More Than A Hint Of The Old Days

Well, Roy Hargrove was as good as I recall from the last time I saw him, in one of my favourite jazz clubs, the Village Vanguard in New York. In view of other live small club music events I’ve been to in LA, I admit that I was expecting a lackadaiscal and unappreciative audience, probably talking while the musicians dared to interrupt their dinner, and because it was after 10:00pm, hardly any audience for a 10:30pm start of the set.

I was wrong, I am happy to report. I readily revise my earlier conclusions about live jazz in LA by quite a bit. For a moment there, I could well have been in any of a number of good New York Jazz clubs. The venue itself, the Catalina Bar and Grill, was very good indeed (even though they managed to annoy me at the start by (1) only having valet parking, which I avoid, and (2) giving directions that assume that you will be driving, and so only telling you to enter the club through the back via the parking garage, rather than giving you the option to just walk through the lobby at the front. Sigh.) and was cozy and inviting, and apparopriately low-lit. The club was not completely full, but decently so, and the bulk of the audience clearly knew and understood jazz, not just applauding the apparently “difficult bits” (as audiences so often do), but with several showing their appreciation of a well chosen phrase, or a humourous or evocative musical reference of some sort, within a larger musical line. And sure, the two-drink minimum, or option to instead order food from the overpriced menu is a clear, cynical money-spinner, but it is no worse than in several other clubs in other cities, so I was only routinely perturbed by this, and for a short time.

Roy Hargrove and his band blew away any such minor concerns. I asked for (and got) a table as close as possible in the middle and so was able to see in detail what every musician was up to, which is how I like it. He has not changed for the worse from what I recall, and is still very relaxed, visibly having just a great time. I like him a lot for this, and because he is often just happy to -usually in the second set such as this one- find a good grove for a while and stay there while it sounds and feels good, but leave it before it becomes a cliche. This is a difficult balance and I’ve not seen him fall on the wrong side of it. He’s not in a hurry to show of some technical mastery of his instrument at the expense of the music. He’s very soulful in his playing, and you can hear that he knows his jazz history. He is of course extremely skilled, with a great tone on both trumpet and the flugelhorn, (which is an instrument I’m always delighted to hear played, for some reason). The rest of the quintet was fantastic: Gerald Clayton on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass, Willie Jones III on drums, and Justin Robinson on alto saxophone. Robinson and Clayton played some great solos, and Clayton’s piano playing was strikingly beautiful and powerful, whether on top of everything in a solo, or behind everyone as accompanist, enabler, and colorist. He’s evidently a leader in his own right and it shows.

There was a nice treat at the end of the show when it Hargrove came to the microphone and said that he could see Clark Terry in the audience. People looked, and indeed there he was. There was a round of applause, and then Hargrove jokingly did a little bit of “mumbles”, and played some Clark Terry-esque riffs in the closing piece. The evening ended with an encore of just Hargrove and Clayton on a ballad, and all was extremely well with the world after that…

Off to see James Carter tomorrow. Recall my earlier post.

-cvj

P.S. Seems that there was another blogger or two with a camera there. See here and here.