As I walked into Chris’ Jazz Café for the first time, I quickly succumbed to the dimly lit and quiet aura of a Wednesday night show. Though there was barely anyone there at 11pm, the group was playing away under the surveillance and scrutiny of hanging Dizzy Gillepsie, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker pictures. And as I settled in at my table close to the group, an incredible trombone player was riffing away on the instrument as if his life depended on it—I had a feeling this was going to be a fun experience. The background soundtrack to their playing was an especially distinct one that you can only hear at a live show- people whispering, giggling, and snuggling in corners. During the course of an hour (which literally flew by), the group played about 3 songs, each one extensively displaying solos from all instruments in a style that landed somewhere in between free jazz and bebop.
Each instrumentalist demonstrated their own style and personality. The bassist (questionably a cellist? there was a weird convo between him and a drunk audience member…I was thoroughly confused...but I will call him a bassist anyways since he was playing the bass part) plugged through with crisp walking bass patterns. He was energetically swaying back and forth, making jazz love to it with quick sweeping fingers roaming along the neck. The drummer was the musical flirt of the group, experimenting with all sorts of rhythms. He never stayed in one particular style or meter, moving between free-form, experimental patterns to swing patterns to emphasized offbeat patterns. Every time he led you on with one groove he abruptly changed to a different one. The guitarist, perhaps more of the serious type, started with often sparse chord contributions; but when it was his turn to solo, his were intricate. With three different colored pedals tossed casually by his feet, he added delays and reverb accordingly to emphasize his swift playing. The bass-sax player, seemingly one of the youngest in the group did less to thrill, but then he would whip out some improvisational solo that would convince you that he was holding back. The tenor-sax player played one great piece, starting in a minor key and shifting into belting solos. By the end, he was literally screaming through his sax in anguish. Unfortunately the keyboardist had little lime light, hiding behind the sax players for almost the entire performance; however, some occasional arpeggios would slyly slip by and catch me by surprise.
My favorite part had to be during one piece with an incredible drum solo backed by a steady bass pattern and guitar harmonics that chimed in (which with the effect pedal provided the background with an ethereal sound quality). I’m sure I had a goofy grin on, though I tried to hide it by sipping on some soda.
Overall this was a young band, with each member clearly belonging to the group but not at all shy about doing his own thing. They were having fun, laughing after every piece in joy, in retrospect at some of their mistakes (which often went unnoticed to my inexperienced ears) and even in wondering when that 1am performance end time would come (especially since barely anyone was there to enjoy it).
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