We almost followed the plan exactly, but at the last minute we jumped to Ben Greene Trio at Kilbourn because there was no line at 10:05 and there was a short line at Max for Dontae Winslow. However first to Joey Alexander, the 11 year old wunderkind from Indonesia. The hype was extreme and the expectations were so high that once again we were in line for a 5:45 show at 3 PM. We were far from alone, by 4:30 it was apparent that late (!) arrivals were not going to get into the small – 250 seat – Hatch Hall. We had watched the YouTube and read the reviews, but still wondered if it could be worth the wait. It was! and he is performing again today, the first performance in a new venue, Lyric Opera formerly the Christian Science Church on East Ave. If you didn’t hear him yesterday and you are in town, GO! He played with the maturity one would expect from a seasoned performer with years of experience. He played Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane and was more than equal to the challenge. He is still a little boy in appearance and stage presence until he faces the piano and gathers his attention to perform then you could close your eyes and not be aware of his youth.
We recovered from that incredible performance and set off to the Little Theater as planned to hear Chet Catallao and the Cats. Chet played guitar with Spiro Gyro for many years. His group of drums, percussion, bass and keyboards rocked the Little for the full hour leaving us wanting more. I particularly enjoyed “Finger Pickin’ Good”. It was loud and satisfying. Following that we took a break and Carol got out her sandwich while I got my favorite Louisiana Blackened Chicken plate to eat at tables set up on Main Street. Carol may kill me for this selfie:
As we digested we walked, or should I say waded, through the mobs to get to Xerox for Eric Revis Trio. Revis has been playing bass for a long time see his
bio here. The performance was wonderful and the music had us thinking we had taken a different turn and ended up in Lutheran Church. In classic music terms it was more like Reich than Copeland. It would be hard to call it melodic. The pianist never even turned to face the audience. She had four pages of sheet music in front of her, actually two full pages and two half pages and she never seemed to refer to them. We were captivated and stayed through most of the show, leaving in time to wade back through the mob listening to Blood, Sweat and Tears – we got to hear some of that as we walked. Confronted with people waiting to get into Max for Dontae Winslow and no line at Kilbourn for Ben Green, as mentioned at the top of this post, we opted to hear Ben Green planing to leave after 30 minutes to jump to Max. Somehow we found ourselves glued to our seats until 11:20 when the trio finished its overtime encore piece.
We stopped by the apartment to drop off the chairs and snag some ice cream before heading across the river to the Plaza for some more music. As we arrived John Nugent was sitting in on sax and Bill Dobbins was at the piano with the Bob Sneider and trio on stage. John invited Grace Kelley, tenor sax, to sit in and a bass sax player, whose name I didn’t get, joined the mix as John left for the night. As the set was reaching its last number a pianist sat down at the keyboard and joined in to wrap up the set. It was 1AM and Sneider called for a 15 minute break. I looked at Carol and we decided to call it a night.
Our grandson Josh had texted that he wanted to come over for breakfast and that was very high on our list of priorities especially as today, Sunday the 21st of June, is not only Father’s Day, but our 51st Anniversary. It is hard to believe so many years have passed, but all we need to do is look at our boys to know it is true. Breakfast with Josh is very special for us, we hope he can join us on Wednesday night, when he has a night off, for some music.
But I get ahead of myself. Tonight we have agreed to line up for Tessa Souter in Kilbourn then Nils Berg Cinemascope in Lutheran, just to see/hear what it is all about. Then on to Xerox for Raul Midon winding up at either Max, Kneebody, or Montage, New West Guitar. If we still have the strength we will venture over to the Plaza for a final wrap of the night.
