1st Day of Summer: A "Brown Bag" Wine Tasting at Java Monkey with TAAG + 2

It was a nice warm evening, not too sticky just yet;  perfect for another round of neo-mainstream jazz with The Adrian Ash Group holding court on the Java Monkey patio stages.  Nice work if you can get it, indeed! Days like this, the day after the summer solstice, are certainly inspirational.  With the wine tasting being a brown bag affair, what you see is what you get!  That's what we offered as well;  Adrian and I were joined by the guitar wizard Randy Honea and saxophonist William Hollifield.  On this occasion, the results were bold and forward-thinking, yet surprisingly straight ahead.

I hadn't met William before.  He's a tenor terror, no doubt - gotta check him out if (when) you get the chance.  He knew everything we called and more.  Highlights included a terrifically straight-ahead All the Things You Are.  It's funny how on that tune, no matter who I'm with, we want to trade fours after the solos.  With it's slightly odd form, the bars turn themselves around and then the drummer is playing over the first four measures on the second go-round.  I always find that a bit unsettling, but we usually just keep on going.  In this case, we let Adrian continue alone the second time through.  William had a great, warm tone and an adventurous melodic sense;  never straying too far from the tonal barrier that outlines our mission: presenting jazz to the great unwashed and unsuspecting masses of Decatur.  He even quoted me (my puny phrase was echoed back to me - that's about the coolest thing that's happened to me since the last time somebody quoted my lonesome lick!) - no mean feat, I was slow and steady, with not much in intentional "outsidedness" going on.  It was surprising that he did it, at any rate.  These young lions with their big ears!  His set-ups of the tunes were a great lesson in composition;  wonderful miniature exercises in coyness around the melody and playful jabs at the harmonic heart of the piece.  Yeah, that's it!

Randy - I'm always trying to figure out what he's playing and how he's doing it!  I think I overheard William posing the question of "Metheny or Scofield?" to Randy, which his reply was "Scofield."  Perhaps "Sco" with a twist of "Frisell" for added zest.  He gets this shimmering Leslie rotating speaker kind of patch with his vintage Line 6 Pod setup that keeps the comping tight yet washes over all of the upper partials until we're ready to come back down to earth for the restating of the head.  It's a beautiful sound to check out..  I want to be him when I grow up!  Adrian keeps our energy going throughout, calling the tunes and pushing me to stay on the front of the beat.  He has chops galore, and a strong sense of forward momentum.  I always wonder what he's thinking, as he is a bassist.  His solos build in such a logical fashion.  A great benefit to be able to play another instrument (or 2 or 3, actually).

Another tune that we don't play enough but was a stellar call: Equinox - how appropriate, and I didn't even put it together that we had just experienced the solstice.  How come nobody, I mean nobody, wants to play it in C#m?  Well, I get it.  It's a weird key.  That was indeed the key that Trane wrote it in.  He wasn't afraid, was he?  I mean, Giant Steps is in B (or is it Eb?).  Like Red Clay being in C#m also.  It's all the Real Book's fault, I tell you!  Aside from my silly concerns, it was a fine moment where we met with the crowd for a fertile celebration of modal minor blues.  Nobody was harmed during our gig.  Even the policeman coming through didn't give us any flak - noise ordinances only occur when there is noise!