PREVIEW: Matt Steckler’s Old Friends Beckoned/New Sounds Reckoned

First came friendships, then gigs, then an album, now another gig: Saturday, January 11 at Caffe Lena.

In saxophonist-composer-bandleader Matt Steckler’s Old Friends Beckoned, New Sounds Reckoned project, musicians first became friends: pianist Yayoi Ikawa and bassist Lonnie Plaxico, initially; later adding drummer Tony Lewis.

Steckler played with Ikawa in a big band at NYU where he earned his Ph.D. in composition; Plaxico played on Steckler’s 2006 Persiflage album, also live in New York and Washington DC. Playing together, Steckler found Ikawa “an athlete on keys – maximum power with maximum efficiency,” as he has explained, and Plaxico’s “way of picking up the essence of the song in one fell swoop, almost by instinct…makes hard things look easy.” Both Ikawa and Plaxico had recorded albums as leaders before the trio started working together in 2022, playing Caffe Lena in Sept. 2023, recording their album this past April at bassist-producer Scott Petito’s Catskill studio (adding Lewis), playing as a quartet in the album’s live premiere at WAMC’s The Linda last October. Newcomer Lewis’s resume sparkles with credits alongside Little Richard, Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, Sting, Cyndi Lauper and others.

Old Friends Beckoned, live at WAMC’s The Linda, from left: Yayoi Ikawa, piano; Lonnie Plaxico, bass; Matt Steckler, saxophones and flute; Tony Lewis. Photo provided.

THE ALBUM

The album “Old Friends Beckoned/New Sounds Reckoned” collects nine Steckler originals and one by Ikawa: heads-up compositions all, played with organic unity. Most swing at medium tempos; Steckler most often on tenor or alto, once each on soprano and flute. There’s swagger, harmony, and relaxed, friendly spotlight sharing.

Tunes are tight, skills are sharp, the friendly feel is real.

The album begins with the cheerful “Forgive;” a straight-ahead, sunny number sparkling with blithe solos from flute and piano over in the pocket rhythm section playing; a welcoming opener.

“Labor Day” sounds similarly summer-y, flowing faster, brash and optimistic, with Coltrane-like fast runs and high-flying energy that Ikawa boosts. Plaxico and Lewis chime in, carrying things to a big finish.

A playful, off-center beat announces “Prince Eleventy,” its chunky momentum and bop feel unfurling in episodes serene or hot, alto and drums swapping fours as Lewis erupts at the end.

Lewis also spices Ikawa’s gorgeous “Butterfly” after both Ikawa and Steckler celebrate its serene mood, resolving in unison riffing.

The breezy “I’d Know It If I Heard It” also spreads things around in relaxed, friendly sharing; its uplift feels sincere, sweet.

It sets up the agile unity of “Show Some Class,” alto and piano beautifully matched, Plaxico taking his best break on the album in a propulsive trio run with Steckler’s tenor aboard in an “I’ve got this” recap.

“Here and Now” casts a suavely torchy, yearning but mellow mood, Steckler’s alto vulnerable and breathy, then more assertive after Ikawa’s piano nudges into a nice trio section around eloquent Plaxico bass riffing.

“Mission Creep” has a slippery beat and mutating melody to match; happy and playful, but a handful.

“Vegas Mode” ambles in a lounge-y vibe before the beat changes up into a happier, looser feel with conversational warmth and engaging rhythmic development under Steckler’s tenor.

Ending things on a high, “Nunavit” also frames Steckler’s Coltrane-y tenor scales; he scrambles all over the horn on a solid trio foundation. Ikawa’s solo swings quieter but just as complex; and Lewis makes a joyful noise before a smash coda.

THE SHOW

Asked what’s the most challenging tune from the album to play live, Steckler specified “Mission Creep” with its “windy sort of structure and odd meter and syncopation.” He said, “If you like obstacle courses, though, it’s fun to blow over!”

Playing the album’s tunes onstage is conversational, since the tunes are. “Mostly we talk through transitions and intros/outros,” said Steckler. “If we’re feeling in a certain way, you may hear variations in those spots.” He said, “The energy and ‘playing to the room’ on any given night can influence the level of interaction, solo length or a host of other factors.”

Those include the respect Steckler feels for Caffe Lena where he led Old Friends Beckoned as a trio last September. The Schenectady native (now living and teaching in Middlebury, Vermont) gratefully noted how the Caffe had “opened up their programming to ‘beyond folk’” and welcomed him.

However, the January 11 show features bassist Tarik Shah subbing for the unavailable Plaxico. Steckler has played with Shah since meeting in jam sessions a year ago.“Amazingly (Shah) also knows Yayoi and Lonnie from a different time in NYC…he lent Lonnie his bass at the WAMC show.”

They’ll play songs from the new album plus “standards…as audibles,” said Steckler.

The players meet in Old Friends Beckoned amid busy schedules elsewhere. For his summer birthday celebration-fundraiser, Steckler played with Julian Gerstin Sextet, Heard, and his own Matty’s Marauders songwriting project. Other recent projects include “Elf!” at Dorset Playhouse and gigs with Maxine Linehan, Shannon Roy, Tim Olsen, Planet Kniffen, Wanda Houston, Freddi Shehadi, Matt Cusson and Gruppo Mondo. He plans shows with Pretzil Stex (onstage, he’s Matty Stecks), the band he formed while teaching in Manitoba; plus a reunion of Dead Cat Bounce, the four-saxes combo he formed in Boston while studying at the New England Conservatory. “I’ll be leading jazz engagements at 9 Maple (Saratoga) and Van Dyck/Stella’s (Schenectady) in the coming months,” added Steckler.

