51st Monterey Jazz Festival September 19-21 2008

Monterey Jazz Festival 2008

Report from the field

 

Friday Night Sep 19

 

We started out the festival at the Garden stage which presents the first music of the festival every year.  We have often discovered new and unknown artists at this venue.  This year was George Young Quartet.  George is a great tenor sax, elder statesman if you will, with a wonderful rich and full tone. The bassist was young with great technique (I think) and good solo ideas but sometime the fingers will not go where the mind intends. Nevertheless he was a good bass player. The pianist on the other hand was outstanding.  He had great ideas, really cool rhythmic variations and he took several fine solos.  The drummer was either filling in or just not with it.  Either way he was Not happening.

 

Then we traveled to Dizzy Den, as we often do, for the “New Grooves” section of the Festival.  This year’s offering included the band Rudder.  Many of you are thinking, who???  Rudder is Keith Carlock on drums, Tim Lefebvre (bass), Chris Cheek (saxophones) and Henry Hey (keyboards).  Who is Keith Carlock you may ask?? Just one the most talented and sought after young drummers on the planet.  He is the only drummer to record an entire CD for Steely Dan.  Ask me I’ll tell you why this is significant.  We saw him last fall with James Taylor (one of my favorite song writers of all time) and recently with Steely Dan @ Kautz Ironstone.  But this….To say I was thrilled, mesmerized, blown away, humbled and excited would be an understatement. Alice couldn’t take her eyes off the drummer.  Not that he’s hot. Maybe, I don’t know but I do know this young man plays like no body else.  His playing is unexplainable, completely original and creative to a fault.  In a word, he is a FABULOUS player.  Yes I used the “F” word!  I’m still high off this show as I write this.  Their CD is probably not even close to what their live performance is about.

Then we moved on to the Main Jimmy Lyons Stage for Cassandra Wilson.  I expected more and got less but was not overly disappointed.  She had a great band and how she attracted Herlin Riley (drums), one of my New Orleans heroes to tour with her is beyond me.  Oh wait I think she may be from New Orleans or at least the South.  Anyway her arrangements of a wide variety of songs and styles are very interesting and makes for a wonderful listening experience.

Next on the big stage – Maraca Cuban Lullabies.  Afro Cuban monsters complete with a string section.  It was beautiful music but started with a few low energy pieces.  The 4.5 hour drive kicked in and we had to pack it in before the show was over.  But in the car and in the room on 88.9 FM they sounded great.

 

Saturday Sep 20

 

Saturday afternoon is blues, R&B and Funk time at the Festival.  We always are treated to an act or two that we would normally not pay a lot attention to and are usually surprised and delighted.  Today was no different.

 

Ledisi (Lee Dee C) started things off with just a killer band, complete with backup singers.  Of course I love her she’s from New Orleans via Oakland (or the other way around).  She has a huge well controlled voice and she does not overdo the vocal gymnastics.  She has theatrical experience and puts on a great show.  She definitely involves the audience.  In addition to all this she is as cute as a bug.  I love her quote about her record label: “I’m an R&B artist on a jazz label.  That makes not sense at all to the average person.  But it makes perfect sense to me.”

Every year for several years now Tim Jackson, the general manager of the Monterey Jazz Festival, publishes his “Tim’s Top Ten” list of artists that he thinks are ones to defiantly catch.  We have learned to not completely ignore this list as there are always several we have already decided to check out and many that we no nothing about, read up on, and decide to take a chance on seeing.  Such was the case with a French Canadian sting music band from Quebec in the Coffee House named Le Turk Bleue.  They were way fun!  Not jazz but way fun!! I can hardly wait to tell Nick, Patrick and Brent about this band.  They can hardly speak English but manage to put on a very fun show and communicate in the international language of musical fun.  The band is: two violins, banjo, mandolin, piano, and a drummer that played accordion with his hands and pounded the stage with his feet.  They all doubled on several instruments so the instrumentation changed with every song.  Very entertaining and did I mention, FUN!

The Derek Trucks Band finished off the afternoon in the Arena.  An altogether interesting concept: a blues guitarist that plays blues and jazz (My Favorite Things) without a pick of any kind.  The kid can play but apparently cannot sing.  He hires a singer who stands back while the boss plays extended guitar solos between verses. Enjoyable but not a highlight of the Festival or of any Saturday shows we’ve seen.

