Cal Performances presents Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour: A 60th Anniversary Celebration featuring Melissa Aldana, Yasushi Nakamura, Jamison Ross, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Christian Sands, and Bria Skonberg
Zellerbach Hall Auditorium
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94305 USA
8:00 PM, Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2019 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2019 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[8:03 PM lights down, announcements, introduction from MJF Managing Director, Tim Jackson]

1. [8:09 PM] Fog (CMS)
2. [8:16 PM] I Can't Help It (CMS)
   [8:24 PM; CMS off; CS banter; MA introduces next tune]
3. [8:26 PM] El Castillo de Velenje
   [8:39 PM; banter from CS, then JR introduces next tune]
4. [8:40 PM] Sack Full of Dreams (JR)
   [8:48 PM; BS, MA off; CS introduces the next tune]
5. [8:51 PM] E lucevan le stele from Puccini's Tosca
   [9:04 PM; add CMS, BS; banter from CMS]
6. [9:04 PM] Splendor (CMS)
   [9:11 PM; drop JR, CS, BS; add MA; banter from CMS]
7. [9:12 PM] Moon Song (CMS)
   [9:17 PM; drop CMS; add JR, CS, BS; CS introduces next tune]
8. [9:18 PM] We See
   [9:26 PM; drop MA; BS banter & song introduction]
9. [9:29 PM] High Hat, Trumpet, and Rhythm (BS)
10. [9:33 PM] (contrabass solo) » [9:35 PM; add MA] Yasugaloo
    [drop MA, CS]
    
    Finale
11. [9:43 PM] ? Pride (CMS » CMS+BS » JR » JR+BS » JR+CMS+BS)
    [all done 9:48 PM; MA, CS back onstage to bow and then wave goodbye with the others; everyone off by 9:49 PM]

• Melissa Aldana: tenor saxophone;
• Yasushi Nakamura: contrabass;
• Jamison Ross: drums, vox;
• Christian Sands: piano;
• Cécile McLorin Salvant: vox;
• Bria Skonberg: trumpet, vox.

As I expected, this was a pretty solid show! I'm sure it helped that we caught them midway through their tour – tonight was the 15th of 26 dates – and I'm sure the time playing together over the past month did much to round off any rough edges created when MJF picked this crew to work together.

I was really surprised to hear CMS sing only original tunes – up until now, I don't think I'd heard her do any. What wasn't so surprising was that the new tunes were a close fit in style to the sorts of standards that she's been performing for years: sophisticated, self-aware, and witty!

Each of the four non-vocal tunes was a blast, and each one stretched out in different ways. Melissa Aldana's contribution, El Castillo de Velenje, got things off to a fine start, getting way out into acoustic spaciness.

The following instrumental, performed by the trio of Christian Sands, Yasushi Nakamura and Jamison Ross, took us on a completely different journey. Here, Sands reinterpreted the climactic tenor aria E lucevan le stele from Puccini's Tosca. Think it might be hard for a piano trio to recreate the passion of opera? Think again!

We See saw the core band crash and bang their way through a typically off-kilter Thelonius Monk tune. I thought snippets of the piece sounded like echoes of other Monk compositions … whether that's the way We See goes or whether the band was just having fun remains to be determined! Anyways, it's hard to go wrong with Monk!

The final instrumental, Yasugaloo, opened with a nifty bass solo from the composer, Yasushi Nakamura, and I was surprised that only a few folks in the audience got up to dance: I found the beat to be irresistable!

The finale began with Cécile McLorin Salvant walking back and forth across the stage, singing a capella, entirely unamplified to the crowd. Of course this made it a little harder to catch what she was saying, but the crowd was super quiet. As a dramatic ending, I think it worked quite well! After a verse or so, CMS returned to the center stage mic, and Bria Skonberg joined her for a duet verse (and chorus?). This was followed by a sort of refrain or rejoinder sung by Jamison Ross, who then duetted a bit with Bria for a few more lines. Finally, to the quiet accompaniment of Yasushi Nakamura, the three singers joined together for another few lines. As you might guess from the preceding description, the tune didn't really follow standard verse/chorus/verse format, and I didn't really catch on anything in the lyrics that seemed like a title. I've labeled it Pride above, lifting that from one of the lines during CMS' opening segment, “My pride will get the best of me.” I doubt that title is correct, but for now, it's all I got!

Program Notes or program notes

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2019 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2019 event list! ☸ On to the next event!