In the past week I’ve done two things that brought normalcy a little closer to reality.<\/p>\n
One: played a gig. Two, saw somebody else play a gig.<\/p>\n
Not too much to report about my own gig. Yup, still know how to play the piano.<\/p>\n
You know who else knows how to play the piano, like, really well?<\/p>\n
Kenny Garrett.<\/p>\n
And that’s not even his main instrument!<\/p>\n
Saturday evening I had the pleasure of seeing legendary saxophonist Kenny Garrett and his quintet take the stage at Keystone Korner in Baltimore, now doing in-person live shows again in addition to livestreaming its shows.<\/p>\n
(Never went for the streaming option. I appreciated their effort, trying to make do in the COVID era, but come on, who wants to watch an empty jazz club?)<\/p>\n
Keystone Korner is one of what I’d call a few remaining “real” jazz clubs around. And\u00a0real<\/em> jazz musicians know it. That’s why the little club can pull in big-name talent every single weekend.<\/p>\n Kenny Garrett has been a big name for over 40 years. Still trying to place him? Ever hear of Miles Davis or the Duke Ellington Orchestra? Yeah, that was Kenny playing the sax with them.<\/p>\n I saw Kenny Garrett play at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2008. I know that jazz in a chamber hall is basically jazz on a golf course. (Quiet, please.) Listen, applaud, repeat. That’s what I was expecting that night in ’08.<\/p>\n Not what I got.<\/p>\n I’ve often described that evening as life altering, and it really was. I’d never thought “jazz” could behave like that. Or rather, that we<\/em> could behave like that, the artists and the audience, listening to jazz. It was a jazz concert with the intensity of a rock concert, to take the easy analogy, and I remember thinking that symphony hall would never look the same.<\/p>\n That experience changed the way I viewed “jazz,” and the way I played jazz as well. A friend of mine reminded me recently that the way we grow as musicians is not to retreat to some isolated cabin and produce a great record. Our capacity to produce is highest when we consume, taking ideas from others and putting our own touches on them in a sort of unplanned collaboration each of us has with one another.<\/p>\n My only disappointment Saturday night is that I knew what was coming. I knew it was going to rock. I knew it was going to be intense. I knew Kenny was going to put down his saxophone, chant a little in the mic, then walk over and bang out a few chords on the piano before picking up the horn again. His alto floats over the changes like a jam band’s guitar, and every once in a while he quotes Coltrane or Sonny Rollins, just to show he can.<\/p>\n Yeah, I would have loved to go in fresh.<\/p>\n But the second time was pretty sweet too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the past week I’ve done two things that brought normalcy a little closer to reality. One: played a gig. Two, saw somebody else play a gig. Not too much to report about my own gig. Yup, still know how … Continue reading