A Party! featuring Jordan Feinstein, Matt Hartle, Ezra Lipp, and John-Paul McLean
Oakland, CA
3:00 PM, Friday, April 30, 2021

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2021 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2021 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[3:45 PM] {getting ready to go!}

1. [3:47 PM] Get Out of My Life Woman (MH)
2. [3:55 PM] West LA Fadeaway (JL)
3. [4:07 PM] When I Paint My Masterpiece (JP)
4. [4:15 PM] Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox (EL)
5. [4:26 PM] Duppy Conqueror (MH)
6. [4:36 PM] Ophelia (JF)
7. [4:44 PM] Gotta Serve Somebody (JP)
   {Add Jeanette Ferber: harmony vox}
8. [4:51 PM] the Music Never Stopped (EL)
   [4:58 PM] {set ends}

[5:35 PM] {Jordan calls everyone back for set two}

1. [5:38 PM] Cats Under the Stars (MH)
2. [5:49 PM] Box of Rain (JP)
3. [5:56 PM] Brown-Eyed Women (EL)
4. [6:06 PM] I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (MH)
5. [6:16 PM] Stuck in the Middle With You (JP)
6. [6:25 PM] While My Guitar Gently Weeps (JF)
   {Add Jeanette Ferber: lead & harmony vox}
7. [6:34 PM] Scarlet Begonias (EL) »
8. [6:42 PM] Fire on the Mountain (JeF)
9. [6:52 PM] Tangled Up in Blue (MH) »
10. [7:03 PM] My Sisters and Brothers (JeF)
    [7:11 PM] {set ends; Jeanette off}
    
    Encore
11. [7:13 PM] Can't Find My Way Home (JF)
    [7:20 PM] {show ends}

• Jordan Feinstein: piano, keyboards, melodica, lead & harmony vox;
• Matt Hartle: guitar, lead & harmony vox;
• Ezra Lipp: drums, lead & harmony vox;
• John-Paul McLean: bass, lead & harmony vox;
  - with special guest -
• Jeannette Ferber: lead & harmony vox.

I was busy dancing and having fun today, so I don't have many notes to refer to regarding the show: sometimes I'd rather be boogeying than writing anything down for later.

Some scattered thoughts and observations, from memory:

• Jordan mentioned more than once that this band should be called “gem” (from J-J-E-M); the other guys ribbed him about this; with Ezra suggesting that JJME was a more interesting choice. JJME makes me think of the 70's TV show, Good Times, featuring Jimmie Walker.
• Great song selection all the way through, with plenty of surprises!
• Breadbox featured a really nice middle eastern jam – the guys got way out there on this one!
• Duppy Conqueror is an early Bob Marley tune. Found this tidbit thanks to reddit:
  According to Bunny Wailer (Quoted from the 'Marley' Documentary) “We rehearsed for about 2 years - we go sing at the park downtown for the people… we even go sing at the May Pen Cemetery for the duppy dem. His (Joe Higgs's) policy was that great stars mess up when they get afraid and nervous on stage, so he said if we went to the cemetery at say 2 o'clock in the morning, and sang for those people, then we can't be afraid when we hit the stage - and we went with Joe - sat on the graves and do it - and several times we do it until he thought we're brave enough now.”
• I Wish I Knew… was introduced as a Nina Simone tune, but as this short article relates, that's not quite right, she just made it famous. Being a hip dude, Derek Trucks covered it on one of his early DTB albums, and I thought I detected more than a trace of his influence on Matt's playing, especially at the conclusion. Who knows, maybe the band learned it from the more recent, 2018 release that featured Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi sitting in with the Wynton Marsalis Septet.
• Stuck in the Middle With You included one or more really random teases from Jordan. I thought he was trying to nudge the band into a jam on the Miles Davis classic, All Blues, but the notion didn't seem to gain much traction, so I didn't write it as a full tease. Another question for “pester the musicians” day!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2021 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2021 event list! ☸ On to the next event!