A few months ago I caught Charlie Hunter's other group TJ Kirk. It is
Charlie Hunter, (and i think) two other guitarists and a drummer. It
was quite an interesting sight. It was one of those things where you
start hearing sounds but can't seem to figure out where they're coming
from. You know it is Charlie, but it just seems physically imposible to
do what he does. I mean, he is just standing there playing all of this
stuff with the greatest of ease. He makes it look easy.
The basis of TJ Kirk is that they play the music of Thelonius Monk,
James Brown, and Rahhsan (sp?) Roland Kirk. But they don't just do a
Monk tune and them a James Brown tune. They will mix match different
parts of tunes by all three artists into the same arrangement of one
tune. So, there might be a James Brown bass line, and the head is from a
Monk tune and then the bridge is from a Rahhsan tune. Pretty crazy.
For the first few tunes I was pretty impressed, but then the departures
from the grooves started to distract me. The other down side was that
three guitars on one stage starts to get a bit too much on the ears .
.i.e. a lot of high end stuff etc.
Oh, one other thing. The band asked that if any one in the audience was
a smoker to please smoke in the back of the crowd so that non-smokers
could enjoy the music up front and so that the band didn't have to
breathe it in. I couldn't believe I was hearing a band actually say that
to an audience in a night club.
Well enough of that. Does anyone know if it is still possible to get tix
for the Jamiraquoi show in NYC?
brian