Even in such a busy schedule, Old Friends Reckoned stands out. “I’m proudest of how we all got to know one another at different points in our lives, then as collaborators together,” said Steckler. “I think that helped make the record and the shows a near-seamless process.”

Old Friends Beckoned/New Sounds Reckoned plays Caffe Lena (47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs) on Saturday, Jan. 11. Presented through the Caffe’s Peak Jazz Series, sponsored by Joseph & Luann Conlon in memory of Corrine Simonds. 8 p.m. $30.37, members $27.12, students and children $15.18. 518-583-0022 http://www.caffelena.org. It streams live – Caffe Lena TV.

THE BAND (Photos provided, all from WAMC’s The Linda, album release show)

Matt Steckler

Yayoi Ikawa

Lonnie Plaxico

Tony Lewis

REVIEW: “It’s A Jazzy Christmas” at Proctors GE Theater, Solstice Night 2024

Saturday night, as “Melodies of Christmas” played on Proctors Main Stage, “It’s A Jazzy Christmas” celebrated the season in Proctors more intimate GE Theater.

Since pianist-leader David Gleason and Sal Prizio assembled this revue 15 winters ago around Vince Guaraldi’s happy Peanuts TV specials, and gift-wrapped familiar tunes in an antique radio-show format, it’s become one of our longest-running and most entertaining seasonal favorites. 

It’s A Jazz Christmas, from left: David Gleason, piano; Hannah Amigo, vocals; Brian Patneaude, saxophone; Mike Lawrence, bass; Chris Pasin, trumpet; Pete Sweeney (obscured by) Ben O’Shea, trombone

And very deservedly so; Saturday’s show brought virtuoso all-star quality to this ever-evolving evening. It was actually two evenings; “It’s a Jazzy Christmas also played Friday at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. But we digress. 

Saturday’s show wove new elements among the time-honored threads of Vince Guaraldi’s beloved Peanuts soundtracks, crafting a colorful quilt of music and humor that warmed everyone in the sold out venue. The crowd sang along when invited, though softly, as if leaving the melodies to the pros.

Gleason was clearly the leader of this easy-flowing 100-minute Solstice-night revue, even before he donned a Yellow Cab cap to set up a playful “Baby It’s Cold Outside” duet of singers Hannah Amigo and Mike McCord. (McCord also doubled as the radio announcer.) The three framed “Baby” as a tentatively romantic curbside pick-up to humorous effect, but also featured McCord acknowledging “your body, your choice” in his courtship rap.

He later cited “political nonsense” in the season’s call for harmony and unity; but present-day angst had no chance to bring things down amid the evening’s powerful evocation of both.

Art D’Echo Trio, from left: David Gleason, piano; Mike Lawrence, bass; Pete Sweeney, drums

The start felt cozy: a radio-style chat from McCord then “Christmas Is Coming” and “Skating” – both from Guaraldi’s “Peanuts” songbook and both featuring the Art D’Echo Trio, Gleason’s nucleus for the revue with longtime bandmates Mike Lawrence, bass; and Pete Sweeney, drums.

Bandmates came and went, first singer Hannah Amigo in “Christmas Time Is Here,” then the horns, pumping up “Jingle Bells” as a jaunty mambo after playful false starts. Brian Patneaude played tenor sax mostly, but bass clarinet some; alongside trumpeter Chris Pasin and trombonist (and bass-trombonist) Ben O’Shea. Area jazz fans have heard them all, many times, but maybe never as fine and fun as Saturday, especially Gleason, an elegant rocket on the keys.

While song intros sometimes reached for laughs, and got them, the playing was always confidently smooth; just as Art D’Echo Trio has played together for decades and sometimes backed stars from out of town, Gleason and the horns are longtime mainstays of Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble.

They aimed for comfort, or for awe in their aggressive, modernist take on “We Three Kings” (a Chris Pasin arrangement and feature), and sometimes for the funny bone with “The Grinch” featuring low-register playing.

The can’t-miss tunes dependably hit their mark with familiar charm, but also some variations: Amigo’s torchy “Santa Baby” seduced while her duet with Gleason in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” felt like a warm quilt pulled up over the knees.

Meanwhile, more adventurous fans delighted in surprises, new this year. Anybody who’s heard these shopping-mall-battered, over-familiar favorites had to savor the cascading-note creativity of “We Three Kings,” the hilariously localized “12 Days of Christmas” duet by Gleason and McCord citing “four-mer governors,” “787,” “Alive at Five” and, wrapping every incremental verse, “a Market 32 gift card.”

David Gleason and Mike McCord

Next in this mid-set highlight reel came “Oh, Holy Night” as a soul-jazz reverie, Amigo’s voice soaring high; and a trio version of “O, Tannenbaum.” The trio also sparkled in “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” as Gleason taffy-pulled the tempo and Lawrence and Sweeney kept right up. “The Man with the Bag” (yeah, you got it) swung 1950s style, while “Dig that Crazy Santa Claus” bopped with beatnik flair.

The horn players got out to play: especially Patneaude in his zippy romp through the Coltrane-esque“Sleigh Ride,” Pasin in his arraignment of “We Three Kings” and an elegant muted solo in “Winter Wonderland” and O’Shea in the jaunty cha-cha “Feliz Navidad.” And they got to close the show by second-line parading off-stage at the end.

This was NOT your choir director’s holiday show – not that there’s anything wrong with THAT – but it was something special: smart, sharp, silly and all kinds of sweet.

