On Grand on State: Tom Scott on the Rebound
It was a big night on State last Friday, specifically at the jazz-soaked address of Grand on State, with the Bill Evans tribute blowout staged by pianist Tamir Hendleman and his potent trio (more on that later).The next calendar-marker event in the club’s high value “Visiting Artist” series, facilitated by Kit Thomas, is the return of the great and wide-flung alto saxist Tom Scott, appearing here with the fine pianist Laurence Hobgood on Friday, October 30.
Scott’s vast and singular resume, in jazz and the wider mass culture universe, includes landmark work on Steely Dan records, leading the influential pop-jazz fusion the LA Express, countless film and record dates, and his own solo projects — sometimes extending his love of such primary influences as Oliver Nelson and Cannonball Adderly (hear his Adderley tribute album here), another jazz great who found love and work in Hollywood.
Scott now qualifies for early adopter status, having previously played the Grand in a duo with pianist Roger Kellaway in May, effectively kicking off the “Visiting Artists” series. This time he appears with the impressive and flexible Chicago-bred pianist Laurence Hobgood, best known for his long stint with vocalist Kurt Elling.
Zach Attack
(Soundtrack to this item: Steely Dan, “Gaucho” [link], a great jazz-infused pop tune with the distinction of being subject to a lawsuit by Keith Jarrett)
Zach Gill could recently be found “Bowling” for a living, in a major venue way — playing in his day job as Jack Johnson’s right-hand keyboardist at the Santa Barbara Bowl for two nights and more recently the Hollywood Bowl. But on Friday afternoon, Gill plunked down at the artfully funky piano at the corner of the Anapamu and State and did what he does best — making a joyful noise on whatever keyboard is in front of him.
The occasion was a tradition in the making, with Gill scheduling a pop-up performance as part of the enlightened Santa Barbara Bowl–sponsored “Pianos on State” program settling on to State Street each autumn. With his trademark carnival busker’s hat and gifting onlookers with mints and faux peacock feathers, Gill serenaded the corner with such musical delicacies as his original “Legend of the Narwhal” — an ode to the whale legend community — an ode to his biological father, and a Halloween-appropriate mashup of “Thriller” and “Ghostbusters.”
The next day, he could be found in another very local situation, as a headliner of the UCSB alum-driven Gaucho Fest shindig with his band Animal Liberation Orchestra, a k a ALO. Fittingly, the band was born at UCSB in the ‘90s, when the members were students there, and has continued on as a card-carrying member of the jam band domain, a worldwide order.
In the fest’s lagoon-side encampment, the stage sprang to ‘90s-fueled life with the fetching funk & roll sounds of Munkafest — in a well-placed reunion gig — and ALO (Gill, guitarist Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz, bassist Steve Adams, and drummer Ezra Lipp). Jammin’ orchestral liberation ensued, to the tune of such songs as “I Come from the Future,” and a slide into the old Bryan Adams number “Summer of ‘69,” a suitable nostalgic anthem.
From another musical angle, this time from the late ‘70s, a musical question posed by Donald Fagen popped into my head: “Who is that gaucho, amigo? / Why is he wearing that spangled leather poncho and his alligator shoes? / Bodacious cowboys such as your friend will never be welcome here / high in the Custer Dome.”
On the subject of notable alumni from this institution, KCSB (91.9 on the left end of your FM dial, or internet-wise here), Santa Barbara’s free-spirited and liberated radio choice, has been focused for the past week on the music of Tom Russell, the Americana star singer-songwriter who studied criminology at UCSB some 50 years ago. KCSB has a deep legacy, including the still-running show Rock It Properly” by Santa Barbara’s deejay-of-choice Darla Bea, who spun the apt sounds at the Gaucho Fest. The station’s list of alums does also include Sean Hannity, so let it not be said this is not strictly a “woke” operation. On the opposite end of the political spectrum, we can also sink into the venerable world of long-time deejay/professor emeritus Dick Flacks’s Culture of Protest.
