Artist: Dave Douglas Quintet
Venue: The Village Vanguard, NYC, NY
Date: May 3, 2006
Going with a new friend of mine from Columbia’s EE department (who’s doing research in digital music analysis), this was my first jazz show in the city, at one of the most famous venues ever. Going on his recommendation of the saxophonist in the band (Donny McCaslin), I went into the show with no knowledge of any of the band’s songs. The Vanguard is surprisingly a really tiny venue, shaped like a V, with the band setup at the point of the V. It was a very intimate setting, which worked really well for a small group like this one. The band only played works composed by Dave Douglas, and while I can’t really say I was a huge fan of his style of composition, there were still a few tracks I liked a lot. McCaslin’s performance really was quite stellar, however, and that alone was worth the entry price. Uri Caine, on keyboard was also quite good (at least from what little I can tell about that kind of playing), and it was quite amazing to see his fingers fly on the keyboards. Hopefully I can attend more jazz shows over the next few years and build up my knowledge of jazz (as that’s one area where I know next-to-nothing, and have a great interest in).
Tags: dave douglas quintet, the village vanguard
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