Setlist

Christmas Is Coming

Skating

Christmastime Is Here

Jingle Bells Mambo

The Grinch Theme

Winter Wonderland > Let it Snow

Santa Baby

Sleigh Ride

Feliz Navidad

We Three Kings

Twelve Days of Christmas

O Holy Night

O Tannenbaum

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 

Man With The Bag

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel

Hark The Herald Angels Sing

Dig That Crazy Santa Claus

Linus and Lucy

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Mike Lawrence

Pete Sweeney

Hannah Amigo

Brian Patneaude

Chris Pasin, right, foreground; Mike Lawrence, left, background

Ben O’Shea

Mike McCord

David Gleason

Just as solstice celebrations pre-date Christmas*, the Eighth Step’s venerable Sing Solstice! predates most other area seasonal celebrations. Since 1996, the two duos Kim & Reggie Harris and Magpie (Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner) have celebrated Sing Solstice! at the Eighth Step, originally in its first home in Albany’s First Presbyterian Church. On Sunday, they sing together in the Eighth Step at Proctors GE Theater (432 State St., Schenectady).

Kim and Reggie Harris, left, with Magpie; Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino. Photo supplied

All have been Eighth Step favorites for decades; Leonino playing harmonica, guitar and dulcimer; Reggie Harris and Artzner playing guitar and Kim Harris playing percussion. All four sing, as duos, or all together.

Sing Solstice! celebrates renewal and kinship in the turning of the seasons. Over the centuries winter solstice celebrations came to include Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa & more around the world. All celebrate the lengthening of days and sunlight’s return with the promise of spring, and most of them have produced celebratory songs.

Kim & Reggie Harris sing in the musical language of blues, Gospel and folk traditions, first performing in Philadelphia churches and schools where they sang to educate and to inspire. They’ve recorded many albums, including several with Magpie.

Inspired by the same traditions and activist spirit, Magpie makes music with meaning as well as melody, recording a dozen-plus albums that shine clear, true light on our political, social and cultural history.

As they have for years, the Pokingbrook Morris Dancers also perform Sunday, opening Sing Solstice! in costumes and steps of England’s Cotswold region. 

Show time is 7:30 p.m., doors 7. $26 advance, $28 at the door; $45 gold circle (two front rows, center). www.8thstep.org 518-346-6204. Free parking in the Broadway garage.

• Solstice celebrations may have begun around a neolithic monument built about 3,200 BC in Newgrange, Ireland. It’s aligned with the winter solstice sunrise when rising sun light illuminates carvings on an inside wall for 17 minutes. Stonehenge, identically aligned, was built about 200 years later. 

• The Catholic Church in Rome began celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 in 336 AD, the reign of Emperor Constantine.

They’ve got it down! The 15th edition of “It’s a Jazz Christmas” brings top area jazz talents to Universal Preservation Hall Friday, Dec. 20 and Proctors GE Theater Saturday, Dec, 21.

This well-loved holiday musical favorite features the same cast of musicians and others as last year, including horns, a singer and a genial host. These join the original trio version of the jazzy holiday celebration Gleason first cooked up around pianist-composer Vince Guaraldi’s music for Peanuts holiday specials.

David Gleason. All photos supplied.

Gleason and then-chief of the Massry Center at the College of St. Rose Sal Prizio presented the first area Guaraldi-based holiday show, “…wrapped in the guise of a live old time radio show,” as Gleason has explained, a format that has endured.

Over time, as he explained, Gleason added musical and spoken elements to his long-running Art D’Echo trio of bassist Mike Lawrence and drummer Pete Sweeney. Trumpeter Chris Pasin, reeds player Brian Patneaude and trombonist Ben O’Shea joined the line-up, plus singer Hannah Amigo and Mike McCord as the show’s radio host, expanding on Prizio’s original script.

Art D’Echo Trio, from left, Mike Lawrence, bass; David Gleason, keyboards; and Pete Sweeney, drums

“Like most young musicians, I poked around at Christmas music every December,” Gleason has explained. He mastered “Jingle Bells” on his own before lessons brought additional holiday classics including “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – now a vocal/piano duet in “It’s a Jazzy Christmas” – into his repertoire. 

Gleason suggested when we spoke about last year’s edition of this annual favorite, that this is more than just “jazzy,” like the adjective. It’s essential. He said, “It’s actual jazz…with plenty of room to stretch out.” He said, “We have full choruses of improvised solos, and each of the horn players has a feature.” Those features draw inspiration from jazz greats. They play a John Coltrane-style version of “We Three Kings,” for example, that trumpeter Chris Pasin arranged. Pasin is also a composer and arranger of note, a respected bandleader and valued sideman in his own right. So are all these players; they perform in and/or lead various ensembles.

The “It’s a Jazzy Christmas” horns, from left, Brian Patneaude, saxophone and bass clarinet; Chris Pasin, trumpet; and Ben O’Shea, trombone

Gleason began the project by adapting Guaraldi’s tunes to the Art D’Echo trio’s style, but soon arranged “Hark The Herald Angels Sing” into Oscar Peterson’s prolific attack. Also early on, he made a rhapsody of “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel;” so, in this way, familiar tunes evolve. Now, “Jingle Bells” is a mambo and “The Grinch” theme a low rumble. 

“Each year we add something new,” said Gleason last year. 

This year, he promises, “Lots of Vince Guaraldi ‘Peanuts’ holiday tunes and my arrangements of classic holiday tunes.” He said, “There’ll be a few new things added since last year, but a lot of it is the same.” Gleason noted, “We are trying to do little things to change the show each year, but it’s essentially close to the same each year. The audience seems to like a little bit of both!”

