Thurs 10/18 @ The Stone

It was a nice soulful night at The Stone last night. I had never seen Paul Shapiro before. It was so nice and intimate to get the intro at The Stone and it being their first ever acoustic show. I bet electric is also quite awesome. It was also awesome how he told us about every song and where it came from and what his intentions were. I got a little deeper insight into Jewish culture and rituals in the process. The first song sounded very latin, but it was a jewish song. I found that very interesting. There were a couple of songs where the theme was about the 3 religions of Abraham coming together and the drums on both of those were really nice. Kind of reminded me of George of the Jungle. They have 2 CDs on Tzadik and I wanted to get the 2nd one, but it was hot and no one was manning the store on my way out, so I decided to put it off. I wish I could remember the name of the other sax, Peter Apfelbaum didn’t make this show. There was one song where Shapiro was playing a straight soprano sax and the other guy was playing a curved soprano sax. I was trying to listen for differences in the sound, but since they were both playing different tones I couldn’t tell. I guess the curved soprano sax is what that guy was playing around jazzfest 2003 late night circuit. I remember he blew me away at Critters Vidocovich at Howlin Wolf and I’ve been wondering about it ever since. That was an amazing show, when we had at least 5 saxes on stage doing amazing things at the same time. Definitely woke something up in me.

Paul Shapiro and Midnight Minyan
Paul Shapiro (tenor saxophone) Peter Apfelbaum (tenor saxophone) Steven Bernstein (trumpet) Brian Mitchell (piano) Booker King (bass) Tony Lewis (drums)
Special all acoustic performance by Tzadik favorites Midnight Minyan.


I did come back for Doug Wamble’s set. That was very nice. Only the 2nd time I saw him and this was the debut of this trio playing together. Very soulful, very good. The last song they had Steven Bernstein up with his slide trumpet playing the most soulful tune of the night. Just a great way to send me to bed. Given this week of great guitar and Shanir’s interesting “acoustic” bass, with the elecronics hooked up and the holes covered by duct tape, I’m noticing the guitar instruments a little more. Wamble had a Gibson with 2 f-holes. It seemed more soulful sounds were coming out of Shanir and Wamble and their instruments were more southern or something. I’ll have to pay more attention and ask around a little more to understand this.

Doug Wamble, Ben Allison and Matt WilsonDoug Wamble (guitar) Ben Allison (bass) Matt Wilson (drums)Marsalis Music recording artist (and original MTO member) Doug Wamble in his first ever collaboration with two of the most critically regarded musicians in NYC today.

Overall a very nice night. I really hope I can get into Sexmob with Calvin Weston tonight. I figure if I could get in for Medeski at 8:02 without a problem there is a good chance. The location and no frills, just music factor seems to keep a lot of people away from one of my favorite all time venues. I can’t wait for the Marco show later. I’m worried about being tired, but I want to see the 1st set at The Stone, too. We’ll see how it all works out, but I may need a nap at some point.