So, I was late. As usual. I wanted to get to Jazz Street by 4:00 to stand in line for Mose Allison. It didn't work out that way at all, and we got down to XRIJF's Jazz Street about an hour or so before Andreas Oberg was set to hit the stage at Reformation Lutheran Church. Joe got some coffee at Java's and we headed down to the Church to stand in line for Andreas.
We only had to wait about 15 minutes or so, and then we got really nice seats in the church. The emcee came on the stage at 7:30 to make some announcements. Unfortunately, the last one was the Andreas Oberg's visa was held up and so he was not going to be there. It was going to be the Marian Petrescu Trio with Christian Haus (sp?) on electric violin. We were there, along with many, many others, to see the phenomenal guitarist, Andreas Oberg. We were very disappointed, and I was tempted to leave and get into something else I wanted to see. But we stayed put, and were pleasantly surprised at the great band we ended up seeing. Petrescu was a great pianist, the violinist, bassist and drummer were all excellent as well. It was much, much less of a disappointment than what I had originally thought it would be.
However. If I did not have a Club Pass, and I had waited in that line and paid $20 or $25 at the door with the express purpose of seeing Andreas Oberg, and they did not have the courtesy of letting me know that the guy I was paying to see was still at home in Sweden, I'd be pretty darned angry. To put it bluntly.
After that, we went down to Kilbourn and stood in line for an hour or so to see Mose Allison. Now, I've heard his name forever, and it was always uttered in that "legend" sort of way. Obviously, others have had the same experience because I heard the first show had lots of people who did not get in - the line stretched down Jazz Street, down the alley, along the street behind that all the way to East Avenue. The people who were standing in line behind me had been shut out of the first show. So, I was not alone in my delusion that I was in for something really great.
There were points in Mose's first song that I think even I could have banged out. Then, in the second song (and subsequent songs) Mose "sang." Which was really him speaking in rhymes in a very repetitive manner. Also, he kind of growled some kind of scat singing as he played which was picked up by the mic. It was kind of disturbing. Every tune he played seemed to have the same rhythm, every "song" he "sang" seemed to have the same melody. I was extremely disappointed. We left before the halfway mark.
We then hit the Club Pass Tent and saw Sauce Boss. That was a waste of walking. The guy was a good-enough blues guitar player, but did too much talking. We heard, later, that during his first set he took a 30-minute break to cook and talk. Apparently, the tent cleared out. We stayed only a few minutes and headed out to find food.
We found friends, instead, and walked up East Avenue ending up in front of the Inn on Broadway listening to an impromptu jam of contemporary jazz performed by some young guys. They were good! I will have to get more info on them, because I'd love to see them again. We got a quick bite a Matthew's and headed home.
I need to plan out tomorrow much better than I planned out today. And I have high hopes that tomorrow will be better. The Jazz Fest's line, "It's not who you know, it's who you don't know!" did hold true as far as the Marian Petrescu group goes. I'll look for more surprises like that tomorrow.
yours in music,
Tracy
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