Day: July 16, 2024

Brian Patneaude Returns to Jazz on Jay

Saxophonist Brian Patneaude plays Jazz on Jay Thursday, July 18 in his only show this summer as a leader. The ever-busy, perennial poll winner will also play with five other bands, plus a week at Proctors in “Tina: The Tina Turner musical.” (See www.brianpatneaude.com for details.)

So, Patneaude will make the most of his show Thursday with regulars Rob Lindquist, piano; Justin Hendricks, guitar; Jarod Grieco, bass and Danny Whelchel, drums. “Rob, Danny and I have played with more bands than we can probably recall over the past 25 years,” says Patneaude, noting his quartet with Lindquist, Greico and Whelchel has played together for five years and Hendricks first played with them last summer.

After playing drums in middle-school, Patneaude switched to sax in Redline which played Pink Floyd and Sting tunes. He also studied with Schalmont High School band directors Dave Lambert and Mark Eiser; studied privately with Keith Bushy and Linden Gregory; also with Paul Evoskevich at the College of St. Rose, then Tom Walsh and Pat Harbison at the University of Cincinnati.

“Repertoire for this group is usually a mixture of original material and other folks’ music,” Patneaude explains, listing his originals “Unending” and “Majority” plus Pat Metheny’s “James,” Mike Mainieri’s “Flying Colors” and “Self Portrait” (both recorded with Steps Ahead featuring Michael Brecker), and Don Grolnick’s “Lotus Blossom,” which Sanborn often played.

My life was never the same,” says Patneaude, after Brecker and the recently deceased David Sanborn inspired him when band director Sean Lowry played their music for him.

Patneaude’s approach is modern as his quartet’s repertoire.

“Every song we play is a vehicle for each member of the band to express themselves as they see fit,” Patneaude explains.

“We don’t discuss how we’re going to play it ahead of time,” he says. “One of us will just start the tune and the rest of us hop on for the ride.”

Jazz on Jay free concerts are noon to 1:30 p.m. at Jay Square, the new park space opposite Schenectady City Hall. The rain site is Robb Alley at Proctors, 432 State St., Schenectady. Seating is provided indoors at Robb Alley, but patrons are invited to bring their own seating and refreshments to Jay Square.

Jazz on Jay is presented by the ElectriCity Arts and Entertainment District and sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts, a Schenectady County Legislature Arts & Culture Grant, Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation, The Schenectady Foundation, Price Chopper/Market 32, MVP Health Care, Schenectady County, Schenectady City Hall, and Proctors Collaborative.

HOT, LOUISIANA HOT: BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO JR. AT MUSIC HAVEN, SUNDAY, JULY 14

The funk-riffing Ils Sont Partis (We’re off) band Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. inherited from his late father grooved hard enough at Music Haven Sunday to break a sweat, onstage and off, even before Jr. came on to claim his birthright as accordion-wielding prince of south-Louisiana dance music.

Son Kyle (fourth generation in this musical dynasty) helped Jr. doff his suit jacket, strap on a bulky piano accordion, proclaim “I know what you’re waiting for” and they were, indeed, off. Irresistible beats of thick bass undertow on snare and kick-drum boom pushed hard down below, Creole melodies in accordion riffs rolled up top, with alto sax solos here and there and bluesy guitar and metallic frottoir diving into the seams.

The stuff was built to party, and it worked: Between seats and stage, up the side past the seats and on the jam-packed terraced hill, dancers did everything from precise and sedate authentic two-steps to wild I-Was-A-Hippie human corkscrew writhe and – most fun of all to watch – that t-shirted guy who dropped to the dancefloor when the music paused before revving up again in an ambush coda.

Onstage, the band grooved with such engaging, friendly confidence they could have swung the same song all night and the dancers wouldn’t have minded a bit. But instead, they changed things up, again and again; tackling not only familiar groove songs dating back generations but also pop hits that got their funk on.

Jr. led the band with a firm hand, cueing solos by challenging “Give me a taste” or “Talk to me!” and stop-on-a-dime rhythm jumps with “We gone!”

Early on, he assured, “Everything Gonna Be Alright” and “I Heard the News” with an intro claiming he’d heard Schenectady folks are ready to party and then proved it. Sometimes more mainstream materials merged straight into old-school zydeco blasts; sometimes things mutated the other way. After “What You Gonna Do” (when the zydeco hits you), “Rock Me Baby” rode a Grand Canyon mainstream groove before reaching back to the tradition with a two-step shuffle pushed by Kyle’s frottoir – steel chest-mounted rub-board, scratched with spoons.

Jr. switched to organ when he went jazzy, and to melodica near the end; otherwise he steered things from behind the accordion. Al Quaglieri, who had played one, called the instrument “musical luggage” and Jr. packed a lot into it: hypnotically repeating riffs that animated your feet whether you wanted them to move or not, dazzling octave jumps and zippy arpeggios. 

The songs went all over, too, from Fats Domino’s “Walkin’ to New Orleans” to Jr.’s late father’s “Hot Tamale Baby” to Billy Preston’s “Will It Go Round in Circles,” then back to his dad’s songbook for “Zydeco Boogaloo.” An even more antique-sounding two-step set up his own “Zydeco Party” from his recent Grammy winner “New Beginnings” – then back in time once again to Lee Dorsey’s “Ya Ya” – some fine, fun minutes past the usual 9:30 catch-our-breath-and-find-the-car time.

The Brass Machine started the party right at 7 in humid daylight, parading through the surprised/delighted crowd to the stage where they, too, mixed Louisiana traditions with more mainstream fare: “Your Mama Don’t Dance” as a street parade? Yes, indeed – plus another, “Iko Iko,” then the happy menace of Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time.” 

Another Mardi Gras favorite, “Hey Pocky Way,” set up their own cocktail tribute “Mojito,” blurring into Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle,” before closing with “When the Saints Go Marching In,” claiming this was “legally obligated” for New Orleans-style bands. What in fact is legally obligated is a powerful surge of beat and horn-blasts. The Brass Machine did not break that law.

Music continues at Music Haven with Slavic Soul Party and Niva on Sunday, July 21.