First, some housekeeping:

The Bob Sheppard Quartet:

Bob Sheppard: Multi-reeds

Larry Koonse: Guitar

Darek Oles: Bass

Mark Ferber: Drums

Set List:

1^st half:

1. A Sheppard arrangement of Irving Berlin’s “How Deep is the Ocean” that exploited Koonse’s guitar as both a melodic voice and a chordal instrument.
2. A slow, brooding rendition of Kenny Barron’s “Phantoms.” So good that an audience member yelled “play it again!” after the song ended.
3. The standard “I Fall in Love Too Easily;” Sheppard played an extended solo intro on tenor sax, and then switched to soprano to close out the song.
4. An original Sheppard composition entitled “Bait and Switch” from his latest record, “In the Now.” Sheppard seemed especially comfortable with this tune, and he really cut loose during his solo.

2^nd half:

1. Thad Jones’s “Three in One.” Sheppard explained that Jones’s Big Band, which he regularly heard at the Village Vanguard, inspired him to play sax.
2. A new song written by Sheppard called “Surface Tension,” which will be available on the saxophonist’s forthcoming album. It was the first time the song had been played in public!
3. A slow, smoldering, bluesy John Scofield tune that Sheppard didn’t name.
4. The classic Duke Ellington ballad “Prelude to a Kiss.”
5. An uptempo version of “Lover Man,” another standard.  Sheppard jokingly dedicated this to the recently-married Oles.

The quartet played a spirited set to one of the more diverse crowds I’ve seen at the Athenaeum – I ran across a college-age friend I met at UCSD jazz camp and also saw several older couples mingling.  For the most part, the group played jazz standards and Sheppard’s original compositions; my friend and I kept hearing familiar chord changes during the latter.  I later found out that Sheppard based his original pieces around the traditional jazz forms, in order to free up soloing.

And free it was.  Soloing opportunities were evenly distributed among the four musicians, with an appropriate focus on Sheppard. The saxophonist’s tone on tenor was cutting and his lines were brash, and his dulcet soprano playing counterbalanced his tenor work. Mark Ferber was featured on several tunes, the most memorable being his almost march-like solo on Sheppard’s “Bait and Switch” to close out the first half. Darek Oles’s stunning technique and melodic sensibilities impressed me, and Larry Koonse’s textural, understated lines complemented the rest of the group nicely.

I was lucky enough to get to speak with the band after the show was over, and I got some interesting answers to my questions.  As a saxophone player, I couldn’t resist asking Sheppard what equipment he used to capture his Joe-Henderson-meets-John-Coltrane-esque tone. The answer? A rare, decades-old Dukoff “Stubby” Mouthpiece. When I asked the musicians what they thought was the most difficult aspect of playing tonight, they responded almost unanimously that they didn’t think about music in those terms.  Mark Ferber explained that instead of encountering surprises in the difficulty of the songs, he found surprises in the other players, whose spontaneity drove the performance.  A final question I asked Sheppard was where he got the inspiration for his piano-less quartet.  He replied that he saw guitar as “more open,” an escape from busy piano playing that can overpower an ensemble.

As I walked out, I heard Larry Koonse talking enthusiastically to the friends and staff who had stuck around: “The sound in here is really nice.”

Last Friday’s concert brought the Donny McCaslin Trio to the Athenaeum’s La Jolla Arts Library.  The group’s format was akin to that employed by Sonny Rollins in the Aix en Provence live album reviewed on this site, though the lack of a chordal instrument proved to be less intimidating than it was on Rollins’ rather inaccessible live recording. McCaslin, the California-born, New York-based bandleader entertained the crowd with charming, intimate banter that complemented his flowing improvisation.  His sound filled the room, and the Athenaeum offered strikingly good acoustics for the unamplified horn. Overall, the set evenly featured the individual players as soloists and focused on McCaslin’s own compositions, the majority of which can be found on his new album, “Declaration.”  In the spirit of the genre, the entire concert had an air of spontaneity, from McCaslin’s endearing anecdotes and off-the-cuff musings to an impromptu rendition of the jazz standard, “Take the A Train,” at the request of an audience member.

As a saxophone player, I was astounded by McCaslin’s mastery of the entire range of his instrument and his uninhibited eagerness to explore every register. His altissimo range was stratospheric and refined, and must have been the product of years of work, and he wasn’t afraid to shock the audience from time to time with a bellowing honk from the horn’s lowest range. His improvisations effortlessly navigated the often-irregular time signatures of his compositions, and the interactions between him and Blake seemed especially inspired.

