It’s over. Four days of solid music with many outstanding performances. Last night, the Undead Jazz Fest was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which gave me a lovely excuse to ride from my home in Sunset Park to Williamsburg via the NYC Greenway’s Brooklyn Waterfront section.
I saw a lot of great music last night. And for the three nights before that. One thing I found myself thinking (and then tweeting) was this: “Jazzers: Smile. Talk to the audience. Acknowledge applause after songs. You don’t have to ham it up. Just let us know you know we’re there.”
I didn’t make it through the whole night last night. I discovered partway through that I was jazzed out. Here’s what I captured in photos and tweets.
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Nice bike ride from Sunset Park to #undeadjazz in W’Burg, where Bizingas is making it happen”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Kirk Knuffke wailing his ass off with Bizingas”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Ches Smith and his ‘stache laying down some Levon Helm swamp funk on Brian Drye’s tune ‘Puffer'”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Marika Hues is grooving to a packed and happy house at Cubano Social. And yes, that’s Peter Lorre.”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Marika Hughes playing sparkling version of ‘No Dancing’ by Don Pullen/George Adams band”
“Marika Hughes playing a love song for Gil Scott-Heron (her biggest influence) and New York City.”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“The stage at Cameo. We’re either about to see Jon Irabagon … or Yes in 1973.”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Jon Irabagon and Mike Pride at #undeadjazz”
“This club (Cameo) is lit like one of Peter Gabriel’s nightmares.”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Classic Claudia: Moran, Gress, Hollenbeck, Speed, Reichman”
“The Claudia Quintet has a very interesting timbral blend. It’s sometimes challenging to know who’s playing which notes.”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“The Claudia Quintet is a very serious-looking band.”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Hollenbeck is a mountain of intricate sound. That metaphor doesn’t really work, but you get the idea.”
“Hollenbeck really is a monster drummer.”
“Ok, this ‘Be Happy’ tune must be ironically titled. Kick-ass tune, but nothing about it says ‘happy.'”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“Just chatted with Oliver Lake. Now checking out Bobby Previte’s band with Darius Jones.”
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| From Undead Jazz Fest – Day 4 – June 26, 2011 |
“I was thinking about going home — feeling a bit jazzed out — but Previtte just pulled me back in.”
