2001-09-21 (Friday) - 10:52 p.m.

Last night I went with a friend to Hot House, a great club in downtown Chicago, to see Chicago sax legend Fred Anderson perform with bassist Tatsu Aoki, drummer Isaiah Jackson and guitarist Jeff Parker.

Attendance was sparse as well under 50 people showed up. Anderson can usually attract twice that many at the Velvet Lounge, a club in close proximity that he owns and operates. Perhaps this isn't the fault of the musicians on hand though, as attendance at the HotHouse has been less than what I expected every time I have gone there over the last couple of months. (Perhaps I should change my expectations.)

The crowd that was there didn't see a great show by any means as the group was far too much into the straight ahead bebop groove and mid tempo pace for my taster. Also the 4tet only performed for a little over 2 hours over the course of two set.

Anderson was in o.k. form but I wouldn't have minded some more shrieking. Aoki was impressive and delivered some fine solos while Jackson needs to learn that there is more to drumming than keeping time. He did get in one innovative solo, however, where he didn't put too much emphasis on the snare drum. Parker, FWIW, was Wes Montgomery sans the sweetness and that isn't particularly nice to the ears.

The group never seemed to get going and thus the music never became transcendent.

After a decent but not all that innovative solo from Aoki, a woman at a table next to mine screamed "yes" as if she was Meg Ryan. It wasn't that good.

I apologize for not writing more. For reasons that I can't explain, typing is not coming easy this evening.

email me if you care to,
micah

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