One of my friends brought out his new girl who had a tattoo of an elephant inside of a boa constrictor, which i think is sooooo cool - if you know what I’m talking about, youre awesome! If not, read The Little Prince and come over to the awesome side.

Anyways, Dinner House M was in a word, interesting. It is nothing really fancy but it is pretty apparent that the place exists to indulge the owner’s love for jazz and singing. Peep the painting of the owner in the photo. awesome!

The place got pretty packed as the night went on, and definitely hit capacity past 2am, when all of the normal clubs and bars close down. The mood is what you expect from a jazz lounge – cool and dotted with chill people. I’d come back again.

Cheers!

Tip: With a glass of regular water costing $6 each and $6-12 cover (depending upon where you sit), the bill can get out of control real quick! They do provide free food, but it isn’t that great. Neighborhood looks a bit sketchy at night, so have common sense.

 Link: Dinner House M

Though we could only make it out for Sunday, we were still able to experience a good, eclectic lineup.

Here are some of the highlights:

We parked across the street in Lot D.

Though the poor car was subjected to “stacked parking,” we were still able to beat the crowd and leave right away. woohooo! When we came out, there was no one parked next to me =)

JS sipping iced coffee… ready for some Jazz. She was all about the Wayne Shorter Quartet.

This was the view from our seats. Not bad considering these tickets were bought pretty late.

We were in section M2, right behind the “Super Seats.”

some of the picnic food we brought: 4 kinds of cheeses (cheddar, jack, havarati, and brie) expertly cut by yours truly… served with sliced baguette and strawberries…  washed down with some Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut.

Bill Cosby (in some of the festival merchandise and sweat pants) mc-ing the event. I hate to say it but he wasn’t really good at hosting the festival. He did have a couple of jokes, but he was pretty inconsistent at introducing the acts. Oh well.

The set played by Monty Alexander’s Jazz and Roots was my favorite of the festival. From Jamaica, they masterfully fused jazz and reggae beats.

Here is a clip of the band performing Bob Marley hit, No Woman, No Cry.

Here is a much-better YouTube video of the group doing their thing… Aren’t they awesome?!

As the sun went down, the lights came out…

Apparently, Kenny G was the headline (JS’ favorite..kidding) and ended the festival. I thought his entire performance was rather cheesy. However, he did do the thing where he held a note for what seemed like an eternity; that was kind of cool.

Overall, it was really fun, and next time, I will definitely have to purchase seats much earlier.

Cheers!

Link:
31st annual Playboy Jazz Festival

All Things Considered, April 7, 2009 – Jazz pianist Marcus Roberts has experienced plenty of success in his career. He was invited to tour with Wynton Marsalis at age 21. In 1989, he began releasing solo albums, and his first three went straight to the top of the jazz charts.

For the past five years, he’s added teaching at Florida State University to his busy schedule. But Roberts is also a student of jazz history. He’s known for taking famous jazz compositions and updating them with his own style.

“It’s important, I believe, to be able to explain clearly to people what you do, why you love doing it and why they should care about it,” he says.

His latest album is New Orleans Meets Harlem, Vol. 1, and it traces the history of jazz from the Crescent City to New York. Roberts dropped by NPR’s Studio 4A to demonstrate on the piano as he spoke with Michele Norris. He began by exhibiting the early Jelly Roll Morton tune “New Orleans Blues” as the composer might have played it — and then as Roberts adorns it himself.

“Yeah, that’s the beauty of jazz music, is that we’re able to manipulate and change the original version of something,” Roberts says. “But our goal is always to keep intact the underpinning of it. We don’t want to change the general intent.”

On The ‘Reconciliation Of Differences’

For Roberts, jazz merges differing styles and the communities that fostered them. He agrees with Norris’ suggestion that jazz and blues are meetings of both city and country.

“It is a music that is not concerned with just the aristocratic values, or the ‘lower-end attitudes,’ ” he says. “It’s really about the coming together of seemingly opposing things. So that tension that syncopation in rhythm, and melody and blues timbre creates is really the essence of our whole culture struggle. It’s the reconciliation of differences.”

On New Orleans Meets Harlem, Roberts’ trio (with Roland Guerin on bass and Jason Marsalis on drums) takes on “Jitterbug Waltz,” by Harlem stride master Fats Waller. The group’s relaxed, legato interpretation sounds little like Waller’s, though.

“Well, when we play, we’re always interested in playing the history of jazz all the time,” Roberts says. “Whatever we need to express the song or the mood we’re creating. So we need the history of our culture for inspiration when we improvise.”

The Maestro And The Modern

Roberts’ trio also recorded Duke Ellington‘s “Pie Eye’s Blues” for its new disc. While Ellington came of musical age during the height of Harlem stride piano’s popularity, Roberts notes that Ellington filtered many different styles into his music.

“He could take you from the depths, or to the heights, in less than one measure,” he says. “You could tell that he wanted his music to capture the full range of emotion and passion, dignity, sophistication, raunchiness, everything. He wanted all of that to be reflected in his music.”

Chronologically, the most modern composer featured on the new album is Thelonious Monk. Roberts demonstrated some particularly Monkish rhythms and harmonies on the Studio 4A piano.

“I think [Monk's] big contribution was just the modern thinking and the intellect behind his approach,” Roberts says. “But yet it has such an earthiness at the root of it.”

And in closing, Roberts plays a stride-piano take on Monk’s “In Walked Bud.”

Youtube video of Marcus Roberts.

Link: Marcus Roberts: Playing the History of Jazz, NPR 4/7/09.