hey, benny, it's hammer time again!

What a pleasure to hear Hammer, Parrott, and Williams again!
It seems like only yesterday that I was regaled by their spirited playing of the piano, bass, and drums...
Oh... that was only yesterday!
That trio happens to be the rhythm section for the Warren Vaché Quintet, here all together for this noon30 concert! They're joined by Houston Person (guesting from South Carolina) on tenor saxophone and 63-year-old Warren himself on trumpet.
How did the concert today differ from that of yesterday?
Well, for one thing, the music came from two different sources. Bud Powell was a jazz pianist who helped bring bebop into the world before his young death in the mid-1960's. Benny Carter was a jazz trumpeter and saxophonist who lived well into his 90's and died about a decade ago. Carter had better than sixty years of playing and composing, compared with the twenty years of Powell. Consequently, Carter's work is much better known and has been around longer.
Also, there's that whole thing about brass versus piano, too.
(smile)
Today's hour-long concert had one more difference. No, better make that two. Let's take that last one first, shall we?
That has to do with the audience demographics. Usually, at these midday jazz fests, the majority of the audience qualify as seniors. Period. They like music from their younger days, they have the time, and they get discounted pricing on the tickets. (Believe me, I look forward to those days!)
Today, the median age was greatly skewed downward! There were almost sixty high-school-aged jazz musicians in town for the Swing Central Jazz Competition. Twelve bands are selected nationwide for the competition, which will be held tomorrow from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM. (That's free, so I may go to at least part of it.) I met some of the students from Everett High School in Washington! Good luck, y'all! Hope you make it to the Finals tomorrow evening!
So, with all those youths, about a third of the audience was under twenty years old. We certainly had more energy in the air!
Oh, yes, the other difference from yesterday's performance: the bass player sang! The majority of the songs were instrumental, but her Australian voice crooned two songs solo, as well as a duet between Parrott and Vaché. That song, "All That Jazz", was the finale and was not the song you're thinking about! No, this was the theme song from a 1966 film, "A Man Called Adam" (starring Sammy Davis, Jr. as a trumpeter). Very nice to hear vocals!
My favorite instrumentals were the very first two ("A Walkin' Thing" and "The Romp"), two about a third of the way in ("Evening Star" and "Doozy"), and the melancholy one near the end ("Souvenir"). The songs are all on a very recent CD, although they performed the songs in a different order for us.
Such a lovely way to spend part of an afternoon!