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The Jazz Passengers
with Deborah
Harry
A Concert Review |
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I thought I would start this review with a letter.
Dear Jazz Passengers and Debbie Harry,
Welcome to Chicago and maybe one of the rudest (or should that be
most rude?) crowds I have ever seen at a show. I've always been told
that Chicago people are a kinder and gentler sort than those from
New York City, but after being at your show on February 23rd at the
House of Blues in Chicago I now have my doubts. I thought you
performed great considering most of the crowd should have been at a
corner bar rather than a concert venue. If it was me on stage I
probably would have lost composure and told those people to shut the
hell up or go home. Anyway, I just wanted to say I enjoyed your show
and look forward to seeing all of you someplace where the people
will listen to the show rather than talk about their convention and
taking a double-decker tour of Chicago. Hey, maybe a lot of those
people weren't actually from Chicago but just tourists at the House
of Blues? For the reputation of the people of Chicago I can only
hope. Oh well, take care and have fun touring and working on your
new CD.
Sincerely,
The Dude on the Right
Well, in case you couldn't figure out from that letter to the
band, The Jazz Passengers and Debbie Harry put on a great show
recently at the House of Blues, it's just too bad there seemed to be
so many tourists ruining the show for the rest of us. Spotlighting
many of the songs from their recent CD, "Individually
Twisted," the band put on about an hour and 15 minute
performance of music that stretches jazz into chaos and then back
again.
But let's start at the beginning. We get to the venue and are
walking around a little bit. I realize that they have seats in the
main-floor area which is a change from the rest of the times I've
been at the House of Blues. Great, a couple of seats are open and me
and Music Dude proceed to kick back and relax and wait for the show
to start. The only problem is, well, remember those wooden fold-up
chairs you had to sit in when you were in grade school. Those were
the type of seats they had. Let's just say I've gotten a little bit
larger over the years and those have to be some of the most
uncomfortable seats in the world for an adult. Well, the curtain
opens and out come Roy Nathanson on all the sax's, Curtis Fowlkes on
trombone, Bill Ware on vibraphone, E.J. Rodriguez on drums, Brad
Jones on string bass, and Rob Thomas on violin. They proceed into a
little jam and the out comes Debbie Harry to lead us through the
evening.
As I said, most of the material highlighted their recent CD, but
with a lot more solo spots for each of the members. The only weird
thing is that the solos were all at the same time. Yep, and somehow
they pulled this off, you've got Roy doing his thing, Curtis doing
his thing, Bill, E.J. Brad, and Rob doing their own things, and yet
somehow all of it fits. And between the solos you've got Debbie
Harry, spunky little attitude and all, blasting away and looking
like she was having a good old time. In fact, the entire band looked
like they were having a good time, although sometimes they seemed a
little annoyed by the people who wouldn't shut up.
A couple of other things really impressed me, either that or I
just couldn't remember from my younger years. I'm sitting there and
I realize that Debbie, or as Roy called her, Baroness von
Schwimmingbad, has a great voice and great range. Roy did his own
impressing of the crowd by handling two sax's at once (I've seen a
guy handle three at the same time so I wasn't that impressed -
although it is cool to see two), but I thought Bill Ware on
vibraphone was phenomenal.
The Jazz Passengers have an interesting mix because they can in
no way be categorized as jazz in the traditional sense. Sometimes
all of them seem to be in their own little world when they are
playing, but whether by luck, accident, or being from the same
musical planet, it all works together. Anyway, as the night
continued on, between the conversations of Double-Decker bus tours
and some lady who really must have loved Debbie (how do I know?
Well, she screamed "I love you Debbie!" between every
song), I got to hear some pretty cool music and the fans who were
actually there to see the show seemed to enjoy it. About the only
time some of the rest of the crowd shut up was when the band kicked
into "the national anthem of a very small country," a
slow, jazzy version of the Blondie classic "One Way or
Another."
The band wasn't done yet, they were back out for an encore of
"The Tide is High," highlighted for me by seeing Curtis,
the trombone dude with a really deep voice, singing high-pitched
"Woo, Woo, Ooh's" during the song. And you know what else
highlighted that song? Well, while the bass dude, vibe dude, and
drum dude were jammin' to close the song the crowd was joined by
Roy, Curtis, and Debbie for a brief little run around the House of
Blues. That was cool, but the funny part was the annoying "I
love you Debbie" lady left before the encore, and she would
have been standing right where the band went by.
All in all, The Jazz Passengers put on a really interesting show,
I just wish they were playing at a more intimate venue, or at least
where the people aren't as rude. The crowd that seemed to be there
to see the band liked them, and they are who matter so it's TWO
THUMBS UP for The Jazz Passengers, especially for not losing their
cool while the tourists lined the bars and annoyed the rest of us.
That's it for this one, I'm The Dude on the Right! L8R!! |