In fact, the audience likes it in droves: Tickets are selling briskly for both shows. 

The Proctors Collaborative presents “It’s a Jazz Christmas” Friday at Universal Preservation Hall (25 Washington St., Saratoga Springs) and Saturday at Proctors GE Theater (432 State St., Schenectady). Show time for both: 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $35 adults, $15 for children 17 and under. Box office: 518-346-6204.

PREVIEW – Tatiana Eva-Marie Sings 30s-40s French Gypsy Jazz at Caffe Lena Thursday

“Gypsy jazz” singer Tatiana Eva Marie arrives at Caffe Lena (47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs) Thursday as an import with impeccable pedigree, a supple voice, warm onstage charm and a crackerjack band. 

Daughter of a Swiss-French composer father and Romanian violinist mother, she was born in Switzerland and raised there and in France. She came to New York and soon formed her Avalon Jazz Band, fine-tuning it to the agile, light-footed zip of classic Gypsy Jazz ala its inventors guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grapelli. 

Her violinist Gabe Terracciano also plays with the Turtle Island String Quartet including a summer show at SPAC’s recent jazz festival with Terence Blanchard’s expanded young band. Wallace Stelzer plays bass and Max O’Rourke plays guitar, sharing solo time with Terracciano.

Always ambitious, Eva Marie wrote the libretto for Swiss composer Gerard Massini’s opera “Eden Park,” and her latest album (of 10 since 2016) “Djangology” features lyrics she wrote for Reinhardt’s songs. Inspired by the Renaissance artist tradition, she earned a Master’s in medieval literature at the Sorbonne, and she designed the artwork for “Djangology.” She starred in Gerome Barry’s first feature film “Swing Rendezvous” based on her life in New York. And she is already performing live the songs for her next album – of songs from Disney films, sung in French. 

Highly telegenic, like the young Maria Muldaur, Eva-Marie’s YouTube videos have generated 80 million views.

Thursday marks her first Caffe Lena performance. Elsewhere, she’s earned rapturous reviews.

The New York Times dubbed her “The gypsy-jazz warbler.”

Downbeat noted, “Tatiana Eva-Marie and her Avalon Jazz Band explored the connection between Paris and New Orleans,” where the Gambit Weekly “Best of New Orleans” praised her this way: “The soft tones and playful energy vocalist Tatiana Eva-Marie employs while tackling the hot jazz styles of the 1930s and 1940s has earned her plenty of accolades both nationally and in her adopted hometown of New York City, where the Avalon Jazz Band is becoming a staple of a thriving Gypsy jazz scene.”

And New York’s Village Voice reported she and her Avalon Jazz Band  “…continue in the beloved steps of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, but with a contemporary and delightful American twist.”

Their Caffe Lena debut Thursday is presented as part of the Jazz at Caffe Lena collection and The Bright Series, thanks to Kevin and Claudia Bright.

7 p.m. Tickets $34.71, members $30.37, students and children $17.90; plus modest fees. 518-583-0022 www.caffelena.org

REVIEW: Bill Frisell Trio at The Egg Swyer Theatre, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024

Bill Frisell Trio – From left: Luke Bergman, bass; Frisell, guitar; Rudy Royston, drums

“Dude, that was the longest song I’ve ever heard,” an awed fan told guitarist Bill Frisell after a recent solo show. Saturday’s seamless trio reverie at The Egg’s Swyer Theatre clocked 95 minutes. Apart from a pause between the set-closing “What the World Needs Now (Is Love Sweet Love)“ and the encore “You Only Live Twice,” they never stopped. 

The setlist that sound engineer Kevin gave me listed 11 songs, but things flowed in an unbroken sweep of improvisation. (Note they swapped “What the World Needs” with “You Only Live 2x.”) What could maybe have been identified as separate songs felt like one piece; chapters in a novel, maybe, or a conversation among friends.

Frisell’s friends – that’s how he introduced them – were drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Luke Bergman, the latter in for regular Thomas Morgan. Kevin said this substitution warranted a set-list; Frisell usually doesn’t map his shows but instead expects bandmates to figure it out on the fly, as he told the TU’s astute R.J. DeLuke: “When we play, we’re just doing it all together.”

Hats off to Bergman for getting up to speed fast, joining the intuitive closeness Frisell and Royston have built. This was the sound of three minds thinking, moving six hands (and Royston’s feet) through a dance. Taking a bow afterward, Frisell noted he and Bergman wore identical shoes, wryly complaining about Royston’s different footwear.

Saturday’s sweeping suite evolved in linked episodes; first as a sound, then a song, then a groove. Frisell gradually mutated one melody into another via a new guitar phrase, beat or tone amid the ongoing one, like painting graffiti on a moving train. He never had to cue anybody, but Bergman recognized something new and shuffled his charts to stay current. Frisell smiled when Royston or Bergman responded in a way he liked, or tossed him something new to incorporate, turn inside out or upside down or simply hand back.

Their kinetic fluency was breathtaking to watch; their variety, spell-binding.

Royston often played the melody on his drums, hitting exactly on a Frisell guitar note; but he never neglected the push, the meter. His kick-drum alone would have given the trio all the rhythm it needed. 

Most often, they made meditative mood music, but they rock-and-rolled, flew to the Caribbean, Iberia, west Africa, the Mississippi Delta and strolled into city blues bars or jazz clubs. They made a precise minuet, a dreamy ballad, a back-alley brawl, a classy cotillion, a rock and roll explosion spawned by shared restlessness. And there were quotes all over the place, complicating any Name That Tune try. “What Is This Thing Called Love” popped up in an airy groove, then “Autumn In New York” turned things bluesy.

