The Jazzcat

Additional Photos

 

The concert has not

even begun yet but, the room here at Royce Hall is filled with energy.

Amongst the sea of very lucky jazz fans are some of Los Angeles’s

great contributors to the business of jazz. Bo Liebowitz from KCRW Fm,

Don Heckman – Los Angeles’s master Jazz critic, Scott Yanow – Writer

for All Music.com as well as several books on jazz music, Billy Childs

– great composer and player, David Sanchez – a monster on the tenor,

man, UCLA is certainly live tonight.

 

Randall Kline, the

director for SF Jazz spoke a few words, as he always does, about the

great things and programs that are happening with the San Francisco

Jazz Organization. Tonight’s show was one of the integral parts of this

year’s series at SF Jazz. The musicians were not only selected because

of their extraordinary talent, but also because of their outstanding

composer abilities. Each musician wrote a piece designed especially for

this band. Gil Goldstein helped with the arranging and we got to hear 5

out of 8 outstanding pieces by performers Renee Rosnes, Miguel Zenon,

Bobby Hutcherson, Joshua Redman and Robert Hurst. It’s a collective and

collectively speaking, there could not be a much more anticipated

concert than this.

 

All of the cats

including Brian Blade, Joshua Roseman, and Nicholas Payton are todays

and yesterday’s heroes and heroins of the art form that we all live

for. Jazz music baby!

And tonight it was at its best.

 

One by one each horn

in the front line played it light and lovely until Nicholas Payton and

Bob Hurst broke it down. With one of the best rhythm sections behind

today’s top players in the game, you can only go in one direction and

that is Straight Ahead!

 

The first half of the

performance were all compositions from the great Ornette Coleman.

Ornette also played last year as well as this year in the SF Jazz

Organization’s premier concert series and he was also on hand for one

of the collectives performances in San Francisco.

Joshua Redman spoke of him as a kind and humble soul who believed in

playing the music the way he heard it. Back in the 60’s and even to

this very day, Ornette’s music is bold, daring and innovative. Some say

on the outside but, what’s out in my book is definitely in!

 

The SFC played the

music of Ornette is such a way that made, at one time what was called

the unacceptable; seem like the standard for yesterday’s music. Brian

Blade is having such a great time. He is so lightening quick, it is

just like watching an old Chinese movie jazz style. I mean, I could

have sworn I saw him pause, while the drums kept playing and had to

catch up! Redman hauntingly beautiful, Robert’s bass solo’s speak,

Roseman is sweet, Zenon is on fire, Renee is lovely, Nic is killin’ and Bobby’s personality is all over the vibes.

 

The second half of

the concert, as I mentioned, we were all treated to special selections

written especially for this band. Five great pieces, I wish we could

have heard the other three. Maybe you will! There are a couple more

performances left here in California and if they are in your town, you know where you should be. For more dates and information, check out SF Jazz.

 

 

 

LeRoy Downs