SFJAZZ presents a Hotplate: Joe Henderson's Page One featuring the SFJAZZ Collective
2015-10-15
Joe Henderson Lab
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
Early Show, 8:00 PM, Thursday, October 15, 2015
Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!
The tunes from Page One are:
[8:03 PM lights down, announcements by Randall Kline]
Strange, it looks like they either skipped a tune from the album, or I was being sloppy and missed accounting for one. For now, I'm gonna go with the former notion, as I don't think I was that sleepy last night, and the timing notes I kept don't seem to indicate an omission!
Because most of the seats in the front half of the room were on hold for Leaders Circle Donors, my early arrival and waiting at the front of the GA line only earned me a seat at the midpoint, but with the extra legroom of an aisle in front of me, that wasn't anything I was going to complain about: I'm happy I got first pick from the remaining spots – a rare case of making tasty lemonade out of lemons!
Once the performance began, I was more than a little surprised to notice that it seemed to be a completely acoustic show – there may have been mics tucked away inside the body of the piano, but they were conspicuously absent from the front line. Hmmn! A rare chance to hear what ensemble music sounds like without the additional layer of a soundman's conception. Cool! At first I was a little worried about how the sound would balance between the players, but my guess is that this is something they'd worked out in advance – after all, they are all seasoned professionals!
Not surprisingly, the performance seemed to be over in a flash. Too short? Yeah, but for the discounted price, it would be rude to complain. I assume the late show heard more or less the same setlist, though I've been unable to find any confirmation of that as yet.
Bums me out a little that I'm going to miss the Miner Audience shows next week, but sometimes sacrifices must occur!