North Beach jazz fest

[Zebra]

I went to the North Beach Jazz Festival today. Not really that organized. It's basically a bunch of bands playing in bars and restaurants and a few galleries under the publicity of some festival.

I basically watched one band the whole time though. Three guys, and they kicked major %^&*^#! ass! A six string fretless Tobias through some SWR and ampeg cabs. He totally kicked ass, and so did the other two guys. The drummer had a bunch of rattlers and trinkits on a case next to his set, which he used to great effect with some very spiritual vibes in transitioning songs. The guitarist had a Fender Strat and an old Fender amp, real classic tone and great playing. I guess they were jazzy, but they definately weren't traditional. They had a very middle-eastern sorta thing/new age. They were all incredible players. The bassist did some real cool solos and did some great sweeps all over that bass. They were all real into it, and the crowd was too (it was a fairly small room with a fairly small crowd.)

I got to talk to the bassist afterwards. All of them were really nice, particularly the guitarist who was giving people hugs and stuff. He reminded me of Yanni for some reason, only cool. Well anyway, the bassist told me they'd send us a CD they recorded a while ago. I told him I played and he let my play his bass! Very strange neck. You think the Geddy Lee has a thin neck? That neck was probably less than a half inch thick. I just played a little bit, seemed pretty cool.

Anyway, that is all.

[Perfessor]

There are many jazz trio's around here that have a guitar, bass and drums. There is only one real good one in my opinion due to the homegrown material of most of them that all sounds the same after a while.The only trio that has a guitar that sounds great plays some standard stuff and their solos are tasteful and rich sounding. The other trio's ramble on with solos that are technically very good but lack coherence. We still go out to hear the different groups but only a few hit the spot. I play in a trio that does standards and more standards and we're pretty popular around here, but my work schedule only allows me to play out every third weekend and practice is spotty. We have a piano, bass and drums.