Gig Review - Aaron Parks @ Yoshi's SF

Ran up to the city to catch the 8:00 set by Aaron Parks on Monday, 20 Oct, 2008. Aaron's a gifted musician who's music I recently discovered. He's very contemporary jazz (not smooth jazz) focused and is currently touring in support of his new CD, Invisible Cinema. Joining Aaron was his regular guitarist, Mike Moreno, and new supporting rhythm section of Thomas Morgan on bass and the young Marcus Gilmore on drums.

Aaron's past is quite an interesting tale. A Seattle native, he entered U of W when he was 14, was a National Merit Scholar at 15 and at 16 packed it up with his family and they all moved to NYC where he studied at The Manhattan School of Music with Kenny Barron. Surely a difficult, but wise choice!

I was really looking forward to hearing this music live and the quartet delivered the goods! The title, Invisible Cinema, is very telling. I often feel like I should be seeing a film while listening to a soundtrack,  or I'll start playing scenes in my mind as if I'm FFC directing a scene..trying to find the right setting and story for the music. Very emotive!

Opening with Peaceful Warrior, the set was gentle, relaxing and engaging until the speed bump of a standard. When you have such wonderful music, does it make sense to disrupt the flow with something out of character? Perhaps. Perhaps not. For me, I would have preferred the flow, but was very satisfied with the set in general. It was a warm and rewarding evening.

There's a nice article on SFGATE.com that's a good read. It was written just before this gig. 

Gig Review - Antonio Sanchez & Migration @ Yoshi's SF

On Tues night (23rd Sept), we made it up to the city to check out some of the best. Antonio Sanchez, as you likely know, is a phenomenal drummer who's recently played with the best of the best.  His band, Migration, consists of Scott Colley, Miguel Zenon and David Sanchez (no relation). 

Antonio made a very self-effacing comment that this was his first visit as a "leader" (quotes emphasized by Antonio), and while that's no small task, it's kinda cool. The really cool part is that this is not your typical "drummer" lead group that focuses a bit on the other players and then get ready to hunker down for the 15 minute drum solo.

Feh :(

Thankfully, Antonio gets it! He's got 3 of the most amazing musicians and he certainly let's them shine. While someone has to be the leader, live music, not even jazz, is a democracy, he does so as subtly as possible, allowing the creative energy to flow richly. When you've got Miguel and David interjecting with their own individual styles that so seamlessly mesh with the groove Scott and Antonio lay down, you just can't help boppin' along and having as much fun engaging with them as they are having trying to bring smiles to the audience and to the others on stage.

What a great night. Most of you know how much I enjoy live music. This was likely the highest level of musicianship I've seen assembled in one venue. Simply stunning.