Buck Hill at HR57

caught saxophonist Buck Hill's latest gig at HR 57 this past friday.... feel very lucky to have found out about the gig (only $10) at all.. HR57 does not advertise as much as say Blues Alley... anyways his handling of both tenor and soprano sax was masterly... unbelievable he's 79 years old! and worked as a DC postman for decades.. he's from the area... check out this link for more info..

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=2971

what to say bout his playing? i'm not that good at describing jazz.... but he was extremely lyrical in his playing... more towards the lester young side of things than the charlie parker side of things.. the man sang through his saxopohone on a number of classic standards..lately thats my favorite kind of jazz...

picked up two of his cds from the man himself..its always funny to have the artist himself tell you "yah..this one is pretty good.."....one of them is called the buck stops here and was recorded in 1993 by none other than rudy van gelder at van gelder studio in englewood hills (yah.. where pretty much ever legendary prestige and blue note session went down in the 50s and 60s!!!! talk about history).... anyways it features barry harris on piano and johnny coles in one of his last appearances on flugelhorn.. so buck hill with two guys that recorded here and there on blue note in the 60s!....

i must confess i was a bit dissapointed in the sparse crowd (at least for set 1) and also the crow in general many of whom- the young uns particularly- seemed more interested in taking pictures of themselves..but what are you gonna do.. they are not the ones to really come down on i suppose..its those that sit at home listening to their jazz cds or lps who don't make it out to support live jazz.... but small complaint... great show...

i have to make a point of becoming a member of hr57 and going more often...