Category: Music

Last weekend I had the pleasure of catching two nights of the Rob Wagner Trio with Hamid Drake and Nobu Ozaki. They played Sunday night at The Blue Nile, and Monday night at the Dragon’s Den. Monday also featured a guest appearance by Kidd Jordan.

It is always interesting and illuminating to get the chance to hear the same musicians multiple times in close temporal proximity. The similarities and differences can be quite enlightening. This is not a regularly working trio. They played a gig in New Orleans in December 2005, the night before the recorded their CD, and then did not play together again until June of 2007.

On Sunday, I only caught a few minutes of the first set, and most of the second set, because I was working down the street and could only get to the Blue Nile on our break, and then after my gig. Hamid had just flown in that day. The Blue Nile doesn’t have a very intimate vibe in its current layout, and the music seemed a touch tentative at times. I think some of it was the process of re-acquaintance, combined with the vibe of the room, and the day’s travel. Rob’s music can be pretty introspective, and tends to bob and weave more than all out burn, and it can take a while to get that vibe to settle in. As the gig progressed, I could hear the the trio finding each other.

Monday night at the Dragon’s Den was great. The night started with the trio plus Kidd Jordan. They did some improvised things, as well as one tune from the CD. Kidd sounded great, and his presence brought out some cool stuff in Rob. It pushed him to places he doesn’t usually go on his own. The second set consisted mostly of tunes from the CD, and the trio had found their good space. The Dragon’s den is a great sounding space, so I am sure that contributed to the night’s good feel as well. They graciously asked me to sit in towards the end of the night. It was a lot of fun.

I keep hearing that the future of the music biz is video. Robin Eubanks is doing his part to prove that idea correct. His new release is a CD/DVD double disc by his band EB3, called Live, Vol. 1. The DVD is primarily performance footage of the live concert that produced the music on the CD. I love the fact that it is selling at Amazon for $16.98. That is both the CD and DVD in one package for $16.98. Right on Robin… or whoever made that decision. The DVD is provided to add to the music lover’s experience, not as an excuse to jack up the price. That’s good for one’s karma.

EB3 is an interesting band. It is a trio made up of Robin, Orrin Evans, and Kenwood Dennard. Each member of the group covers the bass role at some point. Watching Kenwood Dennard play keyboard bass and drums at the same time is a trip. That is part of the reason I think I prefer to listen to the CD, rather than watch the DVD. When I watch, I get too caught up in trying to figure out the magic trick, or who is doing what. I can deal with the music on a more pure level in audio only mode, but I must admit having the DVD there is a huge plus. I imagine that I will be in the minority in my preference for the CD over the DVD.

The music is electric. It is all electric keyboards, with lots of electric trombone and a good bit of live loop building. It is at times very funky, and pretty trippy in a few places too. Heavily electronic stuff can come off as gimmicky to me sometimes, but this disc avoids that trap. I get a vibe of very honest expression in this music. It seems to me that Robin has found a voice and setting in this band that are truly his and that he is comfortable with.

Full disclosure: This release was sent to me by a PR firm, but I was planning on buying it before the free one showed up in the mail.

Ray Anderson, like Gary Valente, is a trombonist who has grown on me over the years. When I first heard recordings of Ray, my conservative JJ drenched mind heard him as crude and rough and gimmicky. As I have matured musically, I have come to hear him as vibrant and expressive and gimmicky. Gimmicky isn’t all bad. I would give certain left body parts to be able to execute some of Ray’s gimmicky stuff. Really “gimmick” isn’t right word. The crazy outlandish stuff he does with a trombone seems to be an honest part of his expression, as opposed to an attention grabbing gimmick. From a purely trombonistic angle, it is pretty amazing too.

In the last few weeks I have acquired three new (to me) albums that feature Ray Anderson in fairly varied settings.

The first is Bennie Wallace‘s celebration of Coleman Hawkins called Disorder at The Border. It utilizes a nine piece band on a program of Hawk tunes, or tunes associated with Hawk. This is a fun, swinging, spirited CD. The band has the right balance of smallness and largeness, with the power of a big band when needed and the agility of a smaller group. Ray Anderson is in classic Ray form on “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho.” Full disclosure: I didn’t buy this music, it was sent to me by a promotions firm.

I’ve scored a couple of good Gerry Hemingway albums on eMusic. The first was a quintet album, called Double Blues Crossing, that I stumbled upon while looking for stuff with Frank Gratkowski, or maybe Wolter Weirbos. They are both on it. Somehow that eventually led me to Devil’s Paradise by the Gerry Hemingway Quartet with Ray Anderson, Ellery Eskelin, and Mark Dresser. This album is a great balance of the looseness and freedom available to this type of quartet instrumentation, and the attention to composition and arrangement that can provide coherence and focus. The music was recorded in 1999, and Anderson sounds great on it. It is also interesting to hear Eskelin out of the context of his own groups. (There are a couple of Ellery Eskelin CDs that I bought with the intention of blogging them, but that doesn’t seem to have happened…)

The third album in this little Ray Anderson trilogy is The Line Up by BassDrumBone, which is Hemingway and Anderson with bassist Mark Helias. These guys have been playing together in this format for 30 years, and you can hear the communication and comfort. In this case the comfort of old friendships adds spark not complacency. Helias plays both electric and acoustic bass on this album. I like the electric. It can hold its place as an equal voice with the trombone. The upright swings harder. Having both just allows for the best of both worlds.