Night 7 was another night of late shows and no shows. We had really wanted to hear Mark McKnight at Christ Church, but read early on that Bill Dobbins would be substituting for him with no explanation on the FaceBook page. We like Bill Dobbins a lot, but can hear him most any week, someplace in the area. We got in line early at Harro East to hear Ruthie Foster and the Family Band and the rumor had it her flight from Austin via Chicago was delayed. There was no word on the FaceBook page so we waited outside then we waited inside. Fortunately we were having fun at the table so the wait inside was sort of OK. Then her band started playing and keeping us updated with her flight status which by then I was tracking on Flightview App. She came in an hour late and played three numbers and took a break. Although they did not clear the hall and we could have stayed on we elected to move.
After eating some really bad street food (I should not have gotten on the scale this morning) we went to Abilene to hear Pokey laFarge and the South City Three. They were a hoot, right out the mountains of the Carolinas and really very good. We stayed to the end of the set and then moved on to Terje Rypdell at Xerox. The hall was an icebox, Carol put on all the extra covers she had and shivered. I just shivered having brought nothing with me since the outdoor temps never got below 80. We did not understand the music. The group was huge, some 18 people on stage, with keyboard and Hammond B3 two drum kits, four reeds, at one time all of them were playing bass clarinet! (I don’t remember ever seeing more than one of them in a group). There was overdub audio vocalizations and one of them was “lets all get together” which was the antithesis of what was happening, as each group of musicians seemed to be headed in different directions. Palle MIkkelborg wandered about the stage playing his trumpet through exaggerated electronic effects to little apparent purpose. We wondered, as we left, why we had stayed so long. I think it was in hopes of hearing some resolution. If there was, we left after 70 minutes without hearing it. We got into Max to hear Taurey Butler Trio at the recommendation of Linda and Ken Graci who we finally saw for the first time. Butler is huge and the piano seemed to quail in his presence, but oh can he play and his sidemen were also wonderful.
Tonight our route looks rather simpler although you never know. The plan is Ray Haynes at Kilbourn, Peter Karp and Sue Foley at Abilene, Orlando Fleming at Christ Church and Gil Evans and Ryan Truesdale at Montage. No Lutheran Church tonight as one Rypdell performance is sufficient. Check back tomorrow to see what we actually do.