This will probably be my final blog entry for a while, as I’ll begin an official hiatus later in the month when I set off for the Berklee School of Music’s 5 week Summer Performance Program in Boston.  I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Athenaeum for letting me write and maintain this blog and take advantage of their wonderful cultural resources, and I also want to commend any reader dedicated enough to find and read this blog.

Hancock performs these feats with the aid of his supergroup, an extensive lineup that features the legendary Michael Brecker on tenor and soprano saxophone, John Scofield on guitar, Dave Holland on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Don Alias on percussion.

Although in the hands of some really accomplished musicians, each song retains its original accessibility. Kurt Cobain’s “All Apologies” serves as a launch pad for one of Hancock’s trademarked intricate, soulful solos, as well as some surprisingly tasteful ambient sitar-work.

I was most struck by the hard-driving rendition of Prince’s “Thieves in the Temple,” which features a blistering Brecker solo, and by the straight-ahead jazz take on the Don Henley ballad “New York Minute.”  The group’s adaptation of this rock tune is so convincing that a friend of mine, upon hearing the tune with me, confidently said that he remembered “New York Minute” as being an old jazz standard, even though the song was actually first recorded in 1989.

In short, if you’re looking for an interesting, approachable, and charmingly ingenious outlook on some newer tunes, check out Herbie Hancock’s “The New Standard,” which can be found in the Athenaeum’s jazz CD collection.  Hancock and his stellar ensemble make for some really phenomenal and creative renditions of some unexpected songs, all while preserving the grounded, accessible air of the original tunes.

The music is usually dense, but sometimes austere, and not as accessible as some of Rollins’s studio work, like the seminal “Saxophone Colossus.”  This is because Sonny’s Aix group lacked any sort of chordal instrument – the only harmonic contrast comes from the interaction between the bass and the saxophone.

The album only has 3 songs on it (Woodin’ You, But Not For Me, and Lady Bird; all jazz standards), but each is upwards of 15 minutes long.  Sonny can (and does!) riff endlessly on the songs’ chord changes, and it as the songs progress, the ways in which Rollins and his rhythm section change the tune in order to mix things up get increasingly more involved – and cool.

It’s a live recording, and the sound quality reflects that.  Still, you can’t really match the spontaneity and intensity of a live performance in the studio. These guys are really killing it, and the audience definitely recognizes that.  The crowd goes from boisterous applause to reverent silence right as the group begins, and it’s hard not to feel the surge of awe and rapture that sweeps the spectators.

I wholeheartedly recommend giving this album a listen.  Maybe 18 minutes of straight improv will prove too much for some, but it at least gives an idea of how much resilience, improvisational prowess, and work that Sonny required to achieve a feat like this.

Members can check out this CD (and many others), as well as materials like books, periodicals, videos, DVDs, sheet music, and LPs from the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library’s collection.

Of course, here is the usual housekeeping:

Personnel: Geoffrey Keezer (Piano), Peter Sprague (Guitar), Hamilton Price (Bass), Duncan Moore (Drums).

1st Set:
Untitled Peter Sprague original – described by the composer as some “nonsense” he wrote in Thessaloniki, Greece.
“Tea and Watercolors” – G. Keezer.
“Solar” – M. Davis (authorship disputed).
John Lennon Medley; included “Give Peace a Chance” and others.
“Shinobi” – P. Sprague.

2nd Set:
“Secret Code” – P. Sprague, available on Peter Sprague’s solo guitar album. Keezer turned Sprague’s familiar, friendly island chords into crushing, avant-garde soundscapes with his expert use of key-shifting.
“Leucadia” – G. Keezer, from Keezer’s album “Áurea.”

Here’s where it got really good:
Peter Sprague guitar feature. Sprague played an unaccompanied, classical-and-flamenco-flavored introduction. The entire band then joined in, and began to play “Hope in the Face of Despair,” by Billy Childs. This then morphed into dense, avant-garde improvisation, followed by a hint of Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints.” Suddenly, the group busted into a meaty funk groove (I think this surprised them as much as it surprised the audience). Finally, the song turned into the Miles Davis standard, “Seven Steps to Heaven.”

