Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:24 am Post subject: Kuumbwa, Sept 29th, Fabulous show
Hey folks, gig alert. Santa Cruz stalwart Johnny Fabulous will be doing a show at Kuumbwa jazz center. Dinner at 6:00, show at 7:00. This will be a wide range of stuff, from beautiful ballads with Johnny singing and and playing solo piano, to some of the catchiest funk/TOP like tunes I've heard in years. Killer horn section will be in full effect. Chris Cain was supposed to do the gig as he's on a lot of the recordings, but he couldn't make it. So yours truely will be swimming in big shoes tomorrow night. Legendary place, great tunes and charts, and some of the best local players on stage. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 534 Location: SF Bay area
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 2:57 pm Post subject: WAY TO GO!
...so don't forget to tell me about the shoes you wear. Maybe I can pop over to Santy Cruise and see for myself. I would love to be there and make some noise for you. NICE GOING...BREAK A LEG! _________________ www.elizabethgage.com
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 886 Location: SF Bay Area
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 1:38 pm Post subject:
Well Elizabeth, everyone was in basic black. Except for Johnny who had a teal colored sportcoat on over his black t-shirt.
What a great night. Rhythm section of Mike Shannon on drums and Nat Schirman on bass. They can swing, and get down in the basement with the funk too. 3 piece horn section Stan, Doug and Wes (don't remember the last names). And a wonderful lady singer, Lisa Taylor (watch out for this woman). Johnny was in full command of the room. Telling stories and leading the band. Bringing folks off and on for different tunes. He has written some great songs, and together with a couple of folks, some awesome horn charts. Lots of rhythmic hits and twists, and chromatic chord movement. This definitely wasn't "Tore Down in E". He has 5 or 6 of these tunes properly recorded but no formal album out. If you catch him in some Santa Cruz resturant doing his solo thing, he usually has some copies of a sampler to sell. Highly recommended.
First song I came out for had an 8 bar fill in solo by Chris Cain on the record. When I finished, this big applause broke out. I was stunned for a moment before realizing that this is a sophisticated jazz audience, used to applauding solos. Then two songs later we played something that Chris had done 16 bars on the recording but Johnny's original set list had one of the sax players soloing over. I hadn't bothered to work out anything over the changes when Johnny looks at me over the piano and gives me "the nod". At the end of the night I saw that he'd put my name in there on the pre-show hand outs. Whew! Good thing I had been spending a little time trying to learn something from Chris's awsome playing on the recording. Then a song that John Wedemeyer had put a solo over. Fortunately, it was short and John hadn't gone too wild. I was able to fill the space with some basic blues licks. Then the end of the night with a cool Gospel like instrumental. The lead sax player, Doug, did the bridge and one chorus with both an alto and tenor in his mouth at the same time. Seen folks do this stunt before, but he really wailed and kept it coming.
Someone mentioned that Pat Metheney had played there the previous weekend. If I wasn't nervous enough trying to fill the spaces left by Chris and John, that was it.
Kuumbwa is a great venue. If you are in the Bay Area and anybody remotely interesting is on the calander, I urge you to take that drive over the hill. It will be worth it. Intimate, great sound (thanks to Alice behind the Allen & Heath board and the EAW system). Even better than the old Yoshi's. Wonderfull food for some shows as well. Probably the best jazz club I've been to in the Bay Area. Robben played there during the last Jing Chi run. I wish I could have been there, but I covered Red Suede's gig so he could get to at least one of the shows that week. Can't wait for Robben to come back through.
I used the Fuchs ODS100 (with two tubes pulled) and my single Tonker cabinet. I put a plexi shield over 3/4's of the front of the cab. Which made Alice so happy she came over and put a mike in front of the amp. (How do you get a blues guitarist to turn down? Put wild jazz charts in front of him. ) The 335 for most of the night and a couple of songs on the Strat for the smooth jazz funkadilly's. _________________ There are no such things as wrong notes, there's only the look on your face.
My Stuff: www.stevekirbymusic.com
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) The 335 for most of the night and a couple of songs on the Strat for the smooth jazz funkadilly's.
