The Exocore gang decided to go for the Lord of the Rings night show. Since I wasn’t interested, I lapped up Mrinal‘s invitation to join him to see a Jazz concert by the Hans Mantel Quartet.
Since that was in the evening, I decided to go home early and catch some Zzzzs, but I spent most of the afternoon jamming at top volume. I have been doing experiments with song pitches that vary during the day, and sure enough my day-pitch is markedly different from my evening pitch. Strange.
Towards late afternoon, hit the sack for a while. Mrinal came in the evening to pick me up (my car was booked by the LOTR-going gang). We jammed for a while, then headed off to town to see the concert.
Reached there to find most of Mrinal’s gang there as well (including Phenom and their talented and lovely singer Noella).
I was surprised – I can understand Mrinal being interested in Jazz, but to find his whole gang there shows that there is still hope that the distortion-pedals will not take over the planet anytime soon 
.
But on the other hand, they had some over-the-hill ex-collegiate (who didn’t know which world he belongs to) with them. Hmmmm, maybe I have reason to be worried yet…..
The concert was marvellous, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. They played 11 numbers, including some timeless Duke Ellington classics, and the performance was flawless. Hans provided lucid and humour-riddled commentary between numbers, heaping tons of praise on Bangalore and Bangaloreans, which went down rather well. And then they played an own composition called “Bangalore Blues”, and the crowd was theirs.
When they played “Donna Lee”, the crowd went nuts, and rightly so, but for me the highlight was a number called “Terrestres” (sp?). The drummer (Wim Kegel) set a blinding pace with his rimshot drumming, and the other three clearly had a ball.
Wow!
I have never been a major Jazz fan (I listen, but I tend to be more inclined to listen to Louis Armstrong for his lyrics and gravelly voice rather than the fact that it is jazz), but I sure saw the light today.
For the record, here is the set they played (please excuse the names and/or spellings):
- I hear a Rhapsody
- Old Folks
- Donna Lee
- Gone with the Wind
- Terrestres
- Lotus Blossom/Chelsey Bridge (medley)
- Stellar by Starlight
- Bangalore Blues
- Caravan
- Bye Bye Blackbird (encore)
After the concert, we mingled outside, where I got to see the fabled Durga (the drummer from Cryptic) – sadly not to speak to her.
Ah well, no harm done it appears – he did promise to drop in tomorrow and jam a while. I suspect that it will be less “Layla” and more “Take 5″
Minor panic when Mrinal realised that the car keys were missing – luckily, they were located quickly.
Got home to an empty house – and my car parked outside the door! What the hell! First I had to give it up, and then they didn’t even use it? I could have travelled in airconditioned comfort with my great stereo system! Bah!
BTW, for the record – Bangalore traffic sucks!
Watched some TV, got caught up watching “Blade” (Wesley Snipes) on HBO. Ugh! And to think that in the bargain I missed ST:Voyager yet again!
Checked email – found some more “I hate you” mail waiting for me – this time from some GNU-heads who weren’t amused with my article.
As I said on the Goa mailing list yesterday – I am *not* willing to defend this clarification (even if RMS would challenge it), because I have learned over the years that some topics are really futile to discuss. This is one of them – the reason being that it represents a clash between facts and ideology, and the two do *not* make good debate participants.
To end the week on a “jazzy” note (and as a retort to someone :
I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself:
What a wonderful world!
Yes, I think to myself:
What a wonderful world!
–What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong)