazz gigs. One of them was the Wayne Shorter Quartet (Shorter: sax; Danilo Pérez: piano; John Patitucci: bass; Brian Blade: drums) and the other was the McCoy Tyner & Joe Lovano Quartet (Lovano: sax; Tyner: piano; Gerald Cannon: bass; Eric Kamau Gravatt: drums).

Both of these Quartets lived up to my expectations and beyond, while Shorter’s, on Monday, was the better one. They played a set of about 80 minutes with the first applause break after about 65 minutes. It was awfully quiet throughout the first hour. The stage action was so awe-inspiring that nobody dared to clap. Brian Blade on drums was especially fantastic. One might even say that he ran the show. During the solos, he jumped up and down on his drummer’s stool and several times almost knocked over his snare from hitting it so hard. I was afraid he’d destroy his entire drum kit towards the end of the show. He was seriously having fun up there. And so were the three others. A truly remarkable show that I wouldn’t want to have missed for the world.

A national radio station recorded the entire set and will air it in June. I’m going to record that myself somehow and upload it here for the whole world to enjoy.

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McCoy Tyner (© Gene Martin)

Joe Lovano

left to right: McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano, Gerald Cannon. At the Blue Note in NYC, February 2008 (© Jimmy Katz)

Yesterday’s concert (Tyner, Lovano et al.) was also very good. But although I had a seat in the fourth row, I couldn’t quite enjoy it as much because some old fart next to me kept moving his entire body along to the music, making all the seats around him jiggle. Luckily, that didn’t diminish the tunes. The whole crew was on fire. Tyner a bit less so, but he’s an “old” man who didn’t look completely healthy anymore. In terms of stage presence, it was rather the “Joe Lovano Trio feat. McCoy Tyner” than the “McCoy Tyner Quartet.” Be that as it may, all four of them delivered a great performance.

Again, it was the drummer who almost killed his instrument(s). Those solos, wow!! And Gerald Cannon knew how to pluck away at the strings of his bass and delivered a number of amazing solos as well.

This concert was also recorded and will be aired in July. As soon as that has happened, I will upload it here, too.

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To shorten the waiting period a bit, I’m going to offer you a classic recording that Wayne Shorter and McCoy Tyner did together back in the sixties. This way, you get to experience both artists at once. In fact, this is the 1999 re-issue with two bonus tracks.

Wayne Shorter – JuJu (RVG Edition) (1999; original release 1964) (320 kbps)
part 1 (mirror)
part 2 (mirror)

1. JuJu
2. Deluge
3. House Of Jade
4. Mahjong
5. Yes Or No
6. Twelve More Bars To Go
7. JuJu (Alternate Take) [Bonus Track]
8. House Of Jade (Alternate Take) [Bonus Track]

Recorded on August 3, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Wayne Shorter: tenor sax; McCoy Tyner: piano; Reginald Workman: bass; Elvin Jones: drums

Enjoy this gem.

Coming up, “review” and photos of tonight’s We Are Scientists concert.

Over and out,
3ardrumm3r