Solid as Gibraltar or wispy as a mist, transitions felt elastic; you knew something fresh was coming, but the new flavor often came in subtly. 

After this all original roller coaster, style shuffle with world-music spin-the-globe accents, Frisell moved into the familiar. This followed early mentor Sonny Rollins’s improvising with “music from his childhood…what he was hearing on the street…saw in a movie or whatever was going on around him,” as Frisell told R.J. DeLuke.

“What The World Needs Now (Is Love, Sweet Love)” formed organically, like everything else, from clouds of sound the three wove in the long jam. In fact, it grew from noisy eddies of a brusque looped-guitar scream-fest. Offering straight readings of its yearning melody, they then pumped fresh jazz freedom into the 60s hit. 

Returning to encore, they stayed with the familiar, gradually forming the James Bond theme “You Only Live Twice” out of the silence, then running the changes.

Fans looked at each other: “I KNOW this, but what IS it?”

Another Frisell song, or part of Frisell’s long song.

For the longest song you might ever hear, Frisell leads his trio (Royston and regular Thomas Morgan) tonight at the Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock; then he plays Bombyx in Northampton in February with an expanded band. To Royston and Morgan he adds strings: violist Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts and violinist Jenny Scheinman, recently heard at Caffe Lena with folksinger Robbie Fulks. 

NERD NOTES: A floor-level mic faced Royston’s kick drum, with two mics on stands behind him, one over each shoulder, facing forward. This delivered a full, clean sound from his snare, floor tom, two rack toms, hi-hat and three cymbals. Frisell flat-picked a Creston Sunburst Custom, using foot pedals sparingly for looping, sustain, fuzz-tone and other effects. He’d loop an electronic ostinato and solo on top. Bergman’s hollow-body Harmony bass guitar recalled the similar Gibsons Jack Casady (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna) has played for decades; picking with his thumb, like Casady does. But Bergman’s sparse, beautifully-placed notes resembled the late great Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead).

A kind reader corrected my originally erroneous naming of Frisell’s guitar. This reference is correct.

REVIEW: Life is a Carnival: The Last Waltz Tour ’24

The Rolls-Royce of tribute bands, the Last Waltz tour (this edition branded “Life is a Carnival”) jukeboxed classic songs of The Band and more on Proctors Main Stage Thursday, bringing nostalgic warmth, right-now immediacy and confident punch.

Three times as big as The Band (or most cover bands), they made a massive sound. Stacked with stars who blended respect for The Band with honed skills, the revue felt more rocking than reverent, packing some modern touches.

At one extreme, former Heartbreaker Mike Campbell’s guitar faithfully emulated the pinched treble tones and oblique phrasing of The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson at times; also Eric Clapton’s bluesy attack in “Further On Up the Road,” which Clapton played in “The Last Waltz.” At the other, jazzy keyboardist John Medeski jammed glorious noise and churchy fervor all his own into “Chest Fever,” signature song of Garth Hudson, now the only surviving member of The Band.

Performers’ talents balanced well; everybody got at least one solo except bassist-bandleader Don Was. But for all the fire in voices and guitars up front, steady locked-in beats by Was and drummer Terence Higgins firmly supported everything. Benmont Tench (Campbell’s band-mate in Petty’s Heartbreakers and at Proctors Thursday) and Medeski also played right in the pocket support, plus some solos, sometimes sounding like The Band’s organist Garth Hudson and pianist Richard Manuel. 

The Last Waltz surveyed The Band’s songbook and showcased musical pals; but some tunes Thursday came from outside The Last Waltz songbook; see below. Campbell sang Tom Petty’s “The Best of Everything,” then Ryan Bingham sang Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City.”

Jamey Johnson and Bingham sang most leads, Johnson’s powerhouse baritone edged with Delta accent like Helm’s; Bingham, agile, expressive. 

Johnson sang the jaunty “Up on Cripple Creek” strongly to start, Medeski’s percussive clavinet  chiming funky.

The four Levee Horns joined Bingham to gang up on the breezy ironic lament “The Shape I’m In,” Campbell using wah-wah pedal to punch up his solo. Playing on almost everything thereafter and guided by New Orleans deity Allen Toussaint’s arranging style, the horns either grabbed the spotlight or jumped into songs’ creases to comment, add heft and texture.

Who knew “Georgia On My Mind” needed a booming Sousaphone solo?

Campbell praised Robertson’s songwriting before noting Bob Dylan and The Band bassist Rick Danko wrote “Wheels On Fire,” not Robertson; he sang it himself, Shannon McNally in harmony.

Who knew “Georgia On My Mind” needed a booming Sousaphone solo? Matt Perrine, that’s who, following in surprising-for-a-big-horn grace along Johnson’s most soulful vocal of the night. No, wait, that was maybe in the deeply poignant “It Makes No Difference” right after “Georgia.”

Singer Dave Malone harmonized on “Difference” and stayed at the mic as Cyril Neville came on to lead the uptempo “Mystery Train” and “Down South In New Orleans.” “Train” built slowly until the horns punched it up. Both Malone (the Radiators) and Neville (with his brothers and uptown funk bands) are from New Orleans; so are the Levee horns whose leader Mark Mullins’s trombone solo pushed “Down South” into overdrive. Malone and Neville repeated this Crescent City one-two in the second set: Dr. John’s “Such a Night” and Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” back to back.

“…like a bunch of cool, wacky things going on at the same time.”

