Everybody Was Friendly

From the July 22, 2008 show at JOE’S PUB:

I Wonder Why I Hate The Red Sox?

I’ll be at BARBES in Brooklyn this Saturday night, playing in acoustic trio format with Mazz Swift on violin and Nathan Peck on upright bass. Mazz has been playing with me for years, and appears on my recordings “LOOK AT ALL THIS!” and “PERFORMS BOB DYLAN & THE BAND’S ‘BASEMENT TAPES’.” Here she is playing with me at Barbes earlier this year:
Hey Little Girl (live)
Nathan has just started performing with me, and he’s a fabulous player. He’s this guy:

Nathan Peck

Barbes is one of the best places to play and hear music in the city, and it’s also one of the smallest. Unless you plan on standing, get there early to get one of the 30 or so seats!

It’s a two-night run at the Knickerbocker (for the full skinny, see the post about the first show on Friday, below).  On night #2, I’ll be joined by my old pals, Jon Flaugher on bass and Russell Farhang on violin.  Both guys played and toured with me extensively in my early days, and both are prominently featured on the CDs “I LIKE YOU A LOT” and “DO WHAT I WANT” (Russell also plays on HFQ Vols. I and II).

Jon is this guy:

Russell is this guy:

Russell Farhang

It’s gonna be a fun time, hope you can make it!

One of the things this blog may be useful for is to give audiences a preview of what a given upcoming show(s) will be like. Because my bands and projects change from night to night, and because they’re all simply called “Howard Fishman,” people often don’t know what to expect. Let’s start to change that a little, shall we?

This weekend, on Friday, 9/12 and Saturday, 9/13, I’ll be performing at the Knickerbocker in New York City (http://knickerbockerbarandgrill.com).  Both nights will feature predominantly jazz standards, played in trio format.  

Joining me on Friday will be Victor Lin on violin and Ian Riggs on upright bass.  Victor is this guy:

Victor toured with me extensively back in 2004. He’s a virtuosic player, swings hard, and has a strange sense of humor. Plus, at the Knickerbocker, he gets to show off his skills on both violin AND piano (his primary instrument.  

Playing bass on Friday night, is this guy:

Ian Riggs

Ian’s been playing with me fairly steadily since 2004 as well, and he appears on two of my CDs: “LOOK AT ALL THIS!” and “PERFORMS BOB DYLAN & THE BAND’S ‘BASEMENT TAPES.’” Aside from his fine, always-creative playing on the bass, Ian is also adept at singing harmonies with me and bouncing around stylistically like STEVE.

Here’s a clip of Victor and Ian playing with me a while back at BARBES:

The Knickerbocker is a funny place. It’s a well-known jazz venue, but it’s also an old-school NY culinary destination.  When the music starts at 9:45, the place is usually still jammed full of diners chowing down who may or may not know that there is live music being played.  This always makes the first set a little dodgy, from a musical perspective.  My suggestion is to come for one of the later sets: 11pm, 12:15am or 1:30am.  The kitchen is open late, so you won’t miss the food, and the noise level will abate as the evening goes on, making the music much more listener-friendly and intimate.

Jazz standards? Yeah, but as the evening wears on, that becomes a more and more relative concept of what we play, when originals, gospel and even some country music starts to work into the sets.

Hope to see you there. Don’t miss the cornbread!

Just happened upon some sketches that Cliff did at the band’s hit at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles back in 2004.  It was a special night with Mark McLean on drums, Sam Bardfeld on violin, Kevin Louis on trumpet and surprise appearances by old friends Erik Jekabson (trumpet) and Joyce Anderson (violin).  Cliff really captured the vibe.  If you don’t know his work, check out cliffordbailey.com!

Taken by a random passer-by

I spoke with the good people at KadmusArts last week, and they’ve posted the conversation on their site here: http://kadmusarts.com/blog/?p=652

Have a listen…