Jazz@Rochester

As the six members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band trooped onto the stage the history of jazz was there in front of me. The trombonist had relatives who played with King Oliver and Louis Armstrong, for Chrissakes! The music they play is, of course, infectious. Before they were done playing a somewhat short set, they had the whole 400+ of us mostly white, middle-aged folks up on our feet clapping and swaying, with some members of the audience joining the band members and some Mardi Gras costumed dancers in a Second Line snaking through the hall. To be accurate, there were only a few folks who were in the line, but everyone was having fun. I had to take a video of it with my camera to make sure my wife believed me.

After spending some time with our friends Joyce and Jerry listening to Hard Logic, I headed over to catch the 10pm set by the Robert Glasper Trio. This young pianist, who was born in Rochester, signed with Blue Note last year and his career appears to be taking off. He has worked with a wide variety of artists, including Terence Blanchard & Roy Hargrove, as well as hip hop artists Q-Tip & Mos Def. I remembered reading an article in Downbeat, perhaps it was a review of his new album on Blue Note, but couldn’t remember why I felt I should see him other than he seemed to embody a lot of influences and I wanted to hear the result of that brew. Another good choice and another new artist who I’ll be listening to going forward. Playing with Vincente Archer on bass (he also backed up Karrin Allyson this week) and Damion Reed on drums, Glasper played meditations on a figure for quite awhile, with he and his band riding a wave to a percussive, clashing place and then back again to the simple blues figure he began with. Then he went all Debussy on me for a short time during the second piece. Glasper’s playing reminded my friend John of Phillip Glass. I didn’t know why before I heard it, but now understand where he was coming from as Glasper’s approach is take a thematic part of a song and work it over and over. Although it is repetitive he works it differently each time and it becomes more of a meditation. The Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage mashup with a Radiohead song that I didn’t catch was a highlight. Don’t be too mad at the cell phone that went off during one of his quieter moments in Maiden Voyage; it was the phone of one of the proud family members that came to see Glasper play.

Tonight, I also had the serendipity to meet Gabe Dalmath while eating a wrap behind the ice cream stand. We talked for a bit before his wife Jean Dalmath, who is the Publicist and Communications Director for the RIJF, came up to get him for the Phil Woods gig at Eastman. He introduced me to her and they both ended up with my “blog card.” I hope that we can do some things with them in the future that may help support the great work that Jean and the RIJF staff have been doing, turning the RIJF into one of the world’s premier jazz festivals in 5 short years.