{"id":293,"date":"2003-11-09T10:57:32","date_gmt":"2003-11-09T15:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/?p=293"},"modified":"2003-11-09T10:57:32","modified_gmt":"2003-11-09T15:57:32","slug":"saw-some-jazz-last-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/2003\/11\/09\/saw-some-jazz-last-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Saw some jazz last night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

We saw Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis in San Francisco last night. Nancy does
\nthis jazz show on NPR that I used to hear on my drive home … swear to God
\nthe first time I heard her say "This is Nancy Wilson…" I thought,
\n"Wow, that sister from Heart is a jazz singer now." Sorry, she’s the
\nonly Nancy Wilson I’d ever heard of growing up in the ’70s listening to Album
\nRock Radio. <\/p>\n

I suppose I went to school with kids who had heard of the real Nancy Wilson,
\nthe one onstage at the Masonic Auditorium last night. If so they should’ve passed
\nthe word around … not that we’d have listened to them, but at least they’d
\nhave the comfort today of knowing they were listening the right one — who should’ve
\ncovered a silky version of "Crazy on You" to score some irony points
\nwith the few of us who’d have gotten the joke. <\/p>\n

I have about a dozen jazz albums, most of them Legends: Charlie Parker, Miles
\nDavis, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Chet Baker, Oscar Peterson.
\nOf the bunch I like Oscar the best, because he plays with this bluesy groove
\nthe feels the most like Rock ‘n’ Roll when he’s really cooking. My knowledge
\nof jazz limited to my exposure to these LDGs — Legendary Dead Guys — and I
\nknow zilch about the music of Nancy & Ramsey. I picked them out because
\nI knew they were big names among living musicians, and I needed something to
\ndo on my birthday that would not leave Melissa deaf, because she needs her hearing
\nto be able to respond when I say, "honey, could you grab me a beer outa
\nthe fridge?" See, this is why guys secretly crave rock ‘n’ roll: they want
\ntheir hearing to be shot so they’ll have an excuse for not listening to their
\nwives. <\/p>\n

Anyway, this is what I remember: The show opens with Nancy and Ramsey walking
\nto the front of the stage. If you know Nancy was born in 1937, your brain screams
\nthat she has absolutely no business wearing that slinky black floor-length gown
\nwith the plunging neckline. She may be eligible for full Social Security Benefits,
\nbut boys I’m here to tell you, the woman looks great in that getup. How can
\nshe have acquired so many years and so few lumps? Amazing. Oh yeah, then she
\nstarted singing.<\/p>\n

She opens with "Moondance," the song Van Morrison made famous. She doesn’t
\nbring anything new or inspiring to the song… she has a lovely, powerful voice
\nbut doesn’t show it off here. Obviously she’s warming up her vocal chords and
\nthe crowd with some easy stuff to get us in the mood. She has her own keyboard
\nplayer, so Ramsey sits at his grand piano doing a few finger rolls and looking
\nas if he they don’t pay him enough to play Van Morrison songs. But as I said,
\nit’s a warmup. <\/p>\n

During the first couple songs, the bass player — who’s thumbing a standup
\nbass — keeps trying to steal the spotlight by playing these really intricate
\nsolos. I’m trying to enjoy the show but I can’t stop thinking, "why the
\nhell doesn’t this guy understand that a bass was not meant to play solos?"
\nI mean, drum solos are bad enough, but bass solos — fingers pounding strings
\nin the vain hope of sounding as cool as a saxophone — are generally insufferable.
\nThis guy is no different: He’s really, really good but he’s starting to annoys
\nthe crap out of me. I want him to get back to playing rhythm, and when he does,
\neverything is fine.<\/p>\n

Nancy departs the stage to polite applause after a few songs, and now it’s
\ntime for Ramsey to show us his stuff. Some of the LDGs in my collection are
\nwhat I’d call hardcore — Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker — geniuses
\nwho are absolutely uncompromising. If you enjoy their work it’s because you
\ncan appreciate greatness; they played however they damn well pleased. Ramsey
\nLewis is a born crowd-pleaser, so he’s not hardcore. He has chops, though; I’d
\ncall him smoothcore. The first song is a rousing, grooving number that brings
\nthunderous applause … easily 50 percent louder than the thanks we bestowed
\non Nancy. Ramsey isn’t just working the keyboards, he’s working the room. <\/p>\n

After about three or four songs (they seemed to run together), Ramsey and his
\nbassist and drummer start playing another jumping tune that the crowd wants
\nto clap along to. Except the guys keep changing the tempo and frustrating such
\nattempts. It’s a fun jazz tune, with moments where Ramsey slows to a complete
\nsilence, then tears off in some new direction. Towards the end of one of these
\ndiversions, I notice the bass player has picked up a bow. The music stops for
\na second, then the next thing we hear is the low, tender moan of a bow being
\ndragged over strings. Sort of like a cello solo, but way deeper. The effect
\nis stunning — the bass violin seems to have its own voice, and it’s singing<\/i>
\nits own tune. Almost brought tears to my eyes. The solo lasts a few minutes,
\nthe stops, and the trio blasts off in another direction, this time with an even,
\nsolid tempo that allows the crowd to clap along. When it’s over, the crowd is
\nthundering and I’m thinking: I could go home now, that’s one of the must riveting
\nthings I’ve ever experienced. <\/p>\n

Turns out that’s the end of Ramsey’s set and it’s time for Nancy to come back
\nout. Now she’s wearing a floor-length red dress, minus the low neckline. She
\nstill looks marvelous. Here’s where I wish I had more of a taste for vocal jazz
\n— Nancy’s got great pipes and incredible stage charisma. She talks about her
\nlife as a musician between songs of heartbreak and loss, and I can’t help wondering
\nif the guys in her own band were the ones who put her through all that. She
\nsings it like she’s lived it, and the crowd eats it up. <\/p>\n

My problem is that my tiny idea of jazz is a piano, a saxophone, a trumpet
\nmaking sounds that are beyond words. Adding a singer subtracts the musicians
\nand takes that mystery away. When Nancy sings I feel her pain and recognize
\nher talent — yeah, she’s the real deal among jazz singers. But I don’t get
\nthat sense of wow that happens when a jazz combo is really pounding it. Nancy
\ndoesn’t move me like that, but it’s still entertaining to see a pro in action.
\nShe has grace, poise, class, and she’s sexy beyond her years.<\/p>\n

And when it was over my ears weren’t ringing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We saw Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis in San Francisco last night. Nancy does this jazz show on NPR that I used to hear on my drive home … swear to God the first time I heard her say "This…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}