2/24

I just got back from a concert, Kurt Rosenwinkel with the One O'Clock Lab Band. There were some good and bad things.

I'll start with the good things first. They were all excellent musicians. Kurt's quartet played first, and he played with Aaron Goldberg, Ben Street, and Ted Poor. I love Aaron's solos, I always have and I probably always will. There's something about them that just always blow my mind. I hadn't heard much of the other two, but Ben was a very solid, creative but steadfast bass player, and Ted musicality, expression and rhythmic feel were pretty incredible. And Kurt was definitely worth the hype.

The One O'Clock boys were also good, as usual, with their screaming lead trumpet parts, groovy sax solos and tricky compositions. I always enjoy it when they play.

But, there were a couple of things that I wasn't very impressed with. First of all, why the Murchison? I understand that there were a lot of people that wanted to see him play, but the acoustics of Winspear Hall are much too resonant for the performance tonight; it sounded like I was listening to jazz underwater. Kurt's guitar lines were sometimes too much of a blur to comprehend, and in contrast to all of the other instruments, the drums sounded a little funny cutting when all of the other instruments were muddled.

There were some other things about the MPAC that I didn't like as well. This was the first show I've ever been to where seats were assigned, and from the number of people that had no idea where their seat was, I'd guess it was the same way for a lot of people. That mess delayed the start for probably 15 minutes and was just generally a hassle. And, usually, the staff want all of the people out of the Murchison before 10:30. Kurt's quartet didn't finish until 9:40, and the One O'Clock didn't start until around ten... I didn't stick around to see all of it, but the One only played 2 tunes instead of three, and I bet one of Kurt's tunes was cut too.

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of Kurt's music; sometimes it seemed like the changes never went in the direction you were expecting them to, and others it seemed like the tunes were complex beyond practicality, not in a rhythmic sense but maybe in a tonal sense, and sometimes it seemed like ideas were exhausted too easily or too few of them existed in a certain phrase or song. But, I will say that he's very good at what he does, and that he's very creative and has very good taste in sidemen.

I guess I can't really pick any jazz guitar player and say I really enjoy their music, like I do with some drummers, pianists or other musicians. Maybe I'm just not a guitar jazz person for some reason.

Despite my recently exposed, unexplained lack of empathy towards jazz guitar, I'm glad I went to the show. There was a lot of good music, and I learned a lot. I'm really feeling more supportive than critical right now, even if it doesn't show.

What else did I do today... I went to theory in my pajamas, jammed with the Jesses and Ronan, and played in African Ensemble, which is slowly but surely consuming my life.

Tomorrow I'm playing with African at SMU, I hope... I don't know if anyone who's going is driving, and if no one is driving we can't get there. So that might be a hassle. I'm also going to a party and playing with the band I'm in with the Jesses and Ronan; we're called Senor Fin, with a tilde over the n and an accent over the i, and you should "like" us on Facebook.

Yes, it's kind of a silly name.

Have a good Friday,

M