This third song was almost entirely impromptu, but its intensity was really exceptional. Without a doubt, this was a crowd favorite, and a great way to end the night. One of my most vivid memories of the night is Peter Sprague joyfully playing a crazy version of “Camptown Races” (harmonized in tritones, for all you musicians) in the heat of the final number. Thank you to Geoffrey Keezer, Peter Sprague, Hamilton Price, and Duncan Moore for bringing the Farrell Family Jazz at the Athenaeum series to an amazing close.

Personnel: Jeff Denson, bass. Ziv Ravitz, drums.  Florian Weber, piano.

First Set:
Color – Deep Lee (Lee Konitz and Minsarah)
Song name always changes, not currently finalized
Untitled song from the group’s upcoming album*
Cactus – Deep Lee (Lee Konitz and Minsarah)
Alone Together – to be recorded on the group’s upcoming album
Second Set:
Nuage – Minsarah (the group’s latest trio album)
Intersection – to be recorded on next album
Either this one wasn’t introduced, or I missed the title. Sorry! As a point of interest, it featured Ziv’s whistling towards the end.
Close to the End
The Gallows*

After the show, I was able to hang around and briefly interview the artists.  Unfortunately, I was only able to talk briefly with Florian Weber – I learned from him about the influence of Mahler on several of the group’s songs.  *Florian told me that these songs (marked with an asterisk *) were inspired by the life and works of Gustav Mahler.*  “The Gallows” was influenced by Mahler’s “Des Knafen Wunderhorn,” while the untitled song was influenced by letters written by Mahler to his wife.

I started off talking to Ziv Ravitz, the trio’s drummer, asking him what his influences were.  He responded first with a grin, telling me I had asked him a really difficult question.  Then he answered with a really cool metaphor.  “Influences are like a wall of water,” he said.  “You run through, and whatever sticks to you on the other side is an influence.”  He encouraged me to listen to all types of music, from folk to heavy metal, stressing “openness” as crucial and urging that one should “get affected by anything [one] hears.”  Jeff Denson, the bassist, said that everything that happens to him influences him as a musician, especially nature, human interaction, and other art.

My next question dealt with suggested listening.  Ziv told me that “all albums with a true connection between the artist and the music are worth listening to,” and emphasized that this was in no way limited to jazz.  He rattled off a diverse list of artists – Radiohead, Sepultura, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, John Coltrane – all of which he said showed such a connection to their music.

The final question I asked the artists addressed how they approached composition.  Both Jeff and Ziv said that although they always try to act as equal forces in the creation of new pieces, they aren’t able to write together due to their physical separation.  Instead, Jeff described the process this way:  each member of the band will write a composition with the others in mind, and then bring it into rehearsal, where each member makes the piece his own.  For this reason, Jeff says that as he writes his compositions, he envisions the group playing them, and lets that influence him.  Ziv said that he takes a similar approach, and also told me that the trio wants to collaborate on at least 2 songs on their upcoming album; that is, they plan to actually compose them together as a group, not individually.

The trio will be recording a new album this August.  Thursday’s performance featured several tracks from it.  Although the entire performance was very well received, many of the standout pieces are the ones slated for release on the upcoming album – it seemed like “Intersection” was an audience favorite (at the very least, it was one of my personal favorites!).

I got to the Athenaeum as soon as the house opened (7:00, half an hour before the concert began).  I caught a glimpse of Adam Ainsworth, Madera’s violinist, warming up with some burning licks as I staked out a good seat.  I then watched as Ms. Lui sound-checked her glockenspiel and music box, two surprisingly unconventional devices that she used in her performance to great effect.  Before the show, I heard a man in the audience ask a woman near him:
“Is this the first one you’ve been to?”
“Yes.”
“They’re good – really good.”
This actually happened, and I’m happy to say that after the concert was over I was just as enthusiastic about the Acoustic Evenings Series.

Soon after, 7:30 arrived – time for Jefferson Jay, the night’s MC, to introduce the show.  He began with an amusing monologue about his search for an opening act (the opening act turned out to be a song written and played by Jefferson himself) and showed the audience his latest acquisition: a pair of the world’s largest pants.

Naturally, this was a hard act for Madera, the night’s first scheduled performers, to follow, but they did so admirably.  Their songs fused Spanish and Latin American rhythm and harmony with hard-hitting, American sensibilities, and their driving rhythms were so infectious that the woman seated next to me was enthusiastically drumming on her legs throughout the performance.

Next up was Jane Lui, who, despite an early disclaimer about her not being “opera material,” wowed the audience with her soaring, breathy, and almost ethereal vocals, as well as her imaginative performances (glockenspiels and music boxes, anyone?).

