Jazz Advocate - Jazz Event Articles

Finally got out to hear some live jazz again on 2-11-11 at Gilly's - in fact, hadn't been there in a while either. Snow, ice, frigid cold, all can take their toll. Some jazz events even got postponed/canceled. Adding to all of that in my case is teaching a four hour class three nights a week but last night I finally made it out again. Heard a group I have written about before and try to catch every time I can, The Eddie Brookshire Quintet, now made up of the original core trio, Eddie Brookshire on bass, Jack Novotny on tenor sax, soprano sax & flute and Gary Onady on trumpet and flugel horn. Two newer members who seem to now be permanent members are Fenton Sparks on drums and Keigo Hirakawa on piano - you can check them all out at the band website; http://www.eddiebrookshiremusic.com/bios.html - I was running out of steam last night as the evening wore on at my house but I forced myself out the door and down to Gilly's - am I glad I did. The band was clicking on all cylinders. It has been a while since I have heard a Bebop oriented band that listened to each other so well and played together so well, playing off each other like they had practiced a million times. It was quite a treat.

As you no doubt can tell by my slow start, I got there about mid-way through their scheduled performance. It must have been near perfect timing for the set because they played for at least an hour after I got there before taking a break. The first tune I heard was blues, unfortunately I did not catch the entire name of the song. As they say in some circles these days, it was all good. A group near perfectly melded in purpose. The next tune was entitled Myth of the Poseidon, which I believe was written by Keigo Hirakawa. I have always loved the way that Gary & Jack do their ensemble work and this tune was what I would call frantic Bebop. It went a little over the edge for me but that is one thing you can count on out of The Eddie Brookshire Quintet, they are going to take you right to the ragged edge a few times a night and you just have to hold on for ride. This was followed up with a jazz standard, thought not heard that often, If I were a Bell. The Quintet played perfectly on this one. Eddie talked his wife Brenda Flowers into coming up to sing My Funny Valentine and I must say I really enjoyed her scatting on this tune. Next up was another original, I believe by Gary Onady entitled Winter Dreams. It actually put me in mind of Minor Blues from their CD "Bass Notes - The Heart Beat of Jazz" - a song I love. There was a break in there somewhere but they later played a really memorable version of Cedar Walton's Bolivia. It is hard to go wrong with Cedar Walton tunes. The bass solo was intriguing. This was followed by another Gary Onady original, the name of which I did not catch and there was a particularly good bass solo, everybody was cookin' and Fenton Sparks tore it up on the drums.

I thought they were ending the evening with a Kenny Burrell tune, added to their book thanks to sweet talking Brenda Flowers from a previous gig with the great guitarist Kenny Burrell. Thank you Brenda. It was a beautifully played and interplayed song, especially Jack Novotny on flute and Gary Onady on flugle horn, but I was sitting there thinking that as beautifully played as it was, it was a bit anticlimactic to what they had played previously for a final song. But I anticipated incorrectly, even with the Twelve o'clock hour knocking on the door the Quintet played one final tune of the night. Once again the band Bebopped their way excellently through the final tune, the bass solo and drum solo of particular note, in fact, the drum solo was fantastic. If you haven't heard The Eddie Brookshire Quintet you are in for a treat and if you weren't there last night, you REALLY missed it. Thank goodness I made myself head down to Gilly's. Thank you Jerry Gilloti.