I like large, enthusiastic audiences

Last Friday, I played a concert with the Chabot College Night Jazz Band in Hayward. The concert featured the Chabot College Day Band, the Chabot College Night Band, and Eddie Palmieri's Latin Jazz Band.

The Day Band played three numbers, we played four, and then Palmieri played the rest. For the Chabot bands, the stage was in its normal configuration; they lowered the pit and let people dance when Palmieiri played.

The crowd was electric, and huge. I know that as of the Wednesday before, there were 900 seats sold (out of 1400 available). By Friday, most of the rest had been sold; there were very few empty seats.

The Day Band played very well for their level; they have come a long way since the last time I heard them. The drummer, in particular, did a great job.

We played four numbers, all written by our director, Jon Palacio, Jr. He is a gifted big band composer, particularly Latin big band, and his charts almost play themselves. The crowd was very enthusiastic. I have not played for a crowd like that since my high school days (the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston has very good crowds for their jazz band performances). It was great! The only slight downer is that I did not get a solo this time around. It's first concert I have not had a solo in many, many years, probably since 10th grade. Well, that's the breaks when you play bari and the concert is only half an hour. The fun sax soli where the bari does a walking bass line mostly made up for it, though.

And then came Palmeiri's band. I must be getting old. I did not enjoy it all that much. He had Donald Harrison, who is one of the Marsalis-generation New Orleans guys who made several albums in the Eighties with trumpeter Terrence Blanchard. He had Harrisson's nephew, Christian Scott, who could not have been older than 25 on trumpet. And he had some New York guys on bass and percussion that I did not know.

The music was long and rambling. Most of the charts would start out promising, with a salsa or cha-cha mantuno in the piano, and everybody joining in. However, the charts had a very loose form, some with no discernable "tune" or "head". The soloists were allowed to noodle around until past the time when they ran out of ideas. The harmonic structure was brain-dead simple; most charts started with C minor, and then went to Eb minor, back and forth and back and forth. Harrison sounded like a bebop player not used to playing with Latin bands. Scott was fun, but he liked to scream on that trumpet, and by the end, his chops were shreded. The one chart they played which actually had notes and chords, Harrisson and Scott both were scuffling to play.

Frankly, it got boring. And loud and boring is tiring. It was also not really danceable, and there were enough idiots in the dance pit that Jade and I decided to give it a pass.

Jade says that the Night Band stole the show. She is biased, but I tend to agree this time. We had fun, and the crowd loved us. Palmieiri was not nearly as much fun.

I must be getting old.