Great Trios 1/12&13

I had a great weekend, although there wasn’t much music in it. What I did catch was phenomenal, though.

I briefly went to The Knit on Sat night to get a little Winter Jazzfest. I love that full club event to showcase newer music. They get completely different bands every single year. It was interesting that Dave Douglas mentioned during his set they should do 2 nights next year. I would like that as well, but do recall they did 2 last year. I assumed that they went back to 1 for a reason. Still, maybe they’ll go back to 2 next year. I’d also love it if they did a Summer Jazz Fest. Or, every 3 months or something. That would be awesome.

I had to go early, so I missed a lot of great stuff later. I was glad I bought a ticket at the box office ahead of time, though. There was always a line for will call that seemed to be moving kind of slowly. There was no line for the box office that night, though.

I went from about 8:15-10ish and was happy it wasn’t to crowded, yet it was crowded. I caught 2.5 songs of the Hadouk Trio. They are from Paris. We had a keyboard/bass player, drummer, and reed player. The basses were very primitive looking, one was like the one that Mark Rivard of Club d’Elf plays. It made me think of the Flintones. The reeds were pretty primitive as well. The drummer played a different drum each song. One was a neat looking steel drum that looked kind of like a wok. I enjoyed what I caught. The Old Office was pretty crowded and also the spot with the talkers. It was where people who wanted to hang and talk went because they have that area in the back.

I tried the Mexican band a couple of times in the Tap Bar, but it wasn’t my thing. It was really about the singer. It was good, just not my thing.

I did catch most of the Dave Douglas, Mark Feldman, Scott Colley set. That was absolutely fantastic. I think that was a great combination. I didn’t miss the drummer at all. They are 3 of my favorites and they did an awesome job together. That was good enough for me if you could only have a short evening and I did walk around a little and decided to go since I’d prefer to see Doug Wamble at another time in a less crowded venue.

While at the Old Office, I was talking to someone who told me how great the Paul Motion set at the Vanguard was, so I knew I had to get there on Sun. It was stellar! I mean, Paul Motion, Chris Potter, and Jason Moran. What a great idea! I’m so glad, too. The last time I was at the Vanguard for Paul Motion 2000 plus one, one of the musicans was singing to the piano, and it was picked up by the mic and it was awful. It kind of ruined the whole thing for me. I was wondering how the rest of the musicians were able to stand it. I think I read somewhere Motion never practices, so he may not have known until the gigs. Anyway, this trio was really amazing and I am so glad that guy sent me there as I would have missed it otherwise.