SFJAZZ presents a Flamenco Tribute to Kind of Blue: Chano Domínguez' Flamenco Sketches
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:30 PM, Friday, May 25, 2018

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[7:30 PM lights down, announcements from SBD, band out, greetings and welcome from CD]

1. [7:34 PM] Flamenco Sketches
2. [7:54 PM] Freddie Freeloader †
3. [8:08 PM] Blue in Green/Canción #51
4. [8:18 PM] So What
5. [8:29 PM] All Blues
6. [8:39 PM] Oye Como Viene †
   [set ends 8:50 PM; bows, then all off for a minute]
   
   Encore
7. [8:52 PM] ? (unidentified tune, maybe Serpent's Tooth? Pretty sure that it wasn't Nardis)
   [show ends 9:01 PM]

• Henry Cole: drums;
• Blas Córdoba AKA El Kejio: palmas, vox;
• Alexis Cuadrado: contrabass, palmas;
• Chano Domínguez: piano;
• Daniel Navarro: palmas, † bailaor.

By now, I've been lucky to see Chano Domínguez several times, and tonight's show was no less of a treat than the others, even sitting way up in the top of the hall. I was surprised to see that the balcony was nearly empty – maybe 20 people, tops? But the rest of the hall was pretty well sold; maybe the average fan realized that this was a show where it paid off to be sitting up close? I dunno. I was happy in my cheap seat!

Anyways, if you haven't heard him before, Domínguez plays piano in a fairly percussive style, with occasional use of extended techniques such as slapping on the body of the instrument or plucking and sweeping across the strings – all the better to evoke the characteristics of flamenco without the presence of a guitar player.

Alexis Cuadrado did much the same with his contrabass playing. Although his technique was anchored in traditional jazz, now and then I would open my eyes to try and find out who was making some strange sound only to see that Alexis was scraping the tops of the bass strings, or rapping his bow on the tailpiece, or otherwise doing something unexpected. He may also have contributed coro vox, but without a mic, I couldn't really tell if he was singing or not.

And to anyone wondering how a Miles tribute might possibly occur without a trumpet player, Blas Córdoba's singing hinted a lot at that role, without imitation or echoing the trumpet in any conventional sense.

Overall, Blas Córdoba contributed much less singing to the performance than I expected, and his biggest part, during the intial tune, Flamenco Sketches, seemed to me to be jarringly out of key compared to the instrumental parts: as if he was singing in a Minor 2nd against the Major tonic. It was strangely discordant, and I noticed that at least a dozen couples got up and left after that tune concluded – as if to indicate by their action, “Wow, that's not what I was expecting, let's get out of here.”

Those who stayed were richly rewarded, however, and I'm really happy that I attended the show. I think it's OK to get up and leave if you're not enjoying something, but dissonance has been a part of jazz since the start, and if the clash of major and minor modes makes you uncomfortable, I'd suggest that waiting to hear the next piece might be a better notion that walking out.

After contributing a short but exciting dance solo to Freddie Freeloader, I was really disappointed that Daniel Navarro only danced once more tonight. He's a truly exceptional bailaor, and I was hoping that we'd see a lot more from him. Happily, Ting made a video of the last four minutes of Oye Como Viene, which gives you a pretty good idea why I wanted to see more dancing!

As CD told us in the break after Freddie Freeloader, Blue in Green was mashed together with a poem by Rafael Alberti, Canción #51, written in 1931, and published in the 1954 collection, Baladas y canciones del Paraná.

So What was so radically rearranged that I didn't even recognize it. Either I was too tired, or the guys were being too smart for their own good (why cast away one of the single most recognizable riffs in jazz?). During his solo in the middle, Chano interpolated at least two or three other tunes. I thought I recognized one as a Thelonius Monk tune, but now that I'm reflecting on the experience, I wonder if CD might have instead been playing the classic So What riff that I thought was entirely missing…

I was bummed that Nardis got omitted from the set (I was expecting it, sseing as it's on the Flamenco Sketches album that they were celebrating), and ever since I've noticed the aural connection to John Coltrane's Resolution off of A Love Supreme, I've looked forward to chances to hear other interpretations of the tune. Maybe next time I should holler for it!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

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