blasts from the past (and present)

was checking in the cafe at the market last night when a guy came through my line that looked vaguely familiar. "i know you from someplace, don't i?" he asked when i was through ringing him up. i told him i was thinking the same thing. turns out it was hardy bennett, with whom i worked at the old borders at i-20 and south hulen about ten yrs ago. hardy played bass in mumbledypeg and the gideons and was known as quite a hell-raiser in the day. today he looked healthy and fit and told me he runs his own landscaping business. "people think landscapers make a lot of money," he said, "but it's too hit-and-miss." when i told him i'd just written a book about the wreck room, he looked at me as though i was out of my mind. good to see him anyway.

went to hear the avant-garde jam-down and eat a great dinner at sardines (whose website has been offline for awhile; ng) tonight after my sweetie told me she thought it'd be a better way of celebrating 5.6.07 (we celebrate sequential number days instead of anniversaries; long story) than cutting out early from fred's fest; no argument here. plus i'm cooking steaks on thursday.

the evening's lineup was jhon kahsen on piano; chris white on flute, bass, and trumpet; jaelun washington on drums; joey carter on vibes; and late arrival jeremy hull on bass. started out with jhon playing meditative solo piano; in my perfect universe, he'd be playing spontaneously-created music every night, and on this occasion, i could actually imagine hhim doing it (to hell with the dipshits requesting "music box dancer" of whateverthehell). after timely pause, chris (the man who loves playing "out" more than anyone i know here in the fort) joined in on flute, then jaelun on mallets. in terms of interaction and group dynamic, this was the best sardines improv evening yet, largely due to the presence of washington, a tcu alum who's been absent from the bandstand at sardines for way too long. lotsa cats can swing or solo, but jaelun has the rare gift of being able to listen and respond empathetically to his fellow improvisors. there were moments when he locked in with joey's vibes or jeremy's bass with telekinetic sensitivity.

the next episode was a trio in which carter, white (on bass) and washington each took the lead for an interval. then kahsen added his voice and made it a quartet. jeremy's arrival allowed chris to switch back and forth between his lyrical flute and acerbic trumpet. on a couple of occasions, hull and washington locked into sustaining grooves which chris rode with '70s milesean bleats and blasts. one piece was a percussion discussion between carter (using the grips of his mallets on the edge of his instrument) and washington (beating on everything including the bandstand). the only non-snazz aspect was that by the end of the night, my sweetie and i were the only ppl left in the audience besides jhon's wife kitty. chris white was philosophical about it: "that's the way it goes -- you can either play for ppl or be able to hear yourself" (referring to audiences' propensity for loud chatter while musos are struggling to hear themselves and each other). this is supposedly a monthly first tuesday event now; here's hoping there'll be more listeners after the nba playoffs are over.