Tonight: a special night when you get to go Medeski > Mehldau, two of the greatest keys-men of the common era. But that's what I did tonight.

First, a stellar set of straight improv from Billy Martin and John Medeski. Absolute mastery and superlative chemistry on display.

Then, a couple blocks away to the Vanguard for Gilad Hekselman who was great, but his band... Even better. Mehldau + Morgan + Gilmore = sickest backing band in jazz. Brad was sublime in everything he did. A great night in Manhattan.

#nycfreaks #livemusic #nyc #jazz #villagevanguard

Tonight: Gillian and Dave playing acoustic Dead tunes a la Gillian and Dave was as perfect as it looks on paper. The greatest catalog of American music played by the pinnacle of folk duos, what could be bad? So much Dave Rawlings channeling acoustic Jerry, what could be bad? For the Deadheads who didn't know Welch/Rawlings that well, I think they probably uniformly had their tie-dyed socks knocked off. I think the pair made some new fans tonight, for sure. Crowd was *into* it. Full, but not awful packed like it sometimes gets at the Cap. Extended Encore with a St Stephen > Not Fade Away? Yessir!

Looking forward to seeing this again at Newport.

#nycfreaks #livemusic #gratefuldead #gillianwelch

Caught Go Kurosawa last night, in the round at LPR. First of all, more shows in the round, please! He's got a killer band and it was kind of just a lot of songs opening up into a range of different styles of jamming. Ambient, jazzy, funky, rocking, heavy... Standard instrumentation and then a flute or marimba or sax would break out, not to mention lots of heady percussion. No notes, a fabulous show.

The bummer of Kikagaku Moyo shutting it down has been all but forgotten as the members branch out into uniformly awesome projects. Expecting more and more from these dudes.

#nycfreaks #livemusic #jams

Tonight: had no idea what to expect for bassist Sam Wilkes at Music Hall tonight. First of all, maybe the only time I've seen seats in the venue. And why that venue? And where did all these people come from?

Quartet with Will Graefe on guitar, Benny Bock on Rhodes and synth, and Craig Weinrib on drums. A synthesis of mid-70's fusion and ambient jazz with some sublime moments. At worst it was very good smooth jazz, at its best it was joyful bliss. The sound profile of the four instruments was *just* right.

But seriously, as many questions as answers.

#nycfreaks #livemusic #brooklyn

Tonight: socks-knocked-off set from Madison Cunningham. She's always impressed, but somehow that show at Town Hall still vastly exceeded my expectations. Performing in a duo with this guy playing clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, keys - and looping them masterfully. Like a stellar ambient jazz show going on underneath a stellar indiefolk show. She got her start playing with Andrew Bird and she's basically at that grandmaster level, serious 5-tool player as far as I'm concerned. And the simple-but-effective visual scheme, like the whole show was taking place underwater (too dark and too far for any photos, though).

Wow!

#nycfreaks #livemusic #madisoncunningham

My new favorite regular gig in NYC is the improv jam going on at the Richardson in Williamsburg every Tuesday. Seems mostly organized by Scott Colberg, who's become my seek-at-all-costs bassist in town. Everything he does seems to be fantastic which is how I feel about Jeremy Gustin, who is often on these gigs as well.

Tonight the trio was those two and this new-to-me dude Abe Seiferth on guitar/electronics. Caught the second set and it was holyshit! good.

Amazing jams will always find a place to live in this town. If the last 25+ years have taught me anything, it's that.

#nycfreaks #livemusic #brooklyn #williamsburg #jams #jazz