Les Is More
He’s 92 years old and has arthritis, but the dude still has chops. After close to fifteen years of saying I was going to see Les Paul one of these days, I finally went and saw Les Paul. He zipped through some Gershwin, Cole Porter and “The Tennesee Waltz” and was the butt of a viagra joke. He even dedicated a song to Ann & me (”The Man I Love”) as it was Ann’s birthday and she’d just received a very fancy gift.
[...] Hats way way way way off to Bill Frisell and the Unspeakable Orchestra who played last Saturday to an audience that was split in two distinct camps: Those of us mouth agape and awed by the intensity, playfulness and audacity of the sounds coming from this medium-sized ensemble of guitar, bass, drums, horns, woodwind (singular) and strings. . .and the dozens of (alas, mostly) senior citizens shaking their head thinking, “Vat is this nonsense? And the only one who has the courtesy to wear a tie is a woman? Oy!” I’m guessing they get a lot of subscribers and when they read “jazz guitar” they think Les Paul. Well, whatever, everyone is entitled to their opinion. At least they didn’t boo. (The 92nd St. Y staff, though, is a little insane. After the show, as the group was preparing to take their bow, I whipped out my camera to take a few snaps for ye olde blog. Out of nowhere a light from Checkpoint Charlie is flashing in my face and a voice is telling me to stop. So I was only able to get off one shot — and the shot indeed sucks): [...]
Pingback by Jordan Hoffman Dot Com » Bill Frisell at the 92nd St Y — November 20, 2006 @ 10:44 pm