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Well , went to the Blue Note for the last night of Chick's month-long birthday extravaganza . What better way to cap off an incredible month of 48 shows than with the original Elektric Band.
It was pretty much balls -to-the -wall fusion , and I couldn't have asked for more. Though I"m not as familiar with this music as I should be, I still enjoyed it tremendously. The first set was a hi-energy affair with one ballad but the second set was just blistering !
They didn't mention most of the song titles but the last two songs of the first set were Johnny's Landing and the encore was Got a Match.
Set two was introduced by actress Elisabeth Ross from the TV show Madmen who has known Chick since she was 5 years old and appeared with the band onstage. She was the inspiration for Chick writing the song Eternal Child which they later played in the second set. Her father was Chick's original personal manager.
Another song they played this set was Blue Miles, which was a blues shuffle based on a Miles riff Chick appropriated and made into a song.
Then Chick brought up his wife Gayle Moran to sing a version of 500 miles high which they had also played at the RTF Unplugged show. Though the tempo was a lot faster than the RTF version , and again, the soloing was blistering.
At this point the club manager brought out a birthday cake for Chick and we all sang happy birthday to him and they served the cake to the members of the audience . Then Chick introduces rapper Doug E. Fresh in the audience and he gets up on the stage and starts doing a beat box thing . The band joins in and jams along with him. Then he makes up this birthday rap and does the usual "put your hands in the air " maneuver that every rapper seems to do. But he did really well at getting the audience into a call and response thing and his beat box jamming with Weckl was pretty cool. After he finished, Chick started trying to copy his beat box sounds which was pretty funny.
They closed again with Got a Match, which was the only song that was repeated .
The playing was superior - Dave Weckl was so fluid and perfect I was in awe ! this is truly one heckuva great band !!
And needless to say, they were all extremely nice and friendly with everyone afterwards, signing autographs, and posing for pictures. And I got a pair of Dave's sticks for my collection. Vic Firth Evolution's , his signature sticks. They are very light, pretty close to a 7 A . I can't believe the power he got out of them, and didn't break one. I would have broken about 10 of them ! LOL
some photos to follow.
This has been some incredible month music-wise. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to see these great players and I thank Chick and his management for their kindness to my brother and myself. I think they said something about coming back in February ! All I know is that whenever the DVD comes out from the 140 hours of film they took, you would be well advised to pick it up !
Peace, TED
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It was pretty much balls -to-the -wall fusion , and I couldn't have asked for more. Though I"m not as familiar with this music as I should be, I still enjoyed it tremendously. The first set was a hi-energy affair with one ballad but the second set was just blistering !
They didn't mention most of the song titles but the last two songs of the first set were Johnny's Landing and the encore was Got a Match.
Set two was introduced by actress Elisabeth Ross from the TV show Madmen who has known Chick since she was 5 years old and appeared with the band onstage. She was the inspiration for Chick writing the song Eternal Child which they later played in the second set. Her father was Chick's original personal manager.
Another song they played this set was Blue Miles, which was a blues shuffle based on a Miles riff Chick appropriated and made into a song.
Then Chick brought up his wife Gayle Moran to sing a version of 500 miles high which they had also played at the RTF Unplugged show. Though the tempo was a lot faster than the RTF version , and again, the soloing was blistering.
At this point the club manager brought out a birthday cake for Chick and we all sang happy birthday to him and they served the cake to the members of the audience . Then Chick introduces rapper Doug E. Fresh in the audience and he gets up on the stage and starts doing a beat box thing . The band joins in and jams along with him. Then he makes up this birthday rap and does the usual "put your hands in the air " maneuver that every rapper seems to do. But he did really well at getting the audience into a call and response thing and his beat box jamming with Weckl was pretty cool. After he finished, Chick started trying to copy his beat box sounds which was pretty funny.
They closed again with Got a Match, which was the only song that was repeated .
The playing was superior - Dave Weckl was so fluid and perfect I was in awe ! this is truly one heckuva great band !!
And needless to say, they were all extremely nice and friendly with everyone afterwards, signing autographs, and posing for pictures. And I got a pair of Dave's sticks for my collection. Vic Firth Evolution's , his signature sticks. They are very light, pretty close to a 7 A . I can't believe the power he got out of them, and didn't break one. I would have broken about 10 of them ! LOL
some photos to follow.
This has been some incredible month music-wise. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to see these great players and I thank Chick and his management for their kindness to my brother and myself. I think they said something about coming back in February ! All I know is that whenever the DVD comes out from the 140 hours of film they took, you would be well advised to pick it up !
Peace, TED
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Last edited by Ted E. Bear on Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:58 pm; edited 2 times in total