Richly poignant mid-tempo tunes put a thoughtful spin on the first set; especially McNally in the dirge “Long Black Veil” and Bingham in “Atlantic City” before they lifted the mood in uptempo The Band faves “W.S. Walcott’s Medicine Show” and “Life is a Carnival.” As Mullins promised in an interview last week (See “Eternal Songs By The Band, Fresh Players and Singers” on this site) Carnival” rolled “like a bunch of cool, wacky things going on at the same time.”

Ward Smith’s baritone sax beautifully supported “King Harvest,” featuring a good Johnson vocal; then Johnson moaned all the lost-cause melancholy of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” before the break.

After Medeski’s keyboard anarchy lit up “Chest Fever” to start the second set, Campbell name-checked fellow former Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, across the stage at the piano, noted Tom Petty wrote it, then sang it himself in a high Petty-like voice and uncorked a dazzling solo. Like “Atlantic City,”which Levon Helm claimed in his post-Band career,  it’s The Band-adjacent: Robbie Robertson played on the record.

Like the first set, the second built on strong architecture of mood and tempo, easing from mid-tempo cruises – McNally was aces in “Evangeline” and Malone sang a pretty good Van Morrison echo in “Caravan” – into a valley of lush slower ballads with irresistible emotion. 

Mid-set rockers brought big fun. Keyboards and horns charged up “Rag Mama Rag” behind Johnson’s punchy vocal, Bingham gave “Look Out Cleveland” a playful swing and Campbell went all Clapton in “Further On Up the Road.”

Comparing Thursday’s versions of The Band songs with the originals is tempting nonsense.

Seriously vulnerable classics “Helpless” and “Forever Young” bookended peppy New Orleans-romps “Such a Night” and “Who Do You Love” by Malone and Neville. Everybody wanted to sing “The Weight,” so everybody did. Then the yearning “I Shall Be Released” closed before “Don’t Do it” hit as upbeat encore.

Most songs brought joyful shouts of recognition from the happy, boomers crowd. 

Comparing Thursday’s versions of The Band songs with the originals is tempting nonsense. But this band gave the songs their due by giving deeply of themselves, with smiles onstage and off.

The calm ease of The Band’s playing – Mullins told me it’s harder than it sounds – may set a lower bar than the singing, especially for veteran players with long experience together. The Levee Horns, for example, are all New Orleanians and Mullins and Perrine play together in Bonerama, while Campbell and Tench played for decades in Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers and Don Was plays with everybody. The Band also comprised fantastic singers Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel whose varying vocal sounds gave the songs matchless atmosphere and emotion. These voices always hit the note, as the Allman Brothers used to say, especially the extra-busy Johnson.

 Life is a Carnival: The Last Waltz Tour ’24: Jamey Johnson, Ryan Bingham and Dave Malone, guitars and vocals; Cyril Neville, percussion and vocals; Shannon McNally, vocals; Benmont Tench and John Medeski, keyboards; Terence Higgins, drums; Don Was, bass and leader; Mark Mullins, trombone and Levee Horns leader; Matt Perrine, Sousaphone and euphonium; Ward Smith, saxophones; and Bobby Campo, trumpet and flugelhorn.

A helpful fan let me photograph the set-list (first set) he got from a roadie onstage. A crew member verified the second set songs for me.

The Songs, and Who Sang Them

First set, 7:34 – 8:34 p.m.

Up on Cripple Creek Jamey Johnson

The Shape I’m In Ryan Bingham

This Wheel’s On Fire Mike Campbell

Georgia on My Mind** Jamey J.

It Makes No Difference Jamey J., Ryan B., Dave Malone

Mystery Train Dave Malone, Cyril Neville

Down South in New Orleans Dave M., Cyril N.

Long Black Veil* Shannon McNally

Atlantic City* Ryan B.

W.S. Walcott’s Medicine Show Jamey J.

Life is a Carnival Jamey J., Shannon McN.

King Harvest Jamey J., Ryan B.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Jamey J.

Down

Second set, 9:10 – 10:42 p.m.

Chest Fever Jamey J., Ryan B., Dave M.

Best of Everything* Mike C., Shannon McN.

Ophelia Ryan B.

Evangeline*** Shannon McN.

Caravan Dave M.

Twilight* Ryan B.

Rag Mama Rag Jamey J.

Look Out Cleveland* Ryan B.

Further On Up the Road Mike C.

Helpless Jamey J.

Such A Night Dave M., Cyril N.

Who Do You Love Dave M., Cyril N.

Forever Young Ryan B.

The Weight Everybody

I Shall Be Released Jamey J., Ryan B., Mike C.

Don’t Do It Jamey J.

• Not in “The Last Waltz” film or various versions of its soundtrack albums

** In the show but in neither the film nor recordings

*** Not in “The Last Waltz” show but in the film and recordings

Less is more for both jazz masters playing The Egg this weekend; guitarist Bill Frisell Saturday and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim Sunday. 

Both play with sparse, atmospheric restraint. Both are also busily prolific, and both play solo and with ensembles ranging from duos and trios to orchestras. 

Bill Frisell. Photo by Peter Van Breukelen / Getty / The New Yorker

On Saturday, Frisell leads his trio of bassist Luke Bergman and longtime drummer Rudy Royston; just one of his several active bands. 

He’s made 40-plus albums since 1983, earning six Grammy nominations with one win. They’ve appeared on a dozen-plus different labels, sure sign of a restlessly creative spirit. Fearlessly rummaging among bands, styles and traditions, he’s nonetheless consistent in his elegantly understated playing, likely influenced by early training on clarinet in his main hometown of Denver. You can almost hear the breaths in his phrasing, like a winds player, just as you can hear straight-ahead jazz, bluegrass and even psychedelic tones and structures.

