Nate Smith and Kinfolk 4/14/19 Yale Art Gallery Theater

YUJC is the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective, a bunch of well-connected nerds that put on an awesome free jazz festival every spring. In recent years, Nicholas Payton and piano giant Randy Weston have been on their bills. Drummer Smith and band; sax, organ, guitar, bass, and a young woman vocalist made up the sextet. Nate is a monster drummer with speedy fills and an odd style of cymbal muffling. He threw his tricep part of his arm to the far (audience) part of the cymbal which may have been more timing than musical effect. He took one solo with one arm, the other shading with a hand shaker. Sax ( soprano and alto), was helmed by young lion Jalil Shaw. More Cannonball than Coltrane, Shaw oozed a lot of notes into his solo spots. Did not recognize the big guy on organ, but he was very capable in his craft. The rhythm section of funk guitar and Brooklyn Funk Essentials bass player Fima Ephron, gave the sound a more funk-soul feel. The vocalist, while capable, seemed like a distracting add-on. I often have problems with jazz vocals. Even the late great Ella Fitzgerald recorded some questionable efforts ( are we to believe that Ella would say something like " you like oysters and I like ersters"?, please, just call the whole thing off). Smith's Grammy nominated effort Postcards was highlighted on this fine afternoon of jazz. Kudos to the nerds for arranging this annual event.

Robyn Hitchcock 4/13/19 The Kate Old Saybrook

First time at this beautiful old theater in the heart of Old Saybrook. Trippy Brit-folk legend Hichcock played two full sets of music to a near capacity crowd. The first set featured Robyn on acoustic and some harmonica. From the solo material; I Often Dream of Trains, Mad Shelley's Letterbox, Virginia Woolf, to material from the Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians era; Balloon Man, Madonna of the Wasps, Queen Elvis, and I'm sure some seminal Soft Boys material thrown in for good measure. Robyn is a true performer, like a cross between Robin Williams and Salvador Dali, his often outrageous inter-song banter is worth seeing. He conjured up some omniscient sound woman named Patricia who was tasked with making him sound "like a sober David Crosby", or "double the reverb minus the delay". In the second set, he launched into this Alice in Wonderland-type tale of his cat Tubby, who had one- eye and flew a single engine bi-plane round the world at the request of Bryan Ferry's butler, who needed to keep the foppish bard in constant supply of hair products. You can't make this stuff up, well, if you are Robyn Hitchcock you can. It seems that several decades of psychedelics have bestowed him with a continual flow of acid flashbacks that color his live performance. The second set saw him bring Emma Swift on stage for some beautiful harmony vocals. Many songs seemed to lean on the imagery of a hotel (glass hotel, flesh hotel), potent in this modern world of anti-immigrant and who gets to stay where mentality. Robyn then switched to piano, which sounded great in the small hall. Encored with nods to his mentors, a fantastic piano rendition of Pink Floyd's Astronomy Domine and John Lennon's God.

Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets 4/12/19 Oakdale

What constitutes a super fan ? Listening to Lucifer Sam through the wall of your sister's room (1975), coveting your vinyl only copy of Dark Side of The Moo (sic) (1988), or purchasing a costly but worth it LP A Perfect Pair (2019)? Maybe it is watching Nick Mason and crew plow through early Pink Floyd material to a devoted corps of aging rock fans. Everyone has a point in their musical appreciation trajectory to which a phenom happened just prior to their awakening ( would have been painful to cajole my mom into driving me to Shea Stadium and wait to drive me home). So it is a welcome concert to see under-appreciated Floyd drummer Mason, bass, two guitarists, keys, play songs that were out of my concert realm but definitely in my conscious realm. Interstellar Overdrive, Lucifer Sam, Remember a Day, One of These Days, Fearless, Nile Song,, Arnold Layne, See Emily Play, Bike, Let There Be More Light, Childhood's End, Set The Controls, Astonomy Domine, even Vegetable Man ( unearthed from The Screaming Abdab days?), closed with Saucerful. I'm sure I'm missing things, the point is that no one, I mean no one, could escape the 80s without an Andy Burke mixtape with Childhood's End happily seared on to a tdk 90. The band was able, bass player Pratt played Water's part after the split, one guitarist was from Ian Dury's band, the other and lead singer was in Spandau Ballet ( no sniggering, because, well, this much is true-hoo). Pratt introduced Remember A Day as having been written by his son's grandfather, which sent the audience into a phone-induced search-a-verse (Pratt is married to original keys man Richard Wright's daughter Gaia). The animosity has tamed, Mason said that Water's never sanctioned a gong solo but now it was ok to willingly launch one. It's becoming clear, Mason and I are reaching and childhood may have yet to find it's end.

