The John Abercrombie Quartet @ Jazz Standard, NYC 1/6/2013
The thing with seeing jazz in NYC is that you’re bound to catch some amazing shows, as I did with the John Abercrombie quartet at the wonderful Jazz Standard this past Sunday.
The great smell of ribs rising round comfortable tables, drinks well priced and the stage comfortably seen from every place in the room, legendary John Abercrombie and his stellar band of organist, sax and drummer popped, slunk and generally filled the packed 7:30 audience with delight during their hour and half set.
Opening with Abercrombie’s “Jazz Folk,†setting the standard for some spectacular band tightness as well as solid soloing that would follow, the level of musicianship rose to the compositions the 68 year old guitar player presented. The man has the most fluid tasteful way to his unique playing, most notable for me this night was on the ballad “Days of Old,†written actually (and sung in its initial form) by drummer Adam Nussbaum’s daughter Maia, with additional composition help by Adam and Steve Swallow.
If you have never seen or heard of Abercrombie, or the quartet he currently plays with, you owe it to yourself to go check these cats out or at the very least, look down the incredible long list (I think it might actually be 50 or so albums if not more) that this jazz giant guitarist has played on.