In lieu of JVC Jazz festivals

I was thrilled to hear the daringly improvisational but highly groovy electric bass lines of Maestro Melvin Gibbs undergird his Elevated Entity free at the Prospect Park bandshell in a Celebrate Brooklyn! concert last week. I heard good things there about the previous David Rudder performance (audience estimated as 80% Brooklyn's West Indian population) and the David Byrne show which opened the season ("27,000 people, the police didn't even have a report of anyone being sick" according to publicist Blake Zidell).  I partook of VIP seating privileges but the sight lines and sound were fine for everyone everywhere, including the lawns. Best of all was the music: this the peak Afro-Caribbean-rock-funk-jazz ensemble outings I've enjoyed in, oh, the past five years.

Guitarist Vernon Reid was inspired to launch two harmonically far-reaching solos that establish him once and for all as way past any of the more commercial idolized gtr gdz, riding out his own twists on the live-wire Hendrix/Mahavishnu line -- but he couldn't have done it without Gibbs' super-low fluid and propulsive bottom, the space-jam beds and fills provided by keyboardist Bernie Worrell, the solid in-the-pocket drummer of J.T. Lewis and an Afro-Latin percussionist. Amayo, a loose-limbed cheerleader-type singer with dramatically painted face (best known with the Brooklyn band Antibalas) served as front man, with a guest rapper on two early tunes, and he was fine, but it was the instrumental work that raised this set to its heights, well above the levels of complexity and instantaneous engagement that headliner Fema Kuti attained with his big touring Afro-pop show. This set didn't have the Brazilian nuances producer Arto Lindsay brought to Elevated Entity's excellent record Ancients Speak, which has a more extended cast. Just proving Elevated Entity is a concept, not a fixed act.  If all the Celebrate Brooklyn! shows are this good, why go elsewhere, farther? Check the series' complete summer schedule.

 

Also see the August dates for Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors -- I notice that Iraqi trumpeter Amir ElSaffar's Two Rivers Large is co-billed with pianist Dave Brubeck's band and guest oudist Simon Shaheen on Wed., Aug 5 at Damrosch Park bandshell, 7:30 pm, free. A steal at that price.