Co-starring with fellow explorer John Zorn on New York’s combustible downtown scene, Frisell has recorded and performed in more or less traditional trios with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones (2001) and Ron Carter and Paul Motian (2006). By then he had already started intrepidly jumping around.

“Have a Little Faith In Me” (1992) celebrates John Hiatt (the title track) and other modern pop and rock songwriters.

“Disfarmer” (2008) forms the soundtrack for photos by the obscure outsider artist Mike Disfarmer, stark and simple images, like Frisell’s guitar. Two 1995 albums collect music for Buster Keaton films, and “Hunter S. Thompson – The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved” (2012) takes its iconoclastic attitude from the gonzo journalist.

“Lagrimas Mexicanas” (2011) with singer Vinicius Cantuaria takes a beautifully rhapsodic journey into south of the border melancholy with vocals in Spanish. And, in that same year, Frisell released a sweet Beatles tribute “All We Are Saying” with one of his best bands: violinist Jenny Scheinman, bassist Tony Scherr, drummer Kenny Wollesen and Greg Leisz playing guitar and pedal steel.

Frisell pioneered what’s come to be known as Americana, arguably one of its first practitioners: “Nashville” hit in 1997. 

Frisell’s latest release, the two-CD “Orchestras,” features the 60-piece Brussels Philharmonic. 

And, as if that somehow weren’t variety enough he’s released 22 albums as downloads, mostly of live performances; plus four compilations; 19 collaborations with Paul Motion and Joe Lovano, 13 with John Zorn, nine with Naked City, eight with the Gnostic Trio; seven with Julian Lage and Gyan Riley and 22 one-off collaborations and dozens of shorter guest appearances.

Meanwhile, his “Unspeakable” (2005) won the Grammy as Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

And the thing, the big thing, is: you can tell it’s Frisell playing after about two notes.

The Bill Frisell Trio plays The Egg Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $49.50 and $39.50. 518-473-1845 www.theegg.org.

Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim leads his trio at The Egg on Sunday; the Sandhi Trio opens.

Now 90 – Frisell is 73 – North African-born Ibrahim has released 72 albums and been hailed as a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master along with composer and big-band leader Maria Schneider, writer Stanley Crouch and singer pianist Bob Dorough.

A mixed-race “coloured” person under apartheid racist rules, Ibrahim is the son of a church pianist. Hymns were an early influence as he began playing in Capetown and Johannesburg with small bands including the Jazz Epistles who recorded the first-ever full-length jazz album by Black South Africans.

Abdullah Ibrahim. Photo by Dr. Minari Umari / Downbeat

Apartheid inspired a globe-trotting exile through Europe and the Americas, landing in Europe in 1962 and New York in 1965; he’s lived and worked in both places since, plus South Africa.

During his international musical wanderings, Ibrahim found a major mentor in Duke Ellington, arguably America’s greatest jazz hero after Louis Armstrong and a composer of both intimate and large-scale works. Then known as Dollar Brand, Ibrahim and singer-wife Sathima Bea Benjamin moved to New York in 1965, playing the Newport Jazz Festival and substituting for the ailing Ellington in five shows leading the Duke’s Orchestra. Studies at Juilliard and playing with such leading creative forces as John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp broadened Ibrahim’s power and ambition.

On a brief return to South Africa in 1968, Ibrahim converted to Islam, leaving his birth name behind. He returned to New York after the Soweto Uprising in 1976, founding his own record label Epaka and the band Ekaya while also composing music for film and television and launching the M7 music academy in Capetown after the apartheid ended. 

Ibrahim returned again to perform at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as their nation’s first-ever Black president in 1994. Mandela hailed Ibrahim as “our Mozart,” which seems entirely apt as the pianist’s ambitious “Mannenberg” (1974) had become an anti-apartheid anthem.

Like Frisell, Ibrahim has performed and recorded with groups large and small including drummer Max Roach and the Munich Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1990s. Also like Frisell, Ibrahim plays in a sparse but eloquent style instantly recognizable as his but also evoking his heroes Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Fats Waller. 

He has continued to perform solo and to lead Ekaya and other ensembles.

The Sandhi Trio opens for Ibrahim’s Trio, an ambitiously international group mixing West African and South Asian styles. The Sandi Trio comprises Malian kora master Yacouba Sissoko, South Indian violinist Arun Ramamurthy and a percussionist, likely Silk Road Ensemble percussionist Shane Shanahan.

Ramamurthy also curates the Resonance Series that explores musical connections with South Asia with other world musics and sponsors Sunday’s concert. The Michele L. Vennard Hospitality Grant Program of the Albany County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Fund (AKA Discover Albany), a fund of the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region finances the series, along with an Arts Thrive & Grow Grant of the Art Center of the Capital Region, funded by New York State.

Show time for Abdullah Ibrahim Trio and the Sandhi Trio is 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $55, $45. 

PREVIEW: LIFE IS A CARNIVAL: LAST WALTZ TOUR ’24 at Proctors Thursday

The eternal songs of The Band and Allen Toussaint’s horn charts meet onstage Thursday at Proctors in a Mississippi-mighty flow of sound and feeling.

Mark Mullins, the New Orleans trombonist and leader of Bonerama, leads the horn section in “Life Is a Carnival: Last Waltz Tour ’24,” latest iteration of an all-star tribute that’s celebrated The Band since 2016. Garth Hudson, sole surviving member of The Band, played with them at Albany’s Palace Theater in 2017 when guitarist-singer Warren Haynes and singer keyboardist Michael McDonald were featured players. Then as now Mullins runs the horns, speaking in Allen Toussaint’s very distinct arranging language.  