Brooks Williams w/ Mark Zaretsky 4/7/19 mActivity New Haven

Mark is a local blues wailer and harmonica ace. Recently saw him perform with WPKN's legendary DJ Mark Naftalin (R&R hall of Famer for his stint in The Butterfield Blues Band). Mark travels with dozens of harps because each is in a different key. Fortunate to see his Sandy Hook fueled rant " Put The Gun Down".
Been looking forward to this one for a while. I told Brooks that his easy going version of Shady Grove is in high rotation in my ears. Solo acoustic and National Steel guitar were effortlessly plucked by this instructional video superstar. Told the crowd that he lived in New Haven as a kid, he thinks he went to ECA ( like me). Based in Georgia, it was a natural fit to play Statesboro Blues. Setlist included some Sister Rosetta Tharp tunes, Kristofferson's No One Wins, a tune he wrote for but wasn't picked by Michael Buble, Rock Me, Gambling Man, Mercury Blues, spoke of a foray into the Smithsonian Folkways archives to study Sittin On Top of the World a tune that can morph from bluegrass to blues, Walk You Off My Mind, closed with Zaretsky on the mighty Hesitation Blues.

Baby Gramps 4/4/19 Cafe 9

Oxymoronic folkie, or maybe an old folkie moron gakked out on Oxy, Seattle-based Baby Gramps was quite the character. Armed with a National Steel guitar, vocals, vocal stylings ( including percussive sounds and lo-fi throat singing) and a dumpster full of stories, Gramps has been lauded as in the top 100 most influential American musicians. More Gramps than baby, BG looked like a cross between Dr. John and Eugene Chadbourne. Gramps recent claim to fame was touring the magnificent Rogues Gallery cache of pirate songs culled and overseen by Jonny Depp, would have liked to be a psilocybin-infused fly on that wall. Seems that Gramps was a denizen of Greenwich Village in the early 60s ( see Inside Llewyn Davis for a glorification of this time and space), referencing opening for Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. His stories oozed authenticity, sang a perfect Visions of Johanna as if he was in the room at it's inception. Industry insider or homeless guy peering in the window when an ancient reel tape of Farewell Angelina was unearthed that had the Dylan-scrawled title "Alcatraz to the 9th Degree", Gramps seemed to get around. Plugging Seattle's answer to Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, BG brought a young melodica blower out to shade some tunes and crab about a $7 royalty check he received from playing with Phish. BG also claimed to have recorded with Peter Stampfel and The Holy Modal Rounders who were the first band to have been billed as "psychedelic". Closed with a lysergic-addled medley of the Kinks All Day and All of the Night into Lotus Blossom and finally an audience participation Louie Louie. Gramps said The Kingsmen and  Louie Louie put Seattle on the musical map and chortled at the FBI investigating the song's lyrics for hidden subversive meaning, sounds like some 2019 governmental lunacy.

& More ( Chill Moody and Donn T) 4/1/19 Cafe 9

& More is the ampersandific combination of Philly rapper Chill Moody and African American soulstress Donn T. Helped by a drummer and laptop twiddler, these two were the hiphop answer to Sonny and Cher. Moody spit socially conscious rhymes while Donn complemented with a soulful croon. Only in existence for a couple of years, these cats played for Michelle Obama at her birthday bash, and name check Chuck D. on their forthcoming release "Ethel Bobcat". Moody explained EB is a concept album focusing on the wisdom of a grandmotherly character that we all can relate to. Donn was a sight to behold, she danced through the crowd and on stage with a Gladys Knight pantsuit and an Angela Davis fro. Keep an eye out for these two, they seem destined for bigger things.

Noura Mint Seymali w/ Prince Royal 3/22/19 State House

Local roots reggae purveyor Prince Royal opened this evening of world beat. 24 year old Royal is from St. Catherine Jamaica and his vocal delivery bears this out. Fronting his band Souls of Zion, a mixed race bag of reggae acolytes who provided the backdrop for Royal's skank. Two keyboard players, sax, drums, and blue-eyed guitar and bass were deft in the craft. Royal's singing and stage movements reminded me of Winston Rodney, leader of Burning Spear. Every so often, Royal would say "dub-wise", and the crew would spin out some echo and reverb-laden " space" that called to mind the diddlings of Scientist or Lee Perry. It seems that the key to authentic reggae is how little the English speaker can discern from the Jamaican accent-drenched delivery of the toaster ( I got things like " me muddah and me faddah), with this in mind Prince Royal fits the bill. Jah.....Rastafari.
Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali has been lighting up the world music charts in recent years. Raised in a musical griot tradition, Noura has a booming singing voice. With her husband on modified guitar, brother on bass (apparently the original bass player had visa problems getting to the US, natch), and drummer band wrangler from Philly, this group spun some traditional music steeped in desert blues, and psych. Singing in her native tongue, many of the tunes had a call and response nature, either with her husband or the crowd. It was fascinating to see the universal nature of music with Noura urging the crowd to mimic her vocals. The near capacity crowd was either comprised of Yale's Mauritanian Song and Dance Appreciation Society (sic), or fans eager to get a glimpse of this original artist from across the globe. Pretty sure the latter.