Kenny Garrett

[cweeds]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that ticket sales for Kenny Garrett are really heating up and you do not want to miss this show. Its just under 6 weeks away and we've sold about 1/2 the tickets. Call The Cellar @ 738.1959 to purchase your tickets or just pick them up the next time you're down.

[cweeds]

Hey everyone. Thanks for all of those who came to The Cellar to hear Kenny Garrett. Its been interesting to the various opinions on how the show was. I'd love however to hear more about what you thought about the show. I personally thought it was fabulous although Kenny didn't really seem to care much about how the band sounded out front which was a interesting. I'd love your thoughts.

[robnz]

I wish he'd played more to the size of the room. I felt like I was at a 10,000 person out-door-spectacle.

I hope the drummer learns to control that awesome rage like Billy Kilson has.

[Chris Tarry]

Hey Weeds,

Well, I feel like I just happened to catch the worst set of the two day gig. That being the second set the first night. For those that weren't there Kenny basically fired the band after the first tune and played duo with the piano player the rest of the set until the second half of the last tune (giant steps) when he brought the band up for a drum solo then huffed off stage saying "That's it, were done..".

Ok, I understand that he was pissed off at the sound and upset at the fact that his mic wasn't working but maybe a little audience explanation could have been in order. Maybe a little something like "You know, I'm not to happy with the sound so I'm gonna play a few of my favorite standards as a duo right now if that's ok..." I'm sure he would have gotten a resounding applause. That would have been, I feel, the professional approach and I would have been right there with him.. As it was, and maybe it's only because I'm a musician that I noticed this, he sulked and basically didn't play during any of the little quartet actoin that did happen. One duo tune, then the next, then the next, then the next... He played great of course but I didn't pay for a duo concert without some type of explanation.. I payed for the quartet and felt a little let down.

That said, the set was great musically and I hear all the other ones were even better. Cudo's to you weeds for bringing in such great talent. I went to the concert because I like Kenny Garrett but mostly because I love supporting eveything you do there. You have supported all of us over the years and I wouldn't care if you brought in the most famous basket weaver around and set him loose on the stage! I would still pay $35 and keep my conversation to a minimum.

[Nimish]

If Julia Parker is ever at the cellar you can bet that I'll pay the 35$ cover.

[Steve]

Re: Second Set First Nite

This one was deffintally the black sheep of the performance. Having seen all 4 sets, I'm really glad that that was one of them. There was some heavy HEAVY playing (how many unaccom. courses did he do on that tune?) But had that been the one set that I had seen I would have been bumed.

I understand that Kenny was P.O-ed on the first nite, and pretty sick on the second nite. And that the sound wasn't quite right, and......, and...... but I kinda expected someone at his level to suck it up. On the other hand, we have been spoiled by some of the people that Cory has brought in (Lynch, MacPherson, Benny Golson, Julian Preister etc) because they have been super nice and take all the time in the world to talk.

Now I never saw Miles live, and I never saw Blakey live, but did anyone notice a slight resemblence in how Garrett ran his live show vs. how Miles ran his live show (in terms of talking to the audience, explaining tunes etc) I saw (from what I have read and saw on video) some Blakey in Golson, and some Miles in Garrett.

O well, bottom line is a huge thanks to Cory for doing this. You can now die a happy man 'cause Kenny Garrett has played your club!

Now if you'd only hire a trombone player once in a while..........

[Morgan Childs]

Wait wait wait.... the SOUND wasn't right? I think their concept of what they wanted that band to sound like in a room that size wasn't right. Brad busted his ass getting them the three monitor mixes for that tiny stage, and when he suggested to the road manager that they not use them all, he got a real huffy, condascending response. The bass was incredibly, unbelievably and inexcusably too loud, and I don't think it was coming from the PA. This caused the rest of the band to play louder than they needed to, because the bass was so booming and horrible. Ron Bruner sounded great, and I agree with Dave's earlier comment. Kenny sounded great but.... damn! What's with all the Microphones? I mean, this is acoustic music! I want to hear a bassist with some hump and kenny playing without a damn mic. His sound his huge... if the guys in his band played to HIS acoustic sound, they would have sounded better. I would think after playing all those huge venues like they do, they would be STOKED to play a tiny room where they could play acoustic and not have to deal with the sound of amplified instruments. The more I think about it, the weirder it seems. Just my 2c...

[cweeds]

I was a tad disappointed that Kenny couldn't observe the size of the room and not have to play with all of the mics and monitors. It was truly way to loud and its amazing to me that Kenny didn't really seem to care all that much about how the band was sounding out front. I don't know about anyone else but when I play with my band or in a band I'm always concerned about the way we are being represented in the front of the house. It seems odd to me but who knows.

[bverkerk]

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=388

[Brian Nation]

Who's Gregory J Robb?

all I know is that the second set second night absolutely raged and was one of the finest sets I have ever seen. My friend said "I feel like I just had sex". and he was right on.

[John Doheny]

Maybe Kenny and company had gotten a little TOO used to playing big halls in spread out configurations. It's a much different vibe when you can just lean over and say something in the bass player's ear as opposed to semaphoring at him from 20 feet away. But I wasn't there so I can't really say.

I've noticed, though, that people seem to be tiptoeing around this issue in a way that Vancouver people often do when confronted by questionable behavior from out of town bigshots. Big room-Small room, the bottom line is these are professionals, supposedly, who should be able to deal with problems and surprises without taking it out on the audience.

Fred Strides big band did a gig at UBC with Phil Woods a few years ago that I had the privelige of playing on (Bernie Arai and Tony Foster and Al Matheson were on it as well) and he didn't use a microphone even though we were in the Old Auditorium, which seats about 600 people I think. He said he never used one on club gigs either, and said something to the effect that if he couldn't get his sound back to the bar in a room that only held 75 people, he was in the wrong business.