There’s a few revelations I’ve had working behind the coat check desk at the Village Vanguard during the Christian McBride & The Inside Straight series this past week.
First off, for lack of better vocabulary, I’ve got the coolest job in the world. In exchange for the simple task of taking the coats and bags of the incoming patrons at the Vanguard and encountering an unusual character or two (case in point), I get to spend the rest of the night watching today’s jazz figureheads play shows that only a few months ago I dreamed over on my computer. I get to see how the dynamics of the band and their show evolve over the course of a few days — how do they treat the music? How do they treat each other? How do they treat the audience? And how do they treat me, a random college kid hanging out with a bunch of coats?
I also get an interesting perspective on who comes to visit. The Vanguard — or any other jazz club, for that matter — is not a place I’d be on weekdays unless I had a particularly pressing reason. (For instance, ?uestlove played the Blue Note last week – somewhere between writing this and several other term papers, I wish I could have been there.) But now that I’ve got this justification, I get to hang out with the audience that makes the effort to go out and see jazz on early weekdays — so far, it’s been a pretty interesting group of people.
So here we go. I never imagined myself to be in this kind of position so soon, seeing musicians like Christian McBride three days in a row as a part of my job description. This post will be the first of a series detailing my experiences behind the coat checking counter — the atmosphere, the personalities, the audience, and the musicians that make up the nights of this legendary jazz club. Note that these won’t necessarily be reviews — they’re simply my thoughts from the coatroom.
McBride’s the musician that I wish I was introduced to at my first jazz show. (On a side note, this role was unfortunately filled by Boney James.) He epitomizes the ideal modern jazz performer — which, of course, doesn’t mean I think he’s the only musician fit to fill this role. But with the recent debate and dialogue over Nicholas Payton’s frustration with calling this music “jazz” in mind (he proposes “Black American Music” as an alternative; you can read his thoughts at his blog here and his Twitter feed here), McBride gave me some much-needed peace of mind.
The group, Inside Straight, consisted of drummer Carl Allen, saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, and young pianist, Christian Sands. Playing tunes from Kind of Brown and elsewhere, the band maintained a warm, familial vibe on and off stage. McBride managed to pass this feeling on to the audience every night I was there — unshaken by the mass of listeners before him (and clearly seasoned by hundreds of concerts before this), McBride kept the Vanguard in laughter, poking fun at his bandmates and comically playing lines like these:
But perhaps the greatest thing to watch was McBride’s constant praise around Sands, 22, bright-eyed, youthful, and ridiculously talented, a clear indication — to me, at least — of McBride’s investment in a part of jazz’s future.
For next time I’ll be skipping ahead to the Cedar Walton trio that’s opening tonight at the Vanguard — he’ll be joined by David Williams on the bass and Willie Jones III on drums through the 18th and then additionally joined by saxophonist Vincent Herring until the 25th. Hope to see you there!
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Beginners Falafel/Flying Lotus/Los Angeles
