Last night was great. I first went to The Stone for Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman, and Ned Rothenberg. All 3 continue to astound me. I got to sit behind the piano, in the 2nd row and it was a great vantage point to see all the unique ways Sylvie plays that beautiful grand piano. She sometimes puts duct tape on the strings, which makes it sound really cool when she hits the keys. I think she did a lot of that with Mephisto the time I saw them at Tonic. She sometimes plays the strings with her fingers and sometimes with mallets. She also has very interesting sounds coming out when she plays it the regular way.
Feldman continues to blow me away. I think he’s definitely one of the greatest violinists. I don’t know if I have seen him much before the recent Bar Kotchka shows. He is just incredible and it was hard not to stay for the next set, which had him soloing.
Rothenberg is always great. He mainly played the bass clarinet until toward the end, when he went to the sax. I think I’ve most often seen him on the bass clarinet.
I couldn’t stay for the next set because I had to get to Sullivan Hall for Marco Benevento. I can’t believe I almost blew it off. But, my intuition was telling me to get over there, although I took my time in doing so. I got there at around 9:50 and they had been on for about 20 minutes. Steven Bernstein, DJ Olive, Bobby Previte, and a projectionist. It wasn’t too crowded, but there were people there to make it feel good. It was quite pleasant at the venue last night, probably due to not too many people. It was rather cold as they close the heating vents since it can get rather hot when it’s full. Most people kept their coats on. I finally checked mine, since I was dancing and getting warm.
It was awesome. 2 sets, ending at about 12:15. It seemed each of them was sticking to their main styles, but blending in well together. It had a kind of Miles Davis/acid jazz/Sexmob/heavy bass feel to it. It blended really well. I’m usually not too into DJs, but I thought DJ Olive was great and even enjoyed focusing on him for a bit. Previte did an excellent drum solo.
The piano isn't as fancy or nice as the one at The Stone, but it sure sounded great with Marco playing it.
It was a great show and everyone seemed pretty happy about it. The crowd did seem a little mellow, but probably due to being so close to NYE and recovery. I had a sore throat and didn’t really feel like socializing. People seemed kind of tired, yet happy. I think the happiest one in the room was Marco, who seemed thrilled with the music they were making together.
I certainly won’t be missing any of these shows.
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