SFJAZZ presents Tom Harrell's _Colors of a Dream_ Sextet
2014-08-22
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:30 PM, Friday, August 22, 2014

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[7:33 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [7:39 PM] ?
2. [7:44 PM] ?
3. [7:56 PM] ? (Portuguese/Fr/Sp vox)
4. [8:03 PM] ? +
5. [8:14 PM] ?
6. [8:26 PM] ?trio
7. [8:35 PM] ?superfast +
8. [8:41 PM] ?bouncy blues +
   [show ends 8:56 PM after group bow, no encore]

• Jonathan Blake: drums;
• Wayne Escoffery: tenor saxophone;
• Tom Harrell: + trumpet, flugelhorn;
• Ugonna Okegwo: contrabass;
• Jaleel Shaw: alto saxophone;
• Esperanza Spalding: contrabass, vox (t01, t03, t07).

Tonight's show was super solid – it was obvious from the start that the band had enough history together to be racing through some complicated contrapuntal charts. As far as I know, all of the tunes were Tom Harrell originals, but with hardly a word to us, it's darn hard to know for sure!

Kinda interesting to have a band with two bass players. Most of the time it seemed to me that Ugonna was playing the traditional part while Esperanza was playing some sort of lead or counterpoint, though the first tune ended with her doing a very cool wordless vocal bit in harmony with the two saxophones.

My recollection is that t03 – sung in Portuguese? Or possibly French? Or Spanish? – was the only traditional vocal tune, but Esperanza certainly added vocals to at least one more tune, scatting on t07.

I thought the compositions were especially good in showcasing a variety of rhythms and tone colors conjured from the instrumental palette available. One of the more unusual choices in that respect was t06, which featured a trio composed of Tom Harrell soloing on the flugelhorn while the two basses maintained a constant groovy pulse. Way cool!

Overall, makes me think that neglecting to see Tom more often when he comes out west has been a mistake! Note to self: fix that if you can!

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