 

Saturday Night Sep 20

 

We started out the evening with, for me anyway, the absolute highlight of the weekend:  The Maria Schneider Orchestra in the Arena.  OH MY GOD!!!  What a band and what perfection in writing and arranging!  She was the commissioned artist of the Festival this year which means she writes a piece of music especially for the Festival and her performance.  The band consisted of 5 reeds, 4 bones, 4 trumpets, 4 rhythm and accordion.  Each reed player had at least three horns at their feet.  The section would often have 2 flutes playing with bari and tenor saxes.  Sometimes she has bass clarinet, regular clarinet and alto combinations.  And the list of combinations just goes on and on.  She enlists a standard bone section with 3 tenors and one bass and one of the guys is an outstanding soloist.  The trumpets could often be described as the fluegels.  She uses flugelhorns a lot and often has all four brass playing flugelhorns.  This was something I was not aware of or had noticed before. The addition of accordion to this amazing mix of horn combinations makes for some beautiful textures. And dynamics, FA GED ABOUT IT.  FABULOUS!  There I’ve used; the “F” word twice.  A strong rhythm section with Clarence Penn in the drum chair makes for luscious and absolutely gorgeous music.  I could never play this stuff but OMG I love listening to her creative big band constructions.  Not to mention she’s just as pretty as you please!

The real deal, as in the big time modern jazz esthetic was presented next by the artist in residence Christian McBride and his Quintet.  WHAT A BAND!!!  It consisted of Steve Wilson on alto sax, Warren Wolf on vibes (who pretty much stole the show), Eric Reed on piano, Carl Allen on drums and Mr. McB.  Katie bar the door.  Beautiful modern jazz played by folks who know their stuff and take no prisoners.  McBride’s compositions are great and his band to a member is a marvel to behold. Drummer Carl Allen is one of the best modern jazz drummers around.  I had just read an article about him in Modern Drummer and it was great to have a chance to see him perform.  Many of you know how I feel about bass solos but Mr. McB can burn one down without a pause.  And they are actually musical and enjoyable.  However… after about 3 bass solos I’m all done.

Christian announced from the stage that they were looking for a name for the band and were accepting suggestions though his web site.  He encouraged the audience to submit suggestions and that he would announce the winner the following evening in Dizzy’s Den.  The prize was lifetime tickets to see the band play any time and where.  Needless to say they did not announce a winner.  We received a response to our submission on Wednesday the 24^th.  They had 500 separate email and over 3,500 name suggestions.  They still have not announced the winning name!

 

We stayed for a little while and listened to the NEA Jazz Master Nancy Wilson with Special Guests Terence Blanchard and Tom Scott in a “Tribute to Cannonball Adderley” show but I couldn’t handle Ms Wilson’s long and very hard to follow stories about the Adderley brothers.  Just too much yakking’ and not enough blowin’.  We bailed and listened to the show on the radio on the way back to the hotel. Day 2 in the bag.

 

Sunday Afternoon Sep 21

 

Paul’s show.  That’s what I call the MJF Next Generation Jazz Orchestra conducted by Paul Contos show in the Arena Sunday afternoon every year.  Every year they are joined by the Artist-In-Residence for the festival and this year it was Christian McBride.  This entire Next Generation organization, and the kids they attract, is amazing.  So are the absolutely killer arrangements that Paul gets for these kids to play.  16 years olds are up there soloing like they’ve been doing it for 20 years.  Awesome!  I was watching one of the drummers, Jimmy McBride, and I’m thinking to myself that I should be taking lessons from this kid!  Then I go and check out his allaboutjazz page and find out he’s won 20 or more awards not only for his drumming but his piano and composing talents.  And this is just one kid out of the band.  We always really enjoy this show and this year was no different.  Very inspirational and comforting to know that jazz is being encouraged to this level.  They still have to go out and play tons of gigs but they are definitely getting the schooling they need.  Did I mention they went to Rotterdam and opened the North Sea Jazz Festival earlier this year?  Not bad.

We stayed in the Arena for the next show.  Jamie Cullum is a jazz singer/pianist from London.  I was curious to see him perform as I have been listening to his music for a year or more.  He is a bit unusual.  Unusual if you think stripping off your shirt and tie (yes he was wearing a t-shirt), running across the full length of the stage, standing on the piano stool and the piano, jumping off the piano and sitting on the keyboard are unusual for a jazz singer!  You might think that he was showing off to cover his lack of talent.  And there is where you would be dead wrong.  He is a wonderful singer with great phrasing and control.  In addition he is also a really good pianist.  He involves and talks to the audience and is a great entertainer.  He is just what Jazz needs and is WAY hipper that Michael Buble.  His show was very enjoyable and I’m sure he made a lot of new fans.

We then moved from the Arena to the Garden Stage to see Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band.  Brian Blade was working hard this weekend with several bands but this is his baby.  The band is two Saxes, piano, bass and drums.  This music is deep but not black hole deep.  It swings at times and other times… Well you’re on your own.  I’ve seen him play a couple of times and always marvel at his creative pace.  He seems to never run out of ideas for the music.  Not the kind of music I would want to play but they cover enough different styles of music arranged for the modern jazz band to make for an interesting listen.

