Zion80 @ The Stone 8/6/12

I was able to make about 15 min of rehearsal and it was awesome.  Frank London was there this time on trumpet.  Yoshie Fruchter was on bass - we found out at the end he is actually a guitar player.  He really laid it down on the bass. The 2 guitar players were the same as when I saw them a month ago - Jonathon Goldberger and Ty Citerman.  Mathias Kunzli (who reminded me of Dafnis Prieto, probably due to his hair)  was on drums.  Same great conga player as the week before, Marlon Sobol.  He was so awesome using hands and sticks.  Tim Keiper was on percussion.  There was a 2nd drumkit again, Evan Pazner.  Zack Meyer was on bari as Jessica Lurie is out of town.  I'm not sure of the alto is the same guy I saw last time.  Rafi Makiel was on trombone.  He may or may not have been the same from the other time.

Jon played during the performance - he's going to be on a couple for the album.  They also added a row of chairs in front of me in between the rehearsal and performance.  The horn section was rather close and I realized I was good with the 2nd row for this one.  It appears they are playing the album each time, but it's still different as the people are different and the moment is different. 

It was a lot of fun and very good.  Everyone sat except for Yoshie the bass player.  He's actually a guitar player, but I wouldn't have guessed.  The horns would stand when they soloed.  The solos were a whole lot of fun.  I was really digging the drums.  Unlike the other night I came, which was the very first night, the drums and percussion were all together in a section and it made a wonderful difference.  I can't exercise yet, so I figured I shouldn't get up and dance.  I sure did get my groove on in my chair, though.

There was one extra cool part, where they were improvising.  Frank started just playing his mouthpiece and the rest of the horn section followed suit.  I could see other parts where things got interesting with the improv.





Here's a link to the website where you can stream a show they put up on-line from the week before.  There were a lot of special guests including Cyro Baptista.  It's awesome!
http://zion80.com/

NEW MUSIC OBSERVATORY AT THE STONE JON MADOF’S ZION80
7:30—Open Rehearsal
9:00—Performance The latest large group project from Jon Madof (Rashanim, CircuitBreaker) features music by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach set to arrangements inspired by Nigerian Afrobeat master Fela Anikulapo Kuti.