Mark Mullins. Kevin Stiffler photo

“I was always a huge Allen Toussaint fan,” Mullins said from the road last week, after the tour kicked off in Los Angeles with guests including Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and Trey Anastasio. 

“Being from New Orleans and knowing what Allen was and what he did for New Orleans music is immeasurable,” said Mullins. When he’d learned Toussaint wrote the horn charts for The Band’s live “Rock of Ages” album, he found them “brilliant,” deceptively complex. Learning to play them, he said, “It sounds simple…but then you realize how complex it is.” Mullins marveled, “It’s very complicated stuff but it doesn’t sound complicated. That’s the beauty of how Allen was able to write.”

Mullins said. “As a trombone player growing up in my teens, being in a school band I would still go home and listen to Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan and everybody that you were supposed to be listening to at that time.” (His band Bonerama released the hugely entertaining “Bonerama Plays Led Zeppelin” in 2019.) Mullins listened to New Orleans styles; but “I would always go back to the Bruce Springsteen records and play trombone along to Clarence Clemons’ saxophone solos or Pink Floyd albums that didn’t even have horns,” Mullins recalled.

He couldn’t remember when he first heard The Band. “Their stuff was sort of around forever…everywhere,” he said. “As I got into Bob Dylan and started learning more about who The Band was, then it was like, ‘Oh. There’s this whole other thing that started to blow me away.” While he played some of their songs in high school groups, learning their songs for the 2016 Last Waltz tour opened his ears. 

As he learned with Allen Toussaint’s horn arrangements, “complexity that sounds simple” describes The Band. When Trey Anastasio chose “Unfaithful Servant” for the recent tour kick off show, “Of course, Trey would pick the hardest song,” Mullins laughed, “so fragile and so delicate, quiet and exposed…probably my favorite Band song.” 

…a bunch of cool, wacky things going on at the same time…

“Life Is a Carnival” – title of the tour that hits Proctors Thursday – is another. “When you listen to it, you try to find where the downbeat is, where ‘one’ is,” said Mullins. “Its got a quirky cool intro, the way The Band has it, and then Allen (Toussaint’s horn section) comes in on top of it with this very cool layered, structured, unorthodox horn part. Almost everybody is playing something kind of different….the whole song sounds like a carnival…like a bunch of cool, wacky things going on at the same time. It really paints a picture. That’s one of my favorites to play every night.”

Playing every night with the all-star crew bassist Don Was assembled and leads “seems just infinite,” said Mullins. “There’s so many songs,” and they may change each night. 

“With the version that we’ve been doing on the tour, with Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench from the Heartbreakers and Ryan Bingham, Jamie Johnson – we’ve still brought some stuff in that we haven’t done on previous Last Waltz tours so that’s a really cool thing about this version of the group.”

“It’s a full-blown rock band with Mike Campbell up there,” said Mullins. Citing his guitar sound, Mullins said, “I’ve been hearing it on the radio since I was a kid on all those Heartbreakers hits. There it is right in front of us and it just sounds so great.” He said, “Ryan Bingham, I’m a huge fan already,” also praising Jamie Johnson who “brings the house down every night.” All the players share “the same mutual respect for The Band and (main songwriter) Robbie (Robertson) and the compositions and that really makes it special.”

New Orleans, in The House

Many also share New Orleans backgrounds with Toussaint: Mullins and the three other Levee Horns, singer-percussionist Cyril Neville, singer-guitarist Dave Malone (the Radiators) and drummer Terence Higgins. The Levee Horns are Mullins, trombone; his Bonerama bandmate Matt Perrine, Sousaphone and euphonium; Ward Smith, baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones and clarinet; and Bobby Campo, trumpet and flugelhorn.

The band also includes singers Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson and Shannon McNally, keyboardist John Medeski and leader and bassist Don Was, who also runs Blue Note Records and plays in the house band for the Americana Music Awards.

Mullins said, “Some of the songs we’ve been doing that just work so well – ‘The Shape I’m In,’ of course ‘The Weight,’ ‘I Shall Be Released’ – all the ones that you’d expect, and some of them change from night to night.”

Mullins also recognizes how important The Band’s fans are to the show.

“The audience is right there with it because the songs have such an emotional connection,” he said. “You see people crying, smiling and they’re standing up and they’ve just got this expression of joy on their faces.”

Show time: 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $219.50 – $40.50. www.proctors.org 518-346-6204

BONERAMA – Future File

Mark Mullins hopes to record new Bonerama music soon and looks to live shows.

“We have a really cool New Year’s Eve gig,” he announced, noting they seldom play that night. “We’re going to play in Jackson Square…with Tank and the Bangas…right in the heart of New Orleans to ring in 2025, so that’s going to be exciting.”

Bonerama also sets sail on The Big Easy Cruise, “a New Orleans-music-themed cruise,” Mullins explained. The week-long January run out of Fort Lauderdale features Trombone Shorty, Papa Gros and others, “a whole lot of really cool New Orleans acts. So we’re excited about that.”

As for Jazz Fest in New Orleans this spring, Mullins said, “Everyone thinks that we’re always going to be there, but I never take Jazz Fest for granted.” Noting the profusion of new young acts available (and laughing when I included the Rolling Stones among them), Mullins said, “I sure hope so, because it’s so much fun.”

Bonerama has played several area venues, graciously inviting young Schenectady trombonist (natch!) Alex Slomka to sit in at the Parish Public House in a 2017 Halloween show. Mullins is shown at left; Slomka, right.

Bonerama at the former Parish Public House, now Ophelia’s; Mullins is second from left