Parker Gambino

Busking New York  –  Kenny John  –  April 11, 2018

I’m afraid that Kenny might be playing the same song all day.  He was one of those buskers who was trying to give money to me!  Is that the upside or the downside of my shabby attire?

Kenny John

North County Harp Ensemble  –  Mahopac Library  –  March 18, 2018

A little preview of heaven here.  Six harps resonating together, totally captivating.  A somewhat Gallic-leaning repertoire in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

Alyssa Reit

Annie Hartigan

Denise Robillard

Athena Traver

Kelly Lahiff

Delia Martin

Hawai’i  –  February 2018

Various forces conspired to prevent me capturing any Hawaiian musicians on this trip, though there were a few artisans “performing”.

Kahika'io

Kawika Brown

Volcano Farmers Market

Donny McCaslin & Jason Linder  –  Greenwich Library  –  January 7, 2018

http://donnymccaslin.com https://www.facebook.com/JasonLindnerOfficial/

These two mainstays of NYC’s jazz scene have a long collaborative history (including work on David Bowie’s final album), though the duo format has not been the main thrust.  Nice chemistry and listening to each other while improvising.  Sometimes the lights stay on in the Cole Auditorium (and I can work in color, even watercolors), sometimes not.  On this day it was “not”, all I could see in front of my face was Sharpie, so I went with that as plan C!

Donny McCaslin

Jason Lindner

Sunny Jain’s ExtravaJAMza   –  Rubinstein Atrium   December 14, 2017

http://www.sunnyjain.com/archive/

This was a hodgepodge that worked really well.  Basically, percussionist Jain invited his various musical friends (and that’s quite a diverse assemblage of musical friends!) to come perform with him in various configurations.  So, there was a rotating cadre of personnel on stage, making it difficult for me to anticipate how long each would be available and how to allocate finite sketch time.  So be it.  Part of the evening’s theme was the metaphor of cooking, which got quite literal as samples of Jain’s culinary skills were passed out amongst the audience.  Much as I would have like to nosh in this manner, it was too much to manage while frantically trying to focus within my chrono-calculating frenzy.

Sunny Jain

Jonathan Hoard

Ganavya Doraiswam

Mike Bomwell

Ray Mason

Marc Cary

Lee Hogans

Gary Wong

Alison Shearer

John Altieri

Delicate Steve

Jethro Banks & the Experience  –  Towne Crier Cafe  –  November 4, 2017

I feel certain (as do many others) that we’ll be hearing from the 18-year-old high school senior Banks in the coming years.  This drummer’s already got a great well-earned local reputation and serious cred, judging from the associates he calls on for this gig.  He’s been groomed by his father (who plays keys in the combo), has an engaging, comfortable stage presence, all the boxes are checked!  My buddy Greene guested on a few vocals.  Sometimes I try to make my post-production process easier by going with just black ink; then I shoot myself in the foot when the subject is too large to fit on the page (I was pretty close up, which didn’t help, not that I’d have it any other way), so it spans two pages that I now have to stitch together, and then I have to decide with how to deal with the crease.  The executive decision is to erase it all away, so deal with the “gap” in some of the line continuity.

Jethro Banks

Adam Falcon

Arnrai Banks

Kendall Buchanan

Goldee Greene

Caixa  –  Luso  –  October 14, 2017

Luso is the Portuguese restaurant on the corner of the block where we were staying; while having dessert with our hostess, we met the restaurant owner, a friend who had also been invited over.  When I learned of the live music situation, I wrangled access and crammed myself into some small spaces while dinner proceeded; I was there only to sketch, not to scarf, my loss.  While the food has Portuguese roots in Brazil and Goa, as well as the mother country (and receives excellent reviews), the lovely music seemed mostly to be sourced from Brazil.

Caixa

Turkfest  –  Seattle City Center Armory  –  October 14, 2017

I had time only to catch the musical acts on one day of this 2-day festival.  Only two of the three members of Celestial Navigation were present; as you can suss from the name, it was new-agey with a Turkish twist.  Attitude was compounded when at the end of the set,  Somel wouldn’t sign from the stage, said she would be out later to do so, then failed to show.  Sehr-i Seattle seemed more straightforward old school Turkish folklorish (as if I would know!), and also more interested in my work to boot, so they get my edge.  There was also a more participatory vibe, audience members singing along, and at one point one fan going on stage to help Berberoglu out with the lyrics.

Tamer Erzumulu

Nokta Berberoglu

Baris Saydag

Berk Nadir

Batuhan Biyikoglu

Didem Somel

Robby Albrecht

Busking Seattle  –  October 2017

For this post I combine two separate episodes on different dates.  Dandelion and Vismale were at Seattle’s outdoor Ballard Farmers Market, the city’s biggest (it’s year-round), and what an incredible scene!  All produce was over the top, my best score being the $10 chanterelles; just try finding them in the NYC area for less than triple that!  The remainder were outdoors at Seattle City Center, where I was early and waiting for the Turkfest event (next post).  Monroe took the bizarreness award, kind of deranged with a security guard keeping close eye on him from a distance.  When I passed him the book to sign, it seemed like he was kind of grime-coated, as if he had been working on changing car oil for three days straight (possibly without sleeping).  So I didn’t want him even handling the book too much; I thought the just treatment was to not photoshop out the lower left fingerprint residue of his grip (also, may come in handy for the authorities at some point).  Yes I feel bad about the preceding!  Then, a first for me; “Anonymous” not only wouldn’t sign (I’ve had that before, but only once), he wouldn’t even tell me his name!  Wow, two doozies in one session.  The others going by first name only, I kind of get – perhaps legit deportation paranoia.

Dandelion

Yasna Vismale

Dave Monroe

Fred

Quichua Mashis

High Class Brass  –  Phinney Farmers Market  –  October 6, 2017

I guess having a gig at the market (or at least this market) is a couple notches up from busking, especially if your name incorporates the words “High Class”.  So I’ll overlook the 45-minutes-later-than-advertised starting time, they were darned good, with a nice variety of classical and contemporary pieces.  Couldn’t tell exactly what the deal was with “Chuck”, who didn’t seem to be a regular group member, wouldn’t give me his full name for attribution, and for whom I could get no info from the HCB web presence, so yes, there’s a bit of attitude present about this as well!  I like to be accurate in my archiving, but must stay real (or sane? perhaps too late for that!) with regard to the extent of my unrequited efforts.  Chuck.

Tom Hampton

Gary Roberts

Tony Elvig

Aiko Watanabe

Chuck

High Class Brass Composite