That subject line comes to you courtesy of Dave K., with whom I went to Yoshi's Nitespot in Oakland, California last Friday to see Max Roach and the So What Brass Ensemble, "So what?" being the mot juste for many situations of Mr. Roach's old friend Miles. Yoshi's opened the doors at 6:00, and several people were already in line waiting when I got there at 5:30. The band sold out, or nearly so, two shows at the 300 capacity club, and that was just one night of a six night run.
Two choo-choo trains went by simultaneously as I waited on the sidewalk, an Amtrak passenger train and a long freight with cars loaded with shiny new pickup trucks, and lots of black tank cars. Who builds a music club on a street with three sets of train tracks? Somebody who knows they are guaranteed by the city that they'll only have to spend a few hundred thousand of their own money, and the city will kick in the rest along with some other guarantees, that's who. Oakland sank four or five million in this soundproofed jazz club. Is this a great town, or what?
After reserving seats I left to browse Barnes and Noble - picked up Paul Auster's "Mr. Vertigo" on sale for $1.61 - then meet Dave for too much pizza and beer. We ended up getting to the club a few minutes late, and stuff was already happening. Mark Taylor (French horn), Delfeayo Marsalis (trombone), Max (drums), Rod McGaha, Eddie Henderson (trumpets), and Antonio Underwood (tuba) were up there, dressed in seriously sharp suits. Only McGaha and Roach were playing - McGaha improvising in an Arabic sounding mode, Max dancing along on the drums, tirelessly, gently yet emphatically, as he would through the whole set. The rest of the band sat listening. (Throughout the evening I got a kick out of watching their faces when they weren't pl aying, especially Dr. Henderson who mostly frowned rather fiercely, but from time to time suddenly smiled and gave a little wave to someone in the audience. I'd never sighted a live Marsalis before, and had never even seen a picture of Delfeayo, but there was that unmistakable Marsalis tabby cat face.) The first piece turned out to be a long suite that alternated between solos accompanied only by drums and short tutti sections. Marsalis's solo was bluesy, modest and lovely, seeming to quote "Wade in the Water" thrice. Dave and I later discussed how much we enjoyed Marsalis's work in this set. Dave said something like "It's not about his playing,"which I interpret to mean he does not appear to be playing in order to impress the listener with his chops, but simply to express the music in his mind. In the suite each soloist had a theme of his own that he would explore, like Marsalis's "Wade in the Water" material. Horn player Taylor's sounded like bits of the "Summer of '42" theme.
You know, I sat there listening for twenty minutes before I noticed that no microphones were being used. And the balance and blend were perfect!
The second piece was the ballad "When I Fall in Love." The first chorus was unaccompanied tuba, just the melody with delicious vibrato. The second chorus he played it an octave lower, real deep, and McGaha added some muted ornaments on trumpet - and that was it. Next was a piece in 3/4 that really coalesced during a Marsalis solo; in the audience heads began to nod and bodies to sway. Max solo'd in this one, saying a lot with a little.
The next piece was a gorgeous unaccompanied trombone solo. In the following number McGaha had a solo with some remarkable odd but musical trumpet vocalisms, unlike I've heard from anyone.
Joel Milder wrote about the Roach band on Jazz-L, having seen them in Southern California, then the next week a guy on rec.music.bluenote checked in with a rave about their show in Seattle. So Roach and the guys have been bouncing up and down the West Coast like a swingin' yo-yo. One of the few times Mr. Roach spoke Friday, he said the band had been asked to play the national anthem at a Sonics game. They had looked forward to it, thinking they would be paid handsomely, but found out that "you don't get paid for playing that song." They did it for us, though, and it was the best spangled banner I've ever heard. Dave's name for the band was validated. They took that sappy tune to New Orleans and made it strut up and down like mad.
Standing ovation. Yoshi's threw us all out to let three hundred other people in for the 10:00 show. I'm putting Max Roach with the So What Brass on my CDs wanted list.