 

Sunday Evening Sep 21

 

I love and hate this time of the Festival because I know that quite often Tim saves the best until last (not in this case for me, Maria was the best) and I know that our wonderful weekend in Monterey is almost over.

I had just discovered a new jazz organist a couple of weeks ago and then was thrilled to find that Barbara Dennerlein would be performing at MJF as part of the Hammond B3 Blowout series in the Bill Berry Night Club.  She picked up a local drummer, Paul van Wageningen and guitarist, Brian Pardo for the show and they played very well together.  She was using the backline B3 so she did no have her usual array of midi controllers hooked up.  She is able to make the organ sound even cooler when she has this stuff with her.  She plays jazz on pipe organs also and was headed to Russia to do just that following her show at MJF.  The jazz organ trio is just about my favorite group even though I have never had the pleasure of playing in one.  A good B3 player is like a whole band in one person.  All they need is a good drummer and away ya go!  Add a smoking cool guitar and its groove Nirvana.  Barbara is a great organist.  She’s got it all goin’ on.  She has a great left foot kicking bass (she even took a foot pedal solo) while the right handles the volume and her hands are all over the duel keyboards with subtle comping in the left hand and wonderful solos in the right hand, in short, the complete package.  All rolled up in a slender, long dark haired German woman.  It was a very enjoyable set.

We left Barbara’s set a little early because I wanted to make sure we made it back to the Arena for the next show.  Turns out I had the times wrong so we kicked back at the Garden Stage and caught a little of the Jamie Davis Big Band.  Jamie is a singer from the SF Bay Area by way of Ohio.  His claim to fame is a stint in the Basie Orchestra from 2000-2003.  So I guess this guy can sing but I think he was having a little trouble with his voice that night.  The band on the other hand was having no problems at all.  Man I would love to have some of these arrangements.  This was an absolutely professional big band.  It just made me want to play immediately.  SWINGIN BABY!!  We only listened to a few songs because we had to get to the Arena.

Ok, you remember that black hole of deep jazz I mentioned earlier.  Well this was the show and I had a hard time with it but… the Wayne Shorter Quartet is not to be missed.  Yes that Wayne Shorter:  Co-founder of Weather Report, member and collaborator of one of Miles Davis’s best groups, composer of several classic jazz pieces.  The quartet is:  Wayne Shorter on tenor and soprano sax, Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums.  This music borders on complete free jazz but holds it together just enough to keep me wondering where they will go next.  Patitucci and Blade just stare and smile at each other as they dive further down the black hole with each beat.  Can you say cool?

 

Way cool.  How do you top Wayne?  You bring on Herbie.  The headliner for the Sunday show was recent Grammy Award winning Album of The Year Artist Herbie Hancock.  His band was made up of:  Lionel Loueke on guitar and vocals, Nathan East on bass and vocals, the mighty Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and the lovely Amy Keys (related to Alicia?) on vocals, and of course Herbie on countless keyboards.  The sets are short at MJF but boy did he pack em in.  Watermelon Man, Cantaloupe Island, Chameleon, and 2 or 3 songs from the award winning River album featuring Ms Keys on vocal.  This girl can sing!  The combination of Vinnie and Nathan was killer.  They both had ample room to show their stuff.  Lionel Loueke is from Africa and does this thing with his voice and a doubler that’s pretty cool and plays guitar with a lot of slapping popping.  It’s kind of hard to explain but people enjoyed it.  At one moment swingin’ and the next funkin', that’s how Herbie rolls and no one does it better.  I was not the “big production” finale that is very often the hallmark of the end of the Festival but it was a feel good celebration of jazz and an acknowledgement of the success of one of Jazz’s leading innovators.

So there you have it, my report on the 2008 51^st

Monterey

Jazz Festival.  Man we did not want to come home.  We love it in the Monterey Bay Area and look forward to our next visit and to the 52^nd version of MJF.  Hope you enjoyed the report.

Comments

[Craig Gaevert]

Jim Bob! Thanks for the report! Now I know which cool CDs to hunt down. We must say hi to Tim Jackson one of these days - I sold him his first flute and now look where he is. Keep rocking and we'll catch you in Sonora Town one of these days.

[B.Z. Smith]

Good to hear the story of a place I've always wanted to go! And glad to know that our Tuolumne County folks get there. Keep it up!
This blog and Jim's website are more testimony to the rich musical scene in the Sierra Foothills and the great musicians who live here--Thanks, Jim!