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. 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.
