Wynton Marsalis

So Wynton Marsalis came to Grass Valley last night and played a concert here with his Jazz At Lincoln Center Band. They were very good. Possibly the best. No missed notes, lots of skill and talent and ability. It was expensive, $65 a ticket, and you had to buy your general admission 6 months ago to have a hope of getting in. They played for just less than 2 hours, and it was exquisite. I have seen Wynton Marsalis live. I can die happy and fulfilled.

He played a lot of Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, and a lot of obscure Jazz with the band, as well as "Its Not Easy Being Green" which is a Kermit The Frog tune. It is certainly strange living in a town rich enough to draw one of the greatest living jazz musicians. Part of that is Ted Nash, who is in the band, is from here. A few years ago, he convinced the band to detour here and play a concert, and found they could fill the Veterans Memorial Hall with paying customers, so it is now part of the regular schedule in their tour. Their sound engineer was very good too, because he subtly adjusted the mics on the different sections so you could hear what you're meant to hear in the arrangements. Big Band Jazz is arranged, rather than freeform. It is more like Classical Music in that respect, which is what Wynton Marsalis got famous for in the 1980's, when I first started listen to him.

The seats at the hall remain uncomfortable, since the place is actually an indoor basketball court with hard bench seats above and folding metal chairs below. They have other concerts there, and sometimes plays, and I imagine you could have a small convention of some kind. They want to bring in seat backs and pads so folks have somewhere more comfortable to sit, and I wish we'd brought pads to sit on, but we thought we'd get the better chairs by coming an hour early. Everybody else thought that too, so we ended up in line behind 300 people, and the comfy chairs were long gone. Oh well. Dad asked me if I recognized any friends and I had to say no, that I don't have any friends up here. I can't say that is sad, of course, because people only let you down if you trust them enough to give them a chance. And they mostly aren't worth it. Yet another reason to love books. Books are better than friends.

While we waited the hour between seating and the start of the concert, I read on my Electric Book (+2). Guards!Guards! is quite hilarious and I had to stifle my giggles as the story progressed. Later, during intermission, I read it some more. It really does fit into a larger shirt pocket. And its very easy to adjust the light so it doesn't glare. I'm still very pleased with it.