Kurt Elling
A’ight, so I’ve been hemming and hawing over what should be my first entry, but it got to the point where it didn’t matter – I just needed to start. So here goes….
I’m in NYC for the weekend, and a few of us went to Birdland to see Kurt Elling. First off, this was my first visit to Birdland – it’s a pretty nice venue with decent food. We got a great table, just a couple rows back and dead center. Upon listening to the preshow music, I knew I was going to be in trouble. They had about 9 or so of those plastic EV speakers around the stage, about every 4 feet. I was sitting directly in front of about 3 of them. Horrible system design and a horrible mix. It sounded like they had cranked the monitors and turned off the mains, except this is what the mains sounded like. It was mushy and indistinct, and I was sitting just about 15 feet from the stage.
This was all rather disappointing, but a bit expected. Nearly every jazz venue I’ve been to (which isn’t really that many) has had horrible sound. I just don’t get it – we’re paying top dollar to get into these venues to listen to some of the most talented musicians in the world. They build these intimate venues, but then completely disregard the sound. It’s sad.
On the other hand this was a perfect example of how quickly our brains get accustomed to whatever situation we’re in. After the first few songs, I realized I had completely forgotten about the sound, and was enjoying the performance. I’ll be doing some reading on this affect, and I’ll report back.
Kurt has a great vocal style. He kinda-sorta scats with his band, but sometimes he’s singing lyrics. He also did a great beat Shakespeare piece acapella. Matt will probably for kill me for this, but he immediately reminded me of Shooby Taylor, The Human Trumpet, except with a lot more skill and talent. Shooby was recently re-discovered just before his death just a few years ago. From what I hear, Shooby’s music will be released by Irwin Chusid who wrote a book called Songs in the Key of Z, a great look at some of the best outsider musicians around. Incidentally, he is also responsible for the release of one of my favorite ‘outsider artist’ releases – The Langley Schools Music Project. I highly recommend you check it out, esp. track 4.
RIP Shooby.
I’m in NYC for the weekend, and a few of us went to Birdland to see Kurt Elling. First off, this was my first visit to Birdland – it’s a pretty nice venue with decent food. We got a great table, just a couple rows back and dead center. Upon listening to the preshow music, I knew I was going to be in trouble. They had about 9 or so of those plastic EV speakers around the stage, about every 4 feet. I was sitting directly in front of about 3 of them. Horrible system design and a horrible mix. It sounded like they had cranked the monitors and turned off the mains, except this is what the mains sounded like. It was mushy and indistinct, and I was sitting just about 15 feet from the stage.
This was all rather disappointing, but a bit expected. Nearly every jazz venue I’ve been to (which isn’t really that many) has had horrible sound. I just don’t get it – we’re paying top dollar to get into these venues to listen to some of the most talented musicians in the world. They build these intimate venues, but then completely disregard the sound. It’s sad.
On the other hand this was a perfect example of how quickly our brains get accustomed to whatever situation we’re in. After the first few songs, I realized I had completely forgotten about the sound, and was enjoying the performance. I’ll be doing some reading on this affect, and I’ll report back.
Kurt has a great vocal style. He kinda-sorta scats with his band, but sometimes he’s singing lyrics. He also did a great beat Shakespeare piece acapella. Matt will probably for kill me for this, but he immediately reminded me of Shooby Taylor, The Human Trumpet, except with a lot more skill and talent. Shooby was recently re-discovered just before his death just a few years ago. From what I hear, Shooby’s music will be released by Irwin Chusid who wrote a book called Songs in the Key of Z, a great look at some of the best outsider musicians around. Incidentally, he is also responsible for the release of one of my favorite ‘outsider artist’ releases – The Langley Schools Music Project. I highly recommend you check it out, esp. track 4.
RIP Shooby.
posted by Dave at
10:27 PM
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