Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra at Zellerbach Hall Auditorium, November 16, 2014

CalPerformances presents Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, From the Bayou to the Bay
2014-11-16
Zellerbach Hall Auditorium
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA
7:00 PM, Sunday, November 16, 2014

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2014 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:12 PM lights down, 7:15 PM announcements by Rob Bailis; tuning; comments by Irvin Mayfield]

1. [7:19 PM] Sing, Sing, Sing (Louis Prima) $
2. [7:26 PM] ?
3. [7:33 PM] The Star-Crossed Lovers (Duke Ellington)
4. [7:39 PM] Angola §
5. [7:52 PM] The Secret Life of Plants §
6. [8:01 PM] Sweet Bread on the Levee §
7. [8:08 PM] What a Wonderful World § (MW)
8. [8:12 PM] You've Got a Friend in Me (GW) $
9. [8:20 PM +BS] Harris Laughing (Harold Batiste) §
10. [8:31 PM] ? §
11. [8:42 PM] (Outro theme and band introduction] § »
    (Irvin leads the horns on a 2nd line march through the audience in a big circle then back up onstage and off into the wings, leaving the rhythm section to wrap things up)
    [show ends 8:50 PM, no encore]

• Jeronne Ansari: alto saxophone, flute;
• Victor Atkins: piano;
• Barney Floyd: trumpet;
• Emily Fredrickson: trombone;
• Rex Gregory: alto saxophone, clarinet, flute;
• Glenn Hall: trumpet;
• David Harris: trombone;
• Eric Lucero: trumpet;
• Jason Marshall: baritone saxophone;
• Irvin Mayfield: trumpet;
• Ashlin Parker: trumpet;
• Ricardo Pascal: tenor saxophone;
• Ed Petersen: tenor saxophone;
• Adonis Rose: drums;
• Bill Summers: percussion;
• Don Vappie: guitar, banjo;
• Michael Watson: bass trombone, vox (t07);
• Jasen Weaver: bass;
• James Williams: $ slide trumpet, § sousaphone, vox (t08).

Irvin Mayfield and NOJO put on a great show for us tonight; I wish I'd known it was scheduled for simulcast on WWOZ so I could have alerted other folks to listen along! Irvin was in a very talkative mood – maybe in order to better communicate the action to the radio listeners? – but by the end of the show, I was getting a little tired of the hamminess. Just a little to much yack and not enough jamming.

Speaking of which, the band is very good. Blasting out of the gate with Sing, Sing, Sing, I had really high hopes for an energetic gig, but that highlight remained unequaled except for Angola a few tunes later in the set. The vocal tunes were fun, but being slower, not quite in the energy range that I was hoping to hear. Ending the show with a second line march through the audience was novel – you certainly don't see the invisible wall between the audience and the performers broken down like that every day – but it made for a subdued conclusion as the band marched off into the wings, still playing, while the rhythm section continued to vamp for a minute before wrapping up with a small flourish. I like the notion of the march, but if you're gonna do it at Zellerbach, you gotta do it right and let the audience tag along, all the way to the lobby or the outside courtyard!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2014 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!