Jazz in the Afternoon

We have a subscription to the Lively Arts series at Montgomery County Community College; it's our second year. This afternoon was our first show and it was a dandy: Charles Lloyd and Friends, featuring Bill Frissel on electric guitar, Reuben Roger on bass, and Eric Harland on drums. Charles Lloyd himself plays tenor saxophone; he also played flute.

What an amazing show! True, expert jazz for an hour and a half. Their version of Shenandoah was hauntingly beautiful. The drummer was fabulous -- how he got those drums to do what they did with only two hands and two feet... wow. I couldn't help feeling that my old dearly departed friend Brian (who was a drummer) would have loved the drumming, it was so intricate, yet each beat was perfectly clear. And the bassist was great too; his solos were wonderful.

And Bill Frissel! Oh my oh my. He is truly a jazz guitar master.

I really think it was the best jazz concert I've ever seen, but that's what you get when you have four virtuoso musicians who can work together so beautifully. I mean, you could hear every instrument perfectly and yet, the sound was a perfect whole. And, the solos were intense!

I'm not describing this at all well. Suffice it to say that it was a fantastic concert. I'm looking forward to the rest of our series!