Roy Hargrove at the Fest

Last friday night we went to see the Roy Hargrove Quintet play at the Newmark Theater here in Portland. It was a good show, but one where you look at the ticket prices and thank god you didn't actually pay for them. The band was good - great bassist and drummer, green but tasty piano player, overblown but interesting altoist - and there were times that I was really taken in by the drama of their performance, but it also seemed to lack a certain depth of authenticity. Frankly, the best shit going on was the rhythmic playing. Lots of great creative cycling around a clearly felt pulse - whether it was the bassist being playfully and loosely deviant with accents or the saxophonist playing big swirls of finally-resolving time twisters - I was into it. Roy's playing, though, didn't get me much past what his pure energy took the room. And it did, people were into it, but as for really artfully exposing a musical form, there's not much there. If nothing else, it was good to hear some music from NYC to give me a break from what seems to be a state of perpetual slumber which inhabits much of the jazz playing in this city.

My small involvement in the Portland Jazz Festival was playing a few 'Next Gen Jazz' sessions where I played with folks like Jonas Oglesbee, Patrick Harry, Tim Duroche, Dan Duval, David Valdez, Chance Hayden. I also met and played with Devin Phillips for the first time, which was nice. The last night at the Armory session, Kurt Elling's rhythm section came and played a couple of tunes. Good listening.