a flock of birds

(post script as pre-script: HOLY COW you guys liked my BSG dress!  thanks thankya thank you everyone!  i wish blogger had that little reply button so i could get a response to each of you, reading your comments made me SO happy.  haaalloooooo blogger technicians, blogger number three billion and one dials the request line for a reply button.  i guess i have to rethink its wearability... it's going in the front of the closet now.)

This weekend we had the pleasure of seeing our favorite jazz trio blow the roof off at Blue Note. We waited on line, in the rain, at the last minute, and squeezed ourselves into a tiny table with three new friends. The Bad Plus has the best type of fans. Everyone is so eager to hear them, so tipsy at the thought of the sounds about to happen, all smiles and hello strangers, you are our new fabulous best friends simply because you have so wisely chosen to spend your evening here! Come and sit at our tiny table with our blessings. Sadly our friends were allergic to the carpet and had to vacate the premises, what great good luck for you! Order your wine! 

Joshua Redman performed with them, and it is here that I must confess my general disdain surrounding the saxophone.  I don't know what it is about it, but it walks a very fine line with me.  A "CD 101.9" line. A cool  line. 

(It is a hot summer day.  Marcy marches down the street hand in hand with Rob. They pass a saxophonist playing for coins. Marcy has been studying up on jazz lately, and finding that she adores it, is now an instant expert on the subject.)

Marcy: I HATE saxophones.

Rob:  Really?

Marcy:  YES.  They're all smooth jazz and I hate them.

(arriving home, Rob puts ye olde ipod on shuffle, genre of jazz.)

Marcy: I LOVE this song.  I love ALL his stuff.  who is this again?

Rob:  Charlie Parker.

Rob enjoys immediately and stealthily proving me wrong when I make blanket declarations as such. I once announced to a waitress at a wine bar that I did not like malbec, and I would have a cabernet. Rob ordered a cab and a malbec, and surreptitiously put the malbec in front of me. Of course I said it was the best cab I'd ever had.

Redman's saxophone screamed along with The Bad Plus and I grinned like a freak. Their notes raced around the club, spinning and breaking and diving and plunging. My sis-in-law put it perfectly: they played like a flock of birds, completely changing directions with one mind.  

But I did miss just the trio, especially on Reid Anderson's "People Like You".  I wanted to put that tune up here but I would kind of die if I embedded a youtube video and somehow the band saw it and was all great thanks for the love and the pirated frigging video.  So here's a clip of them from the awesome bbc show "Later with Jools Holland", it's been up for four years so I figure it has the stamp of approval...