Tom Harrell was a highlight at both the 2006 and 2012 Rochester Jazz Fests. Beautiful melodies and fantastic players in his band each time. At Hochstein on Thursday night he played with a piano-less quartet, tenor sax with Tom’s trumpet along and Ugonna Okegwo on bass and Adam Cruzon drums. Peggi told me he may have been the best drummer she had ever heard but nobody can touch Ed Blackwell. This is a great venue for live jazz. The hall is relatively small and has a crisp, natural ambient sound. Really great players don’t overplay. They blow you away by coming up with the perfect parts and playing with the perfect touch and perfect feel. This was heavenly.
I took a movie of their last song and was going to throw it up on YouTube but it is out of focus. My camera (Nikon P7000) loses focus if I zoom while recording. I’m trying to learn not to do that. Damn thing sounds great though. Last time we were at Hochstein I took this movie of Kenny Garrett with my old camera, a Nikon 5100.
On Friday night we headed out to the Lovin’ Cup with our earplugs in my pocket. We walked in just as Rocket From The Tomb (early Pere Ubu) took the stage. This is a whole world away from jazz but it was a gas going back in time to somewhere between the late seventies and early eighties. I tried the movie thing again. Guitar player, Gary Siperko, is from Ithaca’s Mofos.
Saturday night was now. Somewhere between jazz and rock, Margaret Explosion played a benefit for our little buddy, Oscar, at RIT’s Lyndon Baines Johnson building. Go Oscar!
Leave a comment