Hollywood Bowl 8/22/07 – Jazz trio

I was at the Northampton show…others can probably do more justice to the show than I, but I thought it was a wonderful show. Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette are giants in their own right, so it was awesome to see them with Bruce. The show was a bit of a surprise, though, as Bruce opened with solo piano tunes that were the kinds of songs that he normally plays. Since I was expecting a total jazz show, this threw me a bit. I started jotting the setlist down until the rather noisy and probably inebriated guy behind us tripped and almost fell down the balcony stairs next to me! So I don’t have it and have a crummy memory…Charilie or Si probably have it all down. But the band played most of the new record, some of Bruce’s “regular” music, and Bruce also played a couple of requests, so it was a nice mix of old and new. As a jazz trio, they sounded great. Christian McBride is so talented. He plays the upright bass as if it were a guitar, so melodic. And Jack DeJohnette is a master….cool, smooth, no crashing, although he had more cymbals than I can recall ever seeing in one kit! All in all it was a pretty laid back and easy show. There were a couple of encores and Bruce also led everyone in singing happy birthday to Jack. They appeared to be having a lot of fun and were looking forward to playing at the Newport Jazz Festival the next day. I only wish I had gone to that; it was a gorgeous day and I’m sure a great show. Christian McBride was also going to be playing with Joshua Redman at that show (anyone go?). It was a lovely night, well worth the long solo drive, and of course great to meet up with Si and to meet Charlie as well.

“frreemind” posted the following to the norcal etree mailing list:

I went, saw Eric, Jubilee, and John Hoey there, and I enjoyed it
greatly. Bruce was so jazzed, so to speak, to be playing with such
top-flight players in the form of Christian McBride and Jack
DeJohnette. Hornsby himself is a powerful and distinctive jazz
pianist. The program consisted mostly of fractured versions of jazz
standards, such as Monk’s Straight No Chaser and Miles Davis’s Solar.
Bruce did throw in three of his “hits”, Long Tall Cool One, Talk of
the Town (with DeJohnette handling some of the vocals), and for the
final encore, Mandolin Rain, played solo. Hornsby had earlier teased
that requested song with a jazzified version of the chorus. There was
talk of something special, and that appeared as the first encore in
the form of Bonnie Raitt. She sang Hey There, a song from the musical
The Pajama Game, associated with her father, the late John Raitt.

The show was about 100-105 minutes long, and the Palace of Fine Arts
was close to full but not quite. I was able to find a ticket out front
for a little bit of a bargain.