paul unger

finally made it to the scat jazz lounge last night. nice room on sundance square; once they get their elevator fixed, the neon-in-alleyway front entrance is gonna be awesome. (my sweetie remembered the spot from an afterhours place she usedta frequent back in antiquity.) on this particular night, fw weekly scribe/proud warrior drummer caroline collier was slingin' the dranks, and fw symphony assistant principal bassist paul unger and a coupla classical colleagues were onstage. at first it was a li'l disconcerting to see the cats on a jazz set reading scores, but we soon got caught up in the toonage: paul schoenfield's "cafe music" combined cathouse stride pianner -- making optimal use of dallas symphony pianist steve harlos' james p. johnson left hand -- with gypsy jazz flourishes, and argentine astor piazzolla's tangos, with which i was unfamiliar, had an ecm-ish spaciousness. violinist mark miller didn't improvise, but played his written parts with aplomb and much soul. tom reynolds joined 'em on gtr for the last piazzolla piece, then continued with a selection of toons in the manner of django reinhardt. for swing-inspahrd sounds, reynolds is as imposing a presence as clint strong is for bebop. paul sez the management has given him free rein to do pert near anything he wants in their house -- except, sigh, for flipside. we'll prolly head back there on 3.25 to catch paul slavens.