Brad Jones @ The Stone 6/26/08

I was going to stay in, but I had too much momentum built up. It was cinched when I checked The Stone's website and saw 2 Brad Jones projects listed.

I made a good choice! Both sets were awesome.

The Brad Jones Quartet was phenomenal. I already love Marcus Gilmore, but the 2 horns were also topnotch. The bass clarinet added to my pleasure. I loved how heavy on the bass solos each song was. Everyone got lots of chances to solo and show their stuff, and it was nice the bass was included in that.

The bass started off the first song with this awesome groove that got picked up by the drums. Both of them were grooving out and then the soprano sax and clarinet were doing something different, not so grooving, but it worked really well.

The next song had alto sax and tenor sax and that was more grooving. Later, it was bass clarinet and tenor. I was enjoying how the 2 horns were paired each time. There were 2 or 3 more songs after that.

I was into it and of course in my perfect seat up front. They kind of didn't want to stop and played a little "head out music" at the end, just a little bit of jamming to head out with. It was really great.

When I came back for the 10pm set, I saw all this electric instrumentation. I mean, the keyboards looked like they came directly off the mothership. Brad had an electric upright bass. I checked out the setup and got up from my front row seat and said out loud "I think I'm going to want to stand for this". The keyboard guy was confused and told me he didn't think it would get too loud. I explained it was about not wanting to be confined to a seat, which I normally like to do at The Stone because I like sitting up front. This older seated couple laughed and told me they were like me back in the day. Yeah, it was really grooving and I was getting down.

The sax was especially powerful. They did songs by Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill and one original. Everyone loved it. They had to wait for the sax to get there, and didn't start until 10:30. They played right up to the 11:30 curfew.

6/26 Thursday (BG)
8 pm
Brad Jones Quartet
Brad Jones (bass) Bob DeBellis (alto sax, bass clarinet) Aaron Stewart (tenor and soprano sax) Marcus Gilmore (drums)
Playing selections from his 2002 CD "Pouring My Heart In" as well as debuting some new music.

10 pm
Brad Jones' Avant-Lounge
Brad Jones (baby bass) Bruce Williams (alto and soprano sax) Bill Ware (vibes) Barney McCall (keyboards) Nate Smith (drums)
New project focusing on the treatments of compositions by Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, and possibly Cecil Taylor.