Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band
Last Saturday was the evening with big “E”! We have wanted to see the Big Phat Band play since we arrived. One of those things you gotta do if you are here. If you haven’t heard of them yet, go to there website and listen! They are in our opinion one of the most well playing big bands referring to quality of musicianship. Tuning, section playing, technique and phrasing is super tight and always sounds impressive. This concert was held in Los Alamitos, a smaller community southeast of Long beach. This time the commuting took us with food break FIVE hours! It included the Orange, Red, Blue metro lines and bus 60 and 42. Unbelievable, we almost missed the concert. At least we got some of the last tickets left for 28 dollar each, ouch! Concert was alright but far from as impressive as we hoped it to be. The sound was bad in the high school main concert hall as well.
A bit disappointed we chose to get down to Hermosa Beach again where we knew Paulie was playing with some great musicians. That turned out to be the best choice we’ve made this far. Saturday night down at the beach seems to be the place to be. Full of people already and the band was already smoking inside Boogaloo Cafe when we arrived. The band grooved like crazy and I gotta find some info on this guy Ellis who was singing. A total Stevie Wonder class geniuos, singing and playing piano/organ. He even got to play some funky solos on both bass and drums. He is just ridiculous at whatever he does. And what a singer. If you think of the soul and vibe of Stevie Wonder, you are close! the best concert this far! Funny… the best concerts we’ve seen have both been in Boogaloo Cafe with Paulie on sax. It is the man!
Carol Welsman singing in Fullerton
This last Friday Mattias had looked up a concert with one of his favorite singers, Carol Welsman. Maybe you have heard about her, she is considered one of Canada’s greatest jazz/slick/smooth singers. She rearranges standard tunes with cool new sounds and writes her own material. She has a tendency of always showing up with great musicians in the band so we took the greater ordeal of going there… We still have no car, that is a problem in this city. It took nearly three hours to get there. It is not particularly far to Fullerton but just a tough connection. We rode with the Orange and Red metro line to Union station and from there an Amtrak train to Fullerton. From there we could walk to the Steamers Jazz club. sadly they started late, so we listened to only one set and then left to catch the three hour ride back home again. It was a promising concert but the sound and commitment in the band disappointed. We did have some good beer and food. Good evening, total damage: 55 dollars each…
Bob McChesney Quintet at Charlie O’s
We haven’t been writing for a while now…. time for the weekly updates. Last Tuesday we went to see Bob McChesney Quintet play. Interesting evening, we had been waiting a month to really get to see Bob play. Last time he only got some minor exposure with the Menza band but this time featured with his own quintet. They started playing without the piano player who apparently had some delays. After the band had played one tune without piano, I had already been pushing Mattias to go offer his piano playing skills to the band. So… he went up there and asked. Of course the band got excited and welcomed him up! So, Mattias sat down and started reading the music, playing with Bob himself! It was so much fun sitting there watching the whole thing. Mattias still grunts about not being in shape with his technique, but GOD did he play well! He rocked the house and the band was really glad to have him up there. After that song, the original piano player showed up, which I must say was too bad. Mattias looked great up there! 
Look at the picture, he is down to the left! And Bob on trombone. by the way, Bob played fantastic. Such an agile trombone player, a true pleasure to listen to. 
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This is the place where you can read about where I am and what I currently am doing. My calendar is on the left.
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