Got home about an hour ago from seeing a triple-bill...with a bonus.
Opening the evening was a short set by David Benoit. Three tracks from his latest album Fuzzy Logic (including his cover of a popular Smashmouth song), "M.W.A.", and two Peanuts songs. Too short!! While I hadn't heard of his other band members, they did have a lot of rapport.
Following Benoit was Jean-Luc Ponty, my second time seeing him in the past year. Again, it was a shorter set (albeit longer than Benoit's), and even included an encore. This is one band I'd recommend seeing! They all hail from Paris. Two of his band are held over from his African album Tchokola, and the other two (William LeComte and Thierry Arpino) are from Paris originally. AFAIK, Ponty is only touring a few more dates on this short visit to the U.S., but this band is incredibly tight. LeComte--I'd like to nickname him "sequencer hands", as he's able to reproduce some of the parts by hand, in perfect time, that were originally done with a sequencer! While Jean-Luc brought out his Barcus Berry onstage, he played the entire set with the Zeta (which has a much brighter sound).
Following Ponty were The Rippingtons, led by Russ Freeman...and featuring Eric Marienthal in the sax position. I'm no bigger a fan of Rippingtons than when I went in and, actually, only recognized a couple of the songs. (I own a couple of their earlier recordings.) The encore, finally, featured three songs I recognized. The first song, I remember, got a lot of radio airplay here in the early 90's. The last two...how can I put this? Freeman turned up the distortion on his guitar, and started playing....."Purple Haze"!! It threw all of us for a loop! Not only that, he followed that with "Fire" (another Hendrix tune). Funny that it seems like they finally woke up to play the encore! Not that their set was bad (they're all great musicians)...just somewhat repetitive.
It was just as much fun watching the crowd. Some of the audience members would have been more at home at a Doobie Bros. or CCR concert! Long hair, scruffy looking...these turned out to be long-time Jean-Luc Ponty fans, part of the loyal following from his mid 70's Atlantic recordings. (And I half expected the audience to empty out after Ponty left the stage ) Also ran into a couple of girls we met at the Steely Dan concert two years ago.
Not much else coming to Detroit this summer. August 25 brings George Benson and Natalie Cole, which may be interesting. (Despite his "pop" leanings, Benson does put on a good, entertaining live show with plenty of guitar playing.) There's a free jazz festival in Trenton this weekend also, but not much to compel me to head down there. Last year's headliners were Joe Sample, Chuck Mangione and Yellowjackets. This year it's Keiko Matsui and Peter White. (Peter White I'd seen in Basia's band about a decade ago, just about the time he released his first solo recording.) We used to have a Montreux/Detroit Jazz Festival, but now it's been renamed, and it doesn't draw the headlining acts like it used to 10-15 years ago.
-= N =-
...finally winding down...
Opening the evening was a short set by David Benoit. Three tracks from his latest album Fuzzy Logic (including his cover of a popular Smashmouth song), "M.W.A.", and two Peanuts songs. Too short!! While I hadn't heard of his other band members, they did have a lot of rapport.
Following Benoit was Jean-Luc Ponty, my second time seeing him in the past year. Again, it was a shorter set (albeit longer than Benoit's), and even included an encore. This is one band I'd recommend seeing! They all hail from Paris. Two of his band are held over from his African album Tchokola, and the other two (William LeComte and Thierry Arpino) are from Paris originally. AFAIK, Ponty is only touring a few more dates on this short visit to the U.S., but this band is incredibly tight. LeComte--I'd like to nickname him "sequencer hands", as he's able to reproduce some of the parts by hand, in perfect time, that were originally done with a sequencer! While Jean-Luc brought out his Barcus Berry onstage, he played the entire set with the Zeta (which has a much brighter sound).
Following Ponty were The Rippingtons, led by Russ Freeman...and featuring Eric Marienthal in the sax position. I'm no bigger a fan of Rippingtons than when I went in and, actually, only recognized a couple of the songs. (I own a couple of their earlier recordings.) The encore, finally, featured three songs I recognized. The first song, I remember, got a lot of radio airplay here in the early 90's. The last two...how can I put this? Freeman turned up the distortion on his guitar, and started playing....."Purple Haze"!! It threw all of us for a loop! Not only that, he followed that with "Fire" (another Hendrix tune). Funny that it seems like they finally woke up to play the encore! Not that their set was bad (they're all great musicians)...just somewhat repetitive.
It was just as much fun watching the crowd. Some of the audience members would have been more at home at a Doobie Bros. or CCR concert! Long hair, scruffy looking...these turned out to be long-time Jean-Luc Ponty fans, part of the loyal following from his mid 70's Atlantic recordings. (And I half expected the audience to empty out after Ponty left the stage ) Also ran into a couple of girls we met at the Steely Dan concert two years ago.
Not much else coming to Detroit this summer. August 25 brings George Benson and Natalie Cole, which may be interesting. (Despite his "pop" leanings, Benson does put on a good, entertaining live show with plenty of guitar playing.) There's a free jazz festival in Trenton this weekend also, but not much to compel me to head down there. Last year's headliners were Joe Sample, Chuck Mangione and Yellowjackets. This year it's Keiko Matsui and Peter White. (Peter White I'd seen in Basia's band about a decade ago, just about the time he released his first solo recording.) We used to have a Montreux/Detroit Jazz Festival, but now it's been renamed, and it doesn't draw the headlining acts like it used to 10-15 years ago.
-= N =-
...finally winding down...