I really enjoyed last night's concert at the Prarie Center. It is great to see that such an incredibly small place can still attract prominent jazz artists (and for once, the Midwest is getting flooded with good jazz this month). For me there was absolutely no comparison to the environment last week at the Cubby Bear Lounge. They played two sets instead of one (1st 45 min, 2nd 75 min), and they were able to start off pretty mellow since the audience was rather quiet and clearly there to listen, not necessarily to get drunk and be rocked. The first set consisted of mostly shorter, pleasant and more understandable music. It was interesting to see the parts of the second set that would scare some people out of the venue. I agree with MylaA that my favorite parts of the show also were that last song (complete w/ Birds of Fire quote after Dennis solo) and the first song of the second set (an upbeat 4/4 number with Chambers emphasis on the seventh and eighth beats -- nam, nam). I really wish I knew the names of these songs, but I am just horrible at regurgitating them in the live context (basic memory lapse) Anyway, I also remember during the second set quotes from Epistrophy and A Love Supreme. It was also nice to see Joey D break out the trumpet during the second set as well as during the encore (at cubby bear he used it only during the encore which was a minute and a half there) -- can anyone come up with any setlists or more detailed song info??

peace , oneword and onward

Andy

Newsgroup: rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz
From: mwsmart@prairienet.org (Mark W. Smart)
Subject: Re: John McLaughlin/Free Spirits
Date: Tue Feb 27 15:58:47 EST 1996

In a previous article, george4908@aol.com (George4908) says:

> [...]

I saw this group on Feb 18th in suburban Chicago and was similarly blown away to the point of speechlessness. The effect was probably increased by the fact that I had never seen McLaughlin live before. Chambers played an incredible 10 or 15-minute drum solo, complete with his trademark "hold one arm in the air while playing a very fast fill with the other hand and both feet" stunt.

There were a few Mahavishnu quotes in there. "Sanctuary" and "Meeting of the Spirits" chopped off so it would fit on a 5/4 jazz tune. And yes, indeed, he was picking the notes with a pick!! He also quoted Weather Report's "Birdland" several times. Joey DeFrancesco qouted "Turkey in the Straw" at about ten times the normal tempo.

What I liked best about McLaughlin was that he didn't overuse his incredible technique. In spite of being capable of extreme speed, he only used that speed as a means to create well thought-out phrases while improvising.

Gearwise, as previously stated, he was using his red Gibson hollowbody with the Bigsby on it, which answered my question about how he does the little pitch falls he has been doing at the end of phrases on the last few albums. He made pretty extensive use of the frequency shifter as well, like on the two tracks "Jazz Jungle" and "English Jam" from the album "The Promise". That thing sounds really bizarre--I love it! I didn't see an amp on stage (other than floor monitors) and can only assume he's using an amp simulator like a Red Box or something.

Wow.