Home : Plato's Words : July 2002

July 2002

June as usual was absolutely filled with music what with the wonderful Jazz festival and other music happening, too. One of the most inspiring concerts I had attended in a long while was seeing Bonnie Raitt at the Orpheum earlier in the month. I have always loved her voice and really thrilled to see her live where she rocked out with her energized band and held the audience captive with her warm presence on stage. She is a singer that I think a lot of jazz vocalists should see when it comes to singing a ballad. She gets to the depth of the tune and chooses every note tastefully and truly from the heart to make the song come alive for you. Sometimes simple is better and somehow that's what she is able to do in the ballads, get them down to the true intent, which is to tell the story, and hopefully move you with the tale. In every song she sang she pulled out all the stops and every note she aimed for whether a high belting note or a gentle crooning note, she nailed it. All that after 44 concerts that the band had been performing on their tour and still her voice sounded strong and unfailing in strength and range. The other thing I loved about her is her absolute lack of pretense on stage. With her long flaming red hair she was dressed simply in black jeans and boots with a long sleeved pink top, simple and elegant and ready to groove with her band.

At the end of the concert Bonnie brought Colin James on stage to play a couple of tunes with her and the band. He was watching from the wings. That must have been quite exciting for him to get up there with the great Bonnie Raitt.

Weeks ago as the Jazz Festival released information about this year's line up I got excited as I usually do to read about who was coming and who I would be able to see. It is unfortunate that you can't see everyone you would like to when you are a working musician, too, so alas I did have to miss the Dianne Reeves concert on opening night. From everyone I spoke to it was an incredible concert as I assumed it would be. Several people beforehand had told me that they did not know anything about her but after the concert they were converts for life to the school of improvised music with Dianne Reeves. Hopefully she will be able to come back and then I can see her live myself!

Who I have been lucky to see live this year is the great Pat Martino. I have always been a fan of his very individual style of playing and knowing that he would be here with organist Joey DeFranceso was the icing on the cake. They were joined by a fabulous drummer that I had never heard of, Byron Landrum. With great seats in the second row of the Vogue we were able to hear and see everything that was happening on stage. One of the things that was happening was that the three musicians played with fire throughout their entire set. With the applause in between tunes still thundering Pat set the tempo for the next tune and they were off again. Such fun was being had on stage with the three musicians sharing smiles with each other throughout. I truly don't think I have ever seen any group actually look as happy to be playing music together as that trio. They were playing some really difficult tunes and critical listening between the musicians was apparent. They modulated constantly within tunes and caught each other's rhythmic shots and motifs and picked up on them like riding a wave together which made it highly exciting to the listener. Particularly guitarist Pat and organist Joey really "worked" any motifs that they came up with in their solos and seemed to build on one motif and explore every angle of it before releasing that idea and leaping to the next one where the art of sculpting began again. The highlight for me in this year's festival for sure.

Second highlight was the wonderful Dave Holland Quintet, a group that had wowed me last fall. This time they did have their regular saxophonist back. Chris Potter was on stage with the rest of a team of some truly great musicians. Once again I was moved by the fact that these five musicians play music on some other plane somehow with the level of musicianship so high that anything is possible and becomes truly possible and they work their magic through the tunes. Dave Holland simply flies his finger over the bass and his entire body becomes involved as he solos at racecar driver like tempos. He really gets to the excitement factor within a tune on every solo. I love to hear him on medium tempo or slow tunes too with his rich warm sound but I especially love to hear him on fast pieces when the only thing holding him down is the gravity that we all have to deal with. There appears to be an enormous amount of respect amongst the musicians and they each are given opportunities in their solos to take the band on a journey in their direction. What I found interesting this time hearing the band is that while someone is soloing your ears are primarily hearing that individual in the forefront but your listening attention also captures different things happening within the group. Dave Holland and drummer Billy Kilson may be locking together on an idea for awhile and then suddenly another focus becomes apparent as vibraphonist Steve Nelson comes up with a comping motif. Dave Holland may join in on that idea either rhthymically or melodically and so on. All this is happening while one of the horn players are soloing. These little connections behind the soloist never ever got in the way of the solo and in fact sometimes were probably begun as a result of some idea from the solo in the first place. It was as if musicians playing and listening at this level could split themselves somehow. They support the soloist and are obviously hearing where he is going with his ideas and direction he is taking while at the same time being able to follow another idea and latch onto it, too. Difficult for me to explain but absolutely was exciting to pick up on as a listener. Thrilled again by Dave Holland and his wonderful group of all stars.

On a whim I bought a ticket to go and see vocalist Molly Johnson and was absolutely won over by the trio that opened up for her. The Baptiste Trotignon Trio was lead by pianist Baptiste and along with his bassist and drummer they had me spellbound from the first downbeat with their brilliant playing of really interesting and exciting originals that were creatively structured with every turn leading to a fresh idea. They did play one standard but other than that they were thoroughly original in their approach and their repertoire. You could hear a lot of classical music influence in Baptiste's playing and I don't think I have seen anyone play with a better piano technique than he did in a long while. His arm weight was in absolute control and he could really make the piano sing melodies and then also was able to fire off rapid double hand lines with great precision and never lose the color he was aiming for because of lack of actual technique. Good technique should be a given when you are a musician but of course good technique doesn't always make for a good musical performance. He just happened to have it all: flawless technical ability and absolutely wonderful sense of melody, of rhythm, of dynamics, of harmony and of improvisation. What a dream player! The drummer and bassist were right there with him and together they played a brilliant set in my opinion and I do hope that they will be able to return to Vancouver again.

My concert with Kate turned out to be a lovely night of music. We really enjoyed singing to the warm and giving audience and were happy to see the Cultch at near capacity, too.

Thanks to all of you for your kind comments after the show and for your emails as well. They meant a lot to me.

Earlier in the month I had a couple of performances with other musicians that became highlights for me. I have been singing on occasion with a trio that I have decided to dub "The Painters" because when I sing with them that's what they seem to do with the music I choose - they paint it with various textures and colors. They are pianist Lou Mastroianni, bassist Steve Holy and drummer Tom Foster. I had an exciting couple of nights where we were able to achieve a real group sound somehow as I called certain tunes that really came alive for me with that particular trio. It involved the type of playing that is not necessarily flashy and chops oriented but is more reflective of the mood of a tune. There was lovely melodic playing from Lou and Steve and there were sounds that I had never heard from Tom on the drums and everyone was "on" somehow and feeding into the overall experience of each tune. I have worked with Lou and Steve a lot but not Tom so much and suddenly I was hearing just how truly amazing he is as a drummer as he played with subtlety and originality and a quiet kind of finesse. I hope to sing more with this special trio of musicians.

Now for the month of July I am off to Saskatchewan, land of sun and wind and all those elements that make for a summer scorcher…

Karin