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Back Roads Beat
2007 North Sea Jazz Cruise Day 6: History, Hucksters And Hancock On The High Seas
Mark Sabbatini
A professional transient wandering Earth's extreme regions.A similar above-average group treatment of "Camilion" closed the show, with Miller grabbing a lot of attention with some high-pitch slaps so sharp and hard they resonated like gunshots — something I haven't hadn't before despite decades of exposure to his fusion work. The whole show was a crowd pleaser, but I also noticed some pretty sparsely occupied rows of seats—an utterly depressing thought for a landmark artist on an evening when all of the passengers were aboard (notes: "if these people are at the jewelry sales and blackjack tournament there is no hope").
A second gig by Carstensen was one of the two late-nighters, so I headed upstairs to the Crow's Nest to hear pianist Moncef Genoud's trio. He and Loueke might be getting low-tier love during the festival, but the pianist did his part in admirably showing passengers the caliber of talent most will miss. A breed of understated straight-ahead I'll call "not Evans, but in the family tree" made for a setting of quiet intelligence suitable for relaxing without worry of drowsiness. Like I'll do at home with Brad Mehldau and Tord Gustavsen, I opened a thermos of porridge and read the New York Times I'd downloaded for free from the internet cafe earlier (the Times sponsors the cafe and they offer this as a glorious unpromoted bonus). As for my job responsibilities of evaluating the nuance effectiveness of minor-seventh cross-hand stabs deceptively disguising the plot twist of 6th over 13th intervals? You gotta be kidding me. Go watch the new "Harry Potter" movie and e-mail me an essay contrasting its potential for conveying the theology of modern Verdicism if you want to complain.
(Actually, it's not as ridiculous or difficult as it sounds. Do some research and look for the question at issue hidden somewhere in tomorrow's post.)
Coming on Day 7: Taking Aim At The Audience
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