An alternative to Smiths

AvantGarden in Houston reminds me of our much beloved Smiths Alternative in Canberra.  It's in an old building (for Houston, perhaps ~1910?) and it hosts weddings and events in several spaces and has a program of burlesque and poetry and hip hop and open mics and a weekly jazz jam.  The jam is not early (9.30pm-2am) and the bar was noisy even before the jam and leading in was the guitarist on a DJ deck and the host band started at 10pm.  It wasn't exactly what I expected but interesting.  Dancing and loud chatter from the people in the room before.  Videos happening.  A crew of jazzers arriving in the early hour and perhaps later.  The band was the Houston Ensemble / Cory Wilson Quartet and they seem to host each week.  I didn't get names but I assume Cory Wilson is the tenorist.  But this was very electric, very loud.  Jazz-fusion-cum-blues to my ears.  Noisy and in your face, apt after the guitarist on his DJ deck. A screaming guitar, strat, pentatonics and blues-rock feels.  Polyrhythm solos from drums and a clashy broken cymbal.  Flashy 6-string bassist playing unison heads with sax and nifty solos.  Fingerstyle.  I'm thinking, not likely too many sit-ins will be up to the 6-stringer; maybe 4-stringers bring their own.  Tenor sax, effective and often understated or maybe better to say sparse as in considered, modern not bop.  I noticed a trom offstage who was merging and a flautist had put his instrument together in anticipation and their were plenty of faces that looked keen.  I thought I caught tunes by Ornette (When will the blues leave?) and Herbie and perhaps a very disguised standard but not too sure.  I chatted with a drummer next to me who was there for his first outing.  All in this avant, boho space with a noisy audience and a stream of sit-ins who were quiet and obviously anticipating.  We were limited in time so didn't see the jammers really get going and it would perhaps have been an uncomfortable challenge anyway, not having played 6-string or even e-bass for yonks.  But then it was probably a reversion to standards and blues for the jam, anyway.  Suffice to say vibrant.

MFAH cont.

We revisited the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and that might look like a failure of adventurousness or even imagination but we've otherwise been busy on various things that aren't reported here, like several Tex-Mex and a classy Japanese and even a Michelin star Indian restaurant and dive bars and the like.  This MFA return was for some dear styles that we had missed, especially a temporary exhibition of life in Trajan Rome (stunning) and the more of the Haute Couture from the Louvre (stunning if often unwearable) and Mediaeval and Renaissance Euro art (unfashionable but I love this stuff), the statue garden and even contemporaries like James Turrell.  As an aside, I get annoyed by works entitled "Untitled" as the artist should know best what a work is about, but I was amused by one entitled "Untitled (Broccoli) / Harry Betoia" which was exactly what it was.  My faves were some lovely works in the style of Cranach, a heart rending Botticelli lady and a lesser but large Botticelli nativity roundel, a glowing blue-white Andrea della Robbia and a few French bronze nudes in the garden.  Plenty of others of interest, too, of course.  Not a collection like the Met or Louvre or Uffizi but still a pleasure and given a second visit, we are satisfied.

The Museum of Fine Arts is in Houston.

Musical families

We're back in Houston and again off to Red Cat Jazz cafe for another gig.  This time a male singer, Spud Howard, fronting the house band.  But it led me to query definitions: Soul, R&B, neoSoul and related jazz and funk.  I know jazz well enough but the others merge into a mush of similarity in my thoughts, being similar and related.  My readings suggest a matter of historical development, relationships and influences (including from jazz), varied instrumentation and lyrical styles all grouped under the broad umbrella of R&B (from an AI overview but clearly taken from Wikipedia and probably some other sources).  Listening to a string of tracks from Spotify playlists just confirmed the similarities and justified the confusion.  Whatever, this night was the male voice of Spud Howard in place of Jenni P and her female voice.  I expected a difference and there was plenty despite the same back-line band.  Perhaps I'd judge Jenni as neoSoul and Spud as Soul or perhaps R&B, for what it matters.  There was energy of drive and funk here, and immense expression, with or without accompaniment.  Arms adrift and feet moving across stage.  Occasionally songs that I knew and plenty more known by the audience who sang along.  Busy, bent notes, screams, dense improv and touches of spoken words, dirt and emotions raw and evident.  Immensity and intensity that expresses but also invites, so many of the audience, as usual virtually all women, were up and dancing along, then perhaps a slow, staccato reverb on a pensive ballad then the snap and excitement resumes.  This was a show of obvious energy and rabid invitation.  Again pretty much a medley for an hour or so.  Just a stunner.  A second week at Red Cat and a second week of stunning R&B-somewhere music.  I smiled widely, whooped frequently and loved them both and I was not alone.

Spud Howard (vocals) performed at Red Cat Jazz Club, Houston TX, with the host band comprising Pierre Grijaliva (bass), Ronald Dorsey (drums) and Jorvan Butler (keys).

Beer on Bourbon

We finally got to the French Quarter, the famed and commonly visited tourist centre of New Orleans and the only area we really saw on a previous visit.  First up for drinks in a swish hotel then a meal at a bar at another hotel after not gaining entry to an eatery of dinner suits.  I feel there's an quiet class hierarchy hidden in New Orleans that we saw years back and it comes out in restaurants and grand hotels.  You tend to miss it as a white Australian but you can imagine it.  Our dinner at the bar was open if business-like and we chatted with a pair of women down from Detroit.  They feared Aussie spiders but recognised that American bears can be pretty scary too.  Bourbon Street itself was rocking: busy, varied with locals and ring-ins, music in bars and some on the street, roamers and roarers and speeders.  I enjoyed a marching band crew (various horns, sousaphone, drums) with a crowd and occasional dancers and considerable life and chops.  Then the drummers on buckets who can be quite impressive and plenty of live music from bars although not much jazz.  NOLA jazz does tend to be early and there was some of this, but mostly it was R&B, pop-rock, blues and the like.  Perhaps Stevie Wonder was the most covered: I heard Superstition at least 3 times.  Then a longish walk to Frenchman Street, but this was Christmas Eve on Wednesday night and it was fairly quiet.  Again a few bands but also closed establishments.  I mostly sat for Armani Smith leading a quartet playing R&B styles, an effective singer and guitarist with sparse and defining drums and very effective bass and keys, both quite understated but telling, the bass being variously gentle slap or fingerstyle and the piano just adding lovely harmony colours and the whole being finely balanced by a very involved soundman.  Nice.  And their take on a jazz ballad request didn't quite get the chords but it didn't matter given a very effective groove and delicious dynamics.  So I liked them.  There was a trio of trumpet, guitar and double bass (one of only two doubles on the night, as I remember) doing a lovely soft, folky take on early jazz set and they were worthy.  There was one interesting lineup on Bourbon St: a trio of drums and two keys.  Otherwise, mostly standard rock/blues lineups.  But the Preservation Hall still has gigs, although pricey and short and frequent and presumably very oriented to the tourist trade.  And Jason Marsalis will play a gig (a tribute to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys!) at Snug Harbor on Frenchmen St on Boxing Day evening (no one's heard of Boxing Day) but we will be gone.  So it was an interesting and lengthy walk around the French Quarter but nothing particularly new for me second time around.