The 20th Annual Jazz in the Pines - part 2

Tim Weisberg. 
You can link to (a SEVERLEY
shortened version of) my conversation with
Tim at www.kvcr.org. Select through tabs near
the upper left - RADIO, then PODCASTS,
then KVC-Arts. 

Took many shots of him,

but compositionally - this has to be my favorite.

We'll come back to this... AND the art

hanging behind it.

Meantime... 
The Ray Goren band.

 

I didn't get to see him last year, and

commented that if I didn't get to see him

for another decade or so, he'd STILL only be 22

at that point. Well, we caught his act this year, and

he IS indeed someone worth seeing. Many of the tunes

were "standards" for a blues performance, but they

were well picked as crowd pleasers,

and he played them with

genuine feeling.
 

 

His is a nice story.

You ask him about how

long he's been playing blues guitar,

and he may very well tell you, "Well, I used

to be a jazz pianist..." USED to be? He made this

statement when he was 10 or 11! Used to be?!?!

He picked up piano EARLY,

but then accidentally stumbled upon a recording

of  BB King, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy and

Albert Collins. Something like this might make ANYONE

want to pick up a guitar. Ray did, and took it on with the ferocity he did with piano. He continues to play at some

of the biggest festivals in the country. Get more of the

story with a click HERE - raygorn.com. And look

at these photos, wouldja? He looks to me a little

like my nephew and a LOT like

a young John Pizzarelli.

What do YOU think?

John...

Ray...

John...

Ray.

And come to think of it...
Ya ever seen 'em in the same room? 
Didn't think so.

But I digress.

With all due respect

to the SO many great performers here,

I must say that one of the acts I was looking

MOST forward to was Tim Weisberg. I got there early, 
but the place was nearly packed. 

Robin Adler
(catch her in the San Diego area)
was there to both make some announcements, 
entertain with a song or two (she'd be performing 
the next day with her own line up)...

...and generally just share in a fun time. 

As Tim was getting ready to start, 
thankfully, a woman told me she was gonna 
just snap a quick shot, then leave, and I was welcome to 
her seat. Center Aisle. Thank you! We struck up a conversation, and it turns out she was the artist 
who provided the banner hanging 
behind Tim during the gig. 

Lots more on her later, especially 
when we start talking about Casey Abrams. 
Okay. Back to Tim. TWO links for him HERE at timweisberg.com or at the Tim Weisberg "Official Site" on Facebook. Link to that HERE. Tim was deep in
the world of Jazz Fusion before the term was even coined. 
His career has 20 plus albums under his belt, and has
played with SO many greats in the jazz world...
and beyond. Dan Fogelberg, anyone?
 

 

Due to their similarity

in appearance (longer hair and beards),

the first album (as a colaboration) was called

Twin Sons of Different Mothers.
 

Their next album together

happened after they had both cut their hair

and beards, and ended up being called

No Reseblance Whatsoever.

Early on, Tim earned the respect,

and encouragement, from none other than

Duke Ellington, who gave Tim a copy of the review

(to give to his parents) from the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival  (Tim opened - Duke Closed). Tim is SO SO wonderful to see

in person - especially in an intimate setting where he can interact. I know. I said this about Janis Mann as well,

but I think that's usually the case. Stadium venues

kinda suck - if you're wanting ANY kind of

interplay between artist and audience.

These two SHOULD feed off

of each other, and can't so

much in a larger

arena.

At this show, Tim
did some wonderful funk and fusion, a

 couple of ballads, as well as some stuff where he

was purely playing with the acoustics of the room

while accompanying himself through delay effects.

He gave several encores, took time to joke around

with the audience, as well as the folks playing with

him at Idyllwild. And the ENTIRE band is SO

worth a shout out and WELL worth looking

up individually.

David Hughes can be found HERE, 

at swedebass.com (born in Sweden), and

has several albums under his belt. I hope to have an

interview with him soon as well. He plays an

incredible SIX string bass, with all the extra

harmonics, chording, and runs up the the

scale not found (generally) on yer

standard 4-string variety.

On guitar,  Chuck Alvarez.
Chuck is an LA performer who gigs all
over the place with his own band, OR backing
other greats. Get a schedule for HIS dates at http://www.chuckalvarez.com/

The drummer?
One of a couple of subs for that day. Maria Martinez.
I appreciated her sound as WELL as her

CLEAR enjoyment of what she was

doing - AS she was doing it.

Barnaby Finch was going to be on keys that day,
but we got another sub here. Paul? Not sure. A person
worth seeing though. He doubled (atypically) on keyboards
and the occasional trumpet (most doublers tend to be
say - flute/sax, sax/clarinet etc... instruments that
are a BIT more closely related), and was really
COOL with both. Ya watch him while he's
playing though. It's clear he's exploring, 
and having quiet fun WITH it.

One of the other folks

I was able to interview was Rob Thorsen. It was a WONDERFUL conversation, and you can link to it at www.kvcr.org. Select radio, then podcasts, then KVC-Arts. Scroll down JUST a bit for Rob's interview. Due to some
rather pressing business elsewhere, I couldn't stay
through the end of Sunday - when Rob was playing.
Thankfully THANKFULLY... Rob's a San Diego
player - so many opportunities ahead. Go to
 robthorsen.com for a schedule (and more).

You can catch him at LEAST a few nights

a week at some regular locations. DO so!

Now...

back to the Tim Weisberg performance

for a moment. The REALLY cool painting

hanging behind Tim is the work of Marcia Gwecki.

She, and her work hanging there, turned into 
SEVERAL nice happenstances. 

So it looks like this

review (of sorts) of the 20th Jazz in the Pines

that I was going to split into two... is gonna have a

3rd and final installment. Everyone deserves their due,

but I don't want to make this (even more) tedious

for the reader.

So please check back.
Casey Abrams, Some Really cool art
by Marcia Gwecki, and a tie-in back TO the
Tim Weisberg performance and back to Casey. 
That's all on the next installment.