SFJAZZ presents the Joel Harrison 5 playing Spirit House featuring Brian Blade, Kermit Driscoll, Paul Hanson, and Cuong Vu
2016-10-14
Joe Henderson Lab
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:00 PM, Friday, October 14, 2016

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:02 PM lights down, announcements, band out]

1. [7:04 PM] (unidentified instrumental #1)
2. [7:12 PM] (unidentified instrumental #2)
3. [7:19 PM] Johnny Broken Wing
4. [7:24 PM] Sacred Love
5. [7:37 PM] Spirit House
6. [7:49 PM] Refuge
7. [7:55 PM] You Must Go Through a Winter
   [set ends 8:05 PM, no encore]

• Brian Blade: drums;
• Kermit Driscoll: bass, contrabass;
• Paul Hanson: bassoon, electronics;
• Joel Harrison: guitar, vox;
• Cuong Vu: trumpet.

Given that four of the five tunes identified by Joel came from last year's Spirit House album, it's reasonable to guess that the first two are pretty likely to have come from the album too. Hard to say. Maybe someone out there will get in touch and fill me in! I'm also quite curious to know what they played at the late show. I would have loved to stay, but there's this issue of time and money that's always hanging over my head…

Anyways, I thought tonight's set was stellar. This lineup offers lots of interesting timbral combinations, especially when both Paul Hanson and Cuong Vu added midi processing to their acoustic instruments. As best as I could tell, the lion's share of those effects came from Paul tonight, but it could also be that Cuong was simply more subtle in his additions. And Joel's licks were tasty from start to finish, with lots of delicate filigree playing that fell perfectly into the sonic spaces carved out by his bandmates. Bravo!

If you like adventurous modern jazz, you owe it to yourself to see these folks!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!