Paul Motian with Bill Frisell, Mark Turner & Tony Malaby @ the Village Vanguard

Paul Motian @ the Vanguard

Originally, the two weeks were supposed to be with Joe Lovano, but he couldn’t make it, so there were even two tenor players to fill in for him – Mark Turner and Tony Malaby. It was rather experimental, and it actually sounded kind of serious to me, as soul searching.

It was really great to visit the Vanguard again… Even though now that they accept credit cards it’s somehow different

Ralph Alessi’s This Against That @ I-Beam

With Ben Street on bass, Mark Ferber on drums, Andy Milne on piano, Tony Malaby on tenor sax, Ralph Alessi trumpet. I-Beam was packed in full . After a while I realised it’s so much easier to listen to that kind of music with my eyes closed -  otherwise it was too much information. After I discovered that it all blended into one great tripping experience (- the fact that I still have a jet lag and a small fever as well might have helped). Mark Ferber and Ben Street were just unbelievable.

Ralph Alessi's This Against That @ I-Beam

With Ben Street on bass, Mark Ferber on drums, Andy Milne on piano, Tony Malaby on tenor sax, Ralph Alessi trumpet. I-Beam was packed in full . After a while I realised it’s so much easier to listen to that kind of music with my eyes closed -  otherwise it was too much information. After I discovered that it all blended into one great tripping experience (- the fact that I still have a jet lag and a small fever as well might have helped). Mark Ferber and Ben Street were just unbelievable.

Marc Ducret @ the Jazz Gallery with the Angelica Sanchez Quintet

Me and Marc Ducret

Went to the Jazz Gallery again, because – guess what – Marc Ducret played there  with Angelica Sanchez Quintet (featuring Tom Rainey on drums, Tony Malaby on saxophone, Drew Gress on bass, Angelica Sanchez on piano).
The concert was pretty  good – but as I anticipated the highlights of it all (at least for me) were all the Marc Ducret solos . I just love Marc Ducret so much! He still is one of my favorite guitar players. Actually a couple of years ago I even considered changing my name to Ines Ducret – just to get some of his vibe for myself. He does things with the guitar I’ve never heard anyone do – really takes it all out of the instrument. He moves so fast that visually it sometimes gives the effect as if someone pushed the fast forward button. And such great ideas, so musical and excellent taste. But in order to appreciate how good he really is, one has to hear him with his own trio (I’ve heard several times… ). I love French free players a lot and Marc Ducret might very well be the best one of them. And he has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. Wow, it was so good to see and hear him
Otherwise, at times the piano was too quiet especially considering that it was her band – couldn’t hear everything (I was sitting in the 3rd or 4th row, middle). But yeah, it was all recorded and is available for checking out somewhere – didn’t catch it, where though -  @ jazzgallery.org ?

And well, guess I was mistaken and already recovered from yesterday – I do want to take pictures with famous musicians .