exposed

Anthony performs his “Virgo”, composition piece written for his father with the LA Phil

I heard about this show from keeping an eye on my neighbor Anthony Wilson’s gig calendar and blog. He mentioned something about being commissioned to write his first orchestral piece in honor of his dad. The debut scheduled to coincide the celebration of both his father Gerald Wilson and fellow legend pianist Hank Jones, both turning 90 years old this year.

The only likely connection I had was Anthony – to help me get into this. But deciding to go to such a huge event a couple days before the actual show is NOT the way to do it. After a few inconclusive messages exchanged with Anthony, it was becoming clear that he wouldn’t be able to help me. So I sat at work on a Wednesday sulking… kicking myself mentally for not having planned ahead.

THEN – A few hours before the show, I unexpectedly received a text message from a new acquaintant Jason Luckett whom, along with his sister Josslyn Luckett – both active in the jazz scene – I met through my friend Esther Chae (of a different circle entirely). We exchanged numbers because of our common music enthusiasm. He was wondering if I was free, on a short notice, to go to this concert with him. He just happened to have an extra comp ticket and pass. I nearly died of laughter, and immediately jumped on it with such rush of joy.

After work I jetted out toward Hollywood Bowl in the usual LA rush hour traffic. I couldn’t wait to surprise Anthony. I wish I could have worked out the photo passes properly, but I did what I could. I heard they are insanely strict about it. 

The show was hair raisingly incredible. What else to expect from such heavy.. heavy players as Kenny Burrell, Jon Faddis, Roberta Gambarini, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Lovano, Nancy Wilson, and the ever energetic  jazz spokesperson Christian McBride? That’s on top  of the privilege to hear both Gerald Wilson’s pieces and separately, Hank Jones. I watched, listened, and realized something… a small epiphany, if you will, of the intrinsic value of music, jazz, specifically because of the nature of its dynamics. Just as I watch these 90 year old men, getting the well deserved recognitions of their life long work… a near century worth, I felt them as interchangeable with an entity of music itself. One just can’t get there without putting in the time devoting entirely into it. Even that, one should also have ‘it’ at the first place! And they certainly have both.

In my opinion, music is an alternate dimension of life. All the variables, possibilities, compositions, dissonances, contrast, balance, harmony, etc., that’s LIFE. Each instrument is an organ with its own function, lock into place together and create a PRESENT, a momentary consciousness of a form of truth. This is one place I feel the synchronization exist with aging. With the decades worth of work, I can only partially comprehend the richness in all the intricacies each of their contribution means to the human intellectual advancement in general. With that I was both extremely humble, and full of firely life force of wholeness … and peace.

When Anthony came out to dedicate his composition piece to his father, that was another heavy layer in addition. With LA Philharmonic behind him, along with Christian McBride on bass – his music revealed the inter generational evolution and transcendence. Anthony, holding his own in music contribution, wrote a complete composition that brought tears to my eyes. There were so many things going on there that night. Beyond the identified values of music as said above, there were these emotional content I could only feel, but not able to word it. 

I caught up with Anthony after the show. He seemed a little tired from taking a leave from a tour in Europe, to rehearse and perform, but fully happy for all the right reasons. It was a significant night for him, for his dad, and for music history. I am still happy that I was there for all of that.

Gerald Wilson conducting

musician backstage

Christian McBride with friend

Legendary Hank Jones and the Jazz Cat LeRoy Downs

Hank Jones and Jason Luckett

Kenny Burrell backstage

dressing room allocation

Gerald Wilson

Gerald Wilson

Anthony Wilson and father Gerald Wilson

Having fun with some video footage. I took the video as an aide to see our progress over time. I couldn’t help it but made a little 3+ minute video to share with some friends. I’ve taken a lot of time trying to figure out the compositioning of moving images. This was also an exercise of low key video editing.

Doug Stanhope on Friday

“Fetish comedy” he claimed he offers – to his fan base he called a bunch of “pathetic and awkward single dudes”. Any circus that rings this sentiment IS my natural habitat. In additional to the certain weird niche of music cultures that I sometimes find myself mingling in, I’m happy to add the name Doug Stanhope into my list of interests.

I spent the last Friday and Saturday nights watching this guy’s acts for the first time. I became aware of him just about a year ago through my long distant poet philosopher suicidal internet Welsh friend, Mr. Joe Eschaton. For the past year, I watched a ton of Stanhope’s readily available internet videos getting to know his style. Even as much as I’m repulsed by anyone calling him/her self a Libertarian, I still enjoy his honest vulgarity as he logically breaks shit down to reveal the core of our common untamed souls.

Aside from catching his shows for the first time, I also broke another ground this weekend by adding (selective) comedians to my photo-documentary projects. I’m just hoping that Doug, along with some other adorable dark streaked comics will live awhile, for nothing else is to give the selfish me time to interpret their various dimensions accurately. These people seem to have a thing with drugs and alcohol abuse, which is entirely a conscious & freewill decision. It’s not my place to influence people like him to try to prolong their lives with proper diets and exercise (fucks sake, I’m square – and damn it, I’m proud of that.) The slow self destructive way is just a part of the whole picture. I understand it.

Well, other than that, I’m so glad I took my friend Phebbie with me to the Friday show, (which happens to be a better night when Doug was making more sense). She’s now also a fan. We are way excited to get more of this fetish fill the next time he is coming back to L.A. in November. 

Doug with Lynn Shawcroft

Doug and fan

Follow the link to the show here.

Watt recording twfps

Brother Matt

Todd Congelliere of Recess Records

Issac has my tattoo

Watt

Vinnie

My prior feeling of ambivalence, smelling a drastic attempt to put a cool whip on top of plastic ice-cream was soon abolished. The jazz series held at a shopping/mega Hollywood and Highland entertainment center was —-indeed, a good thing. 

Charlie Hunter and his current Trio with Erik Deutsch and Tony Mason delivered a quality show to a a packed audience. The stage was in the court yard, even as surrounded by commerce, it was a very good set up. There were hundreds of chairs and standing room all around occupied by old fans,new fans, and curious on-lookers. The sound system was surprisingly great.  I had a huge revelation that maybe… just maybe, putting legitimate concerts in the middle of modern marketplace, if done well, will prove more beneficial than… let’s say, putting on a concert at a specific venue charging a specific $$$ price from specific people? Can we have capitalism and socialism too? I think it’s time for us to draw up a new political/social/cultural structural idea.

Since Charlie put together this trio, I haven’t gotten a chance to sink into it so much. Maybe I was still missing the last trio with my favorite humans – John Ellis and Derrek Phillips. Tonight, however, I decided to go ahead and love this band of personalities, too. With Erik on the Rhodes, this new music direction is certainly different. I finally warmed up and got into them.

Afterward, we took a half an hour to decide where to go eat. I convinced them to drive to Chinatown, some 5-6 miles from where we were. The suggestion proved victorious, because FULL HOUSE Chinese food never failed anyone. They treated me to the dinner – which is why now – exactly at this moment – I’m feeling horrible for not able to find the negatives but a few from what I shot that evening. Especially sorry – Tony….. they will turn up!

Erik Deutsch

Charlie Hunter