Wicked Knee @ LPR 12/1/11

I was very tired, but I got at least a 1/2 hour before I just had to go home.  I was pretty tired the next day at work.  I do remember being able to stay out til 2 every now and then on a weeknight and not be too tired at work the next day.  Those days are over.  I was still productive, just tired.

Anyway, what I got was awesome.  Medeski sat in sometime.  They opened with a killer Crosstown Traffic and I was very happy I stayed.

Wicked Knee
Billy Martin (drums)
Curtis Fowlkes (trombone)
Marcus Rojas (tuba)
Steven Bernstein (trumpet)

Excerpt from the listing
Martin came up with Wicked Knee’s unusual configuration because, he explains, “I have always wanted to work with brass and drums but never had the time or the nerve to make it happen. I knew I had it when I asked Steven to help me get a few players together for Life on Drums (Martin’s educational, anti-instructional DVD out on Vongole Films). I wanted to have some brass with a previously recorded drumbeat. That ended up in the film as ‘Muffaletta,’ a very short last performance. After finishing that project I realized this was my new band. I have listened to a lot of field recordings from all over the African continent and there are very powerful groups that use horns or wind and drums. That’s what got me excited initially.”

 ...

The band name, Wicked Knee, was inspired, says Martin, “from a record compilation my wife’s friend had called Shake Your Wicked Knees. I borrowed that compilation, which is a collection of piano rags, blues and stomps, and I loved the vibe and the title. I like that it is born out of an Afro- American expression but has a slight surreal meaning. I like titles that can have multiple interpretations and keep that mysterious thing going.”