- This Monday night marks another notch on our belt of successful Monday nights at the Mint. It was just freaking packed and it was my pleasure to have a host of good friends in attendance (John, Hanna, Noble and Adam!) as well as my regular piano player Josh Nelson! I always miss him when he’s away, and he’ll be out all October with Natalie Cole. We opened the night with our anthem, a Josh Nelson original, Nebulous, then went seemlessly into Wayne Shorter’s Deluge. More music followed with a special guest, Kamasi Washington (an old high school buddy of mine; he’s worked with a huge smattering of people in hip hop and jazz), and then we closed our set with a request to play Radiohead’s Exit Music for a Film. I really love playing this song. Josh, Charles and Ham play it as if it had been written just for them. There were some crazy fans in the audience so the vibes were good, we got off the bandstand and gave the spotlight over to one of my favorite dj’s, Lady Sha, and she naturally just tore it up. AS usual.
- As far as the session goes, I must say I couldn’t really have asked for anything more, especially after Sunday night’s fiasco (dealing with kids all night) it’s an honor that such talented players collectively unite at my show on Monday night. EVERYONE can play, and can play *well*. Simply killin’, really, and it’s a common trap for jam sessions that once the session starts, you lose your audience of listeners because the level of playing becomes so chaotic, the night very often loses its energy as a result. This NEVER happens at the Mint. I’ve burned enough bridges (for the greater good of course) and carefully filtered my event so that over time, it has tailored itself to be a high quality jam session. As legit as it gets. A place for us all to grow, to play and not feel like we wasted our time by coming out to a jam session. Tina Raymond, well done! Kicked ass and broke some teeth!! Anyways, cheers to everyone for another great Monday night!!! All photos are by Adam Driscoll and can be found here: www.picasa.com