jazz

The Lost Organ Unit

Jazz on a Sunday evening in a local pub. Hear them at SoundCloud.

Our week in Edinburgh coincided with the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival and we were lucky enough to get great seats for the Norwegian Mona Krogstad Quartet at the Jazz Bar on the evening of July 19th (over a month ago, now!) to hear this excellent ensemble. A great time and rather than describe the music subjectively and inaccurately, I can recommend you listen to them. Click any of the pictures below to see them all bigger (you may have to click the post title first if you’re not seeing this directly on the web site already).

For those interested in technical details, these were difficult shooting conditions as it was dark and I was just shooting with my walk-around zoom lens from my seat so as not to disturb those around me. Needless to say, they were shot at a very high ISO and were reasonably noisy as well as sometimes not that sharp at low shutter speeds. I used DxO’s Pure Raw to recover as much quality from the raw files as possible before processing in Capture One, simply using the default settings.

gertrude gig

After the Concert

Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon

These guys played a great set, combining sweet lyrical pieces with wide ranging dynamics as well as driving, beboppy pieces from Chris Potter on sax, spectacular drumming from Nahseet Waits (who regular viewers may remember was in the trio I posted from a few weeks back) and confident rhythm support from Joe Martin on bass.

Click any image to see them all enlarged.

Jazz Yoga

As the concert, featuring Chris Potter on sax, Joe Martin on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums, began, a demonstration of some kind of yoga or acrobatics was given to the music. At the end of the concert we heard that lessons were available. The photographer is Jimmy Katz, founder, with Dena Katz, of Giant Step Arts and the Walk With the Wind concert series.

Honoring John Lewis

Before the final Walk With the Wind concert honoring John Lewis, a Columbia professor (I can’t find his name or school), read to us from Lewis’ late work, exhorting us to hope and to vote, invoking MLK’s recommendation to practice good, non-violent, bad behavior.

After the Concert

Watching Walk With the Wind

Walk With the Wind

Mark Turner, Rashaan Carter, Nasheet Waits

Bassist, Rashaan Carter

Rashaan Carter

Mark Turner, Rashaan Carter, Nasheet Waits

Drummer, Nasheet Waits

Rashaan Carter, Nasheet Waits

Not sure about the new jazz

Nasheet Waits

Saxophonist, Mark Turner

Mark Turner

The last Saturday of September we went to see one of the free Walk with the Wind performances in a series in Central Park honoring the memory of John Lewis. Performances, which are acoustic and feature small groups, take place at 1 p.m. on The Mall in Central Park. Here are some shots of the band – click on any one of them to see them all enlarged.

Brain Jazz

The Forum at Columbia University, New York

Went to a lecture/concert at Columbia a couple of weeks ago, entitled, “Jazz and the Neuroscience of Decision Making: A celebration of mind and soul.” One of these people is a neuroscientist, the others are jazz musicians.

Joyous Night

Last Sunday night I got to see the great jazz guitarist, Pat Martino at Iridium. Maybe because it was the last show on a Sunday night the house was pretty sparse. We got to sit right up front. It was a great set. The only time Pat spoke was to introduce the band members right before the last number. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember their names and I can’t find any trace of this particular lineup online anywhere so they’ll have to remain nameless. I didn’t get any decent shots of the organist so he’ll have to go unmemorialized here.