It’s a full-service student-community radio outlet, happily in our midst since 1962.
On the Sake of the Song/Saloon Beat
It was another hot and steamy night in a maverick saloon Wednesday, and we’re not talking about the geothermal conditions of late. We’re talking Tales from the Tavern, the cherished and long running (25 years coming up) series of showcase evenings specializing in the singer-songwriter and Americana arts at the Maverick.
Following a starry double header night with Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, the series offered up another inspired double header last week, with the subtle powerhouse singer-songwriter Kim Richey, from Nashville (excuse me, East Nashville), and instrumentalist-singer extraordinaire Kelly Furtado, down from Portland.
Furtado, possessor of powerful and intuitive gifts on slide guitar and the deep-dish cello banjo, was a late booking addition to the bill, and a perfect addition. Richey, now 69, is a double or triple threat, as a strong singer with a fabulous songbook of originals, and she turns out to be a dry, wry tale-spinner in the live setting, befitting the “Tales” portion of the series’ m.o. Among those were twisty tales involving the mysteries of songwriting. It’s an enigmatic process, courting the fickle muse, and sometimes finding inspiration from reading a New Yorker film review, we discovered at the Mav.
MUSE-ing, with Snacks, Sounds, and Dirt Attached
A healthy crowd of serious music people and casually curious community folks showed up last week for the ground-breaking of “The Muse.” This major culture hub in the 900 block of State Street is being launched by the Music Academy of the West and is slated for a 2028 opening.
Nibbling vittles and beverages were served. MAW president and CEO Shauna Quill spoke, as did Cheryl Goldberg, whose major donation made The Muse possible. Live music was also served: tenor and academy employee Byron Moyes serenaded us on the subject of “Figaro,” with pianist Alvise Pascucci, also helping out the Sing! Youth Choir, directed by Erin McKibbon, which filled the stairwell and lifted its collective voice in the large main floor space, on the theme of Sarah Quartel’s “Be Like the Bird.”
Then, everything got down and dirty, and down to business. “Now comes the fun part,” Quill announced, as a group of groundbreaking types took up hard hats and shovels, digging into a portable palate of dirt in the room. “Now we are officially underway,” the boss declared. Praises be.
TO-DOINGS:
One of the most anticipated jazz shows of the year lands at the Lobero tonight, October 22, when the multilingual jazz guitar hero Julian Lage brings his current project, featuring organist John Medeski, to the storied venue. Lage has appeared here in the past, with Gary Burton and Charles Lloyd, and finally he appears under his own name and with his own musical message to convey. (See story here.)
Classical music doings of note are on this weekend’s calendar: the Santa Barbara Symphony kicks off its new season with an easy-to-love program of Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto and Shostakovich’s fifth symphony (see season preview here); the Santa Barbara Master Chorale’s season kicker also shows up on Saturday afternoon, sporting the debut of a new director, William Cutter (see Madeline Slogoff’s story here).
On Sunday afternoon, the Santa Ynez Concert Series, which kicked in a blaze of contemporary-music-fortified glory with the Brooklyn Rider recently, continues on another high note with a concert featuring noted mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (also a co-head of the voice program at the Music Academy), violist Richard O’Neill, and pianist (and S.Y.V. Concert Series organizer) Robert Cassidy on piano. The concert, titled “Songs for Our Teachers,” lands in the St. Mark’s-in-the-Valley church in Los Olivos this Sunday, October 25.
SOhOis up to its old-new tricks of bringing a cross-genre menu to its stage this week. Thursday finds the Allah-Las with Sam Blasucci — a neo-garage-psychedelic pop unit out of Los Angeles — in a benefit for Casa de la Raza with Darla Bea (she’s everywhere!) on Friday, and jazz on Sunday from the group known as MOB. Good reasons to climb the stairs to its Victoria Court homestead by night.
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