Eddie Brookshire Quintet +1 & JD Allen

Saturday night found me finding the time to pop on down to Gilly's in downtown Dayton to catch the Eddie Brookshire Quintet, always enjoyable. Turned out it was also Eddie's birthday. Happy Birthday Eddie! He was joined by the usual cast of characters, Jack Novotny on saxophone, Gary Onady on trumpet, Fenton Sparks on drums, Kega Harikawa (sp?) on piano and Barry Ward as guest trumpet player. They kicked off with the first song off their recording entitled Surrendered Life, an Eddie Brookshire original. It was the hard driving bebop I have come to expect from the Quintet and it was just what I needed. At the end of the first set Eddie's wife, Brenda Flowers was invited up to sing a couple and she sang/scatted one of Eddie's favorites, My Funny Valentine. Keep up the good work fellows! I then moved on up the street a couple of blocks until I was across from The Victory Theater downtown to catch JD Allen on tenor sax playing at D'Lish. I was pleasantly surprised to find that his bass player was accomplished Cincinnati bass player Jim Anderson. What a treat! JD was also accompanied by a recent CCM graduate on drums, Jeff Merrott. I listened to their first set before calling it a night. A couple of tunes that I remember from that set were It Could Happen to You and Friday the 13th, a Thelonious Monk tune. I had tried to arrange a phone interview with JD for my WDPS, 89.5 FM radio show, BeBop and More which broadcasts on Wednesdays at 1:00 (and then again on Saturday nights at 7:00 on wdpsfm.com) but logistics and short timing intervened. I did plug the gig on my show so hopefully that did some good but it was a pretty good crowd that night and the performances were enjoyable. As I say on my show, get out there and support live jazz!