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. 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 is this guy:
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 my BASEMENT TAPES Project recording. 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!