Audrey

Marcus Miller played a haunting version of Gorée on bass clarinet, after introducing this composition as inspired by his visit to the island in Africa that was a slave trading center. His tune for his mother-in-law, Bunny’s Dream, was also especially beautiful. His tribute to Jaco Pastorius, “Mr Pastorius,” was another highlight, featuring Russell Gunn on trumpet who played with a Miles Davis-inspired muted tone. The show had no shortage of jaw-dropping bass solos, but especially featured Marcus’s talents as a composer. ...

Julian Lage led a quartet through an inspiring take on Jazz Standards on a rainy Sunday evening at SFJazz. The fourth member of the quartet, Chris Potter, was the guest sax player. I love when a band is having a great time, and the quartet seemed just overjoyed with how this set went. Julian was playing a four-night stand at SFJazz and this was the final night. The show was organized as a tribute to seminal jazz guitarist Jim Hall, who was a mentor to Lage. It was also somewhat of a homecoming for Lage, as he grew up in Santa Rosa. Because it was a tribute show, Lage did not play his own compositions, but instead chose Standards like: ...

For New Year’s Eve and our Anniversary Eve as well, Audrey and I took Micah and Victoria to the Kennedy Center to hear vocalist Jazzmeia Horn and her Noble Force. The musical energy started high and stayed high, with Jazzmeia leading a full big band horn section with 5 saxes, 4 trombones and 4 trumpets through a series of her own compositions. “Strive” and “Freedom” were particularly powerful. (Listen to Freedom on Spotify.) ...

On a sunny Saturday morning in December, we took the dogs for a stroll in Old Town Alexandria, about 25 minutes from our house. We enjoyed all the colonial-era houses, many with tasteful decorations. Sugar Baby and Ollie enjoyed the walk but reported better odds of finding dropped food on the ground near our house. click to see the photos larger

For a special pre-Thanksgiving treat, Audrey and I enjoyed Billy Joel’s 96th concert in his series at the Garden. His voice was as good as ever, and the band was tight. Billy Joel puts on a good show, with plenty of greatest hits, but also some unexpected covers. He pranced like Mick Jagger to the the Stone’s “Start me up” and crooned “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” among others. Of course, the crowd sang every word of “The Piano Man” – the last song. But then he came back for three rocking encores. ...