CJ Intern's NYC Adventures Part 4: Promptly Penning a
Plentiful Penultimate Piece (part 4a)
By Jeremy Tsuei
As promised, we're winding up but by no means taking our
foot off the gas (that's a little American-ism for you). Big gigs and big
lessons this week, as well as some touristy things and even some volunteering -
all the New York things!
Wednesday: Cory Henry solo set
Cory Henry's definitely made a name for himself, first
gaining prominence with Snarky Puppy and now touring with Stevie Wonder and
working with popular acts such as Imagine Dragons. But enough about his
collaborations - tonight was between the man himself and his audience, as Henry
shared his roots, influences, and new directions. In both the first and second
sets, Henry began simply with the "Amazing Grace" melody, before
building complexity and adding new textures - a kick drum, synth, vocals. It
got busy (for a one-man show, anyway), but never strayed from that simple
feeling of joy and gratitude from hitting those opening notes and hearing them
resonate and lead into each other, until a story begins to form. This was the
first song he learnt as a kid, at only 2-3 years of age. The man's been playing
music longer than his brain has had a functional memory system (psychologists
say memory starts working from four years of age), and it shows. I loved how
gospel- and soul-oriented Henry's sets were - really digging into his community
and spiritual roots a la his album released earlier this year,
"Church". All in all, these were songs for lovers, songs for those
with broken hearts, songs for humans.
Thursday: Christian McBride Quartet and Jihee Heo Trio
McBride again, and Mike Stern again - this time in a very
different setting. Last week Stern remarked to me how he was nervous about this
gig, as McBride had just called him and so far there was no setlist and no
rehearsal. So calling standards it was - and on the night, McBride described it
as a jazz party where we all got to have a share of the groove. Tivon Pennicott
(sax) and Marcus Gilmore (drums) rounded out the quartet, and everyone had
space to shine. Stern in particular brought in a groovy "Body and
Soul" with a solo guitar intro, which really demonstrated his voice and
fluidity on the instrument. Such a different gig compared to the last McBride
concert I went to, but the feel, the groove, and the consolidated star-power
were all alike.
Jihee Heo was, by her own admission, quite starstruck with
her rhythm section - David Williams on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums; guys
she'd listened to on Cedar Walton records and the like. During one of the
little talking interludes where she was discussing this, Williams jokingly
interjected to tell her she was doing just fine. And he was absolutely right -
this was real swinging stuff, straight out of the Oscar Peterson playbook. I
believe this was also the first female-led gig I've attended while in New York,
excluding the jam session hosted by Theresa Sanchez. A really diverse band, and
a real connection and respect for the tradition. Good good stuff.
Friday: NY Philharmonic
I did get scammed by a ticket reseller for this one, but on
the upside, I did end up with pretty good orchestra-level seats. I'm not too
well-versed in this area, but the NY Philharmonic has to be one of the best in
the world. Before moving onto the big piece, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10,
the orchestra played Shostakovich's "Festive Overture" and
Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto, led by soloist Frank Huang. Earlier this
year, I played the latter piece with Canberra's National Capital Orchestra
alongside CJ Blog mastermind Eric [ https://canberrajazz.blogspot.com/2024/03/awe.html ] and it was great to
hear the work being performed professionally, especially as I knew there were
some particularly difficult bass soli coming up. The section moved through it
like butter - bravo!
The big item was Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, accompanied
by a stop motion film, "Oh to Believe in Another World," by William
Kentridge. The audio-visual experience was interesting, although I do wonder
what it would have been like to have just heard the music by itself, as one's
attention span can only take in so much at a time. Still, during the course of
my Honours year I had the pleasure of interviewing Vince Jones, and he remarked
that the future will be an audio-visual one. This was art accompanying art -
art on top of more art. Too much art? Surely it can't be worse than too little
art. My money's worth in any case (even if a decent chunk of what I paid went
to the wrong place...).
To be continued tomorrow...