The concert concluded with Jenn Grinels’s soulful vocal performance.  She interspersed her original tunes with charming banter, and the audience loved it!  To the performer’s delight, several people yelled things like “Nailed it!” and “That was great!” when she finished a song.  Her final song, an encore, was a killer cover of Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (The Way That I Love You)”

In short, the Acoustic Evenings at the Athenaeum series offered me an intimate, comfortable musical experience – one unlike any I had encountered with the Athenaeum before, and I’m looking forward to the next season!

For audience members interested in further information about the artists and their performances (song names in quotes are based on introductions, and all songs are assumed to be written by the performers unless otherwise specified):

Madera: Adam Ainsworth (violin), Andre Elias (guitar, vocals), Kasey Wallrath (cajon)
Songs Played: Original (Adam Ainsworth), Blue Widow, Sabrosa, Ruminations, Leviathan, Untitled.

Jane Lui: Jane Lui (piano, vocals, glockenspiel, music box, guitar).
Songs played: Untitled original, Animal Migration Song, Imaginary Friends, Untitled, Firefly

Jenn Grinels: Jenn Grinels (guitar, vocals).
Songs played: Soundcheck (Misery Loves Company), Little Words, Untitled (segue into “Moon Dance” {V. Morrison}), Can’t Stay Here, Don’t Wanna Be Happy, “Brand Brand New Song,” Closure, Crutch, Know Better, Encore: I Never Loved a Man (The Way That I Love You) (R. Shannon).

Madera will not be performing any upcoming concerts due to guitarist/vocalist Andre Elias’s traveling to Seattle to pursue a PhD in Ethnomusicology.

Jane Lui will be performing at Lestat’s on July 31st.

All artists have CDs available.

Until recently, Peter Sprague seemed to me like a mysterious, even vaguely mythical, figure.  All of my schoolmates who had gone to UCSD Jazz camp marveled at his disarming amiability and his zen outlook (not to mention his furious guitar chops!).  These were the only things I knew about the man up until this May, when my school’s jazz band went up to Spragueland, his North County recording studio, to record several songs.  After about an hour in the studio, I realized that the little I knew about him was dead on: Sprague was patient, friendly, and a fantastic player.  Every once in a while, when there was a lull in the recording, he would take a guitar off the wall and casually start playing. Whenever this happened, everyone in the room would go quiet in awe and exchange astounded looks.

Geoffrey Keezer, too, was the stuff of legend before I heard him play last week at UCSD jazz camp.  His concert with – you guessed it – Peter Sprague was excellent.  The two interacted beautifully and explored their own instruments – from Keezer came some imaginative inside-the-piano (yes, inside) techniques, and from Sprague came a psychedelic, sitar-inspired guitar tone.  Their set culminated in a rendition of Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance” that tore the house down.

I know very little about the other two members of the Sprague/Keezer quartet (though I’m sure that I should know more).  I’m aware that Duncan Moore, the drummer and a prominent member of San Diego jazz culture in his own right, was at one point a protégé of the Bishop’s Jazz program’s very own director, Will “The Thrill” Parsons, which is certainly a plus.

That said, the fact that this rhythm section is playing with Keezer and Sprague is enough to fully convince me of their talent and aptitude.  I’m confident that this concert will be absolutely amazing, just as everything else I’ve heard these artists do has been.

This is the inaugural entry of the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library music blog.  I just wanted to take care of a brief introduction to the blog and the author before any of the really cool entries hit.  I suppose the first order of business is to explain who “I” is/am.

The author/housekeeper of the blog is me: Ben Sobel, the Athenaeum’s music intern.  I’m a rising junior in the class of 2011 at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla and a dedicated musician.  I am first and foremost a jazz saxophonist, but also a guitar player (I also dabble in other woodwind and stringed instruments).  The Athenaeum is generously letting me write this blog about their superb concerts, artists, and collections.

…and that’s exactly what I plan to do.  This blog will, over time, feature articles previewing upcoming events, recapping past ones, and detailing new additions – or old standards – in the Athenaeum’s collection.  A “Pick of the Week” section is also coming soon; here, I’ll pick an album from the Athenaeum’s music collection that I particularly enjoy, and tell you why it’s so outstanding.

I’m looking forward to working on this blog – make sure to check back weekly for new additions.  Thanks for reading!

- Ben