Jazz in the afternoon

Ken and I acquired free tickets to go to the Meyerhoff (Baltimore's symphony hall) to hear the Duke Ellington Orchestra, jazz trumpeter/singer Byron Stripling, and jazz singer Patti Austin. We went into the city via light rail: it's cheaper than parking a car in the city, less stressful than driving, and better for the environment. What's not to like? Well, we got to the station and promptly experienced massive ticket-machine failures: two of the three beasts--I mean machines--would cough up only weekly passes and the remaining one had a long line because the circus was in town (see my "Madam Chairperson" blog below) Besides that, it was out of change so if your tickets weren't in whole dollars you'd just made an extra donation to the Maryland MTA (which I doubt would use the cash to improve ticket-machine servicing!)
Anyway, we bought tickets for a cool even $7 and a few minutes before our train arrived. The light-rail gods were finally smiling our way!


Speaking of trains, the Duke Ellington Orchestra (17 fine musicians including the leader, the Duke's grandson Paul) started off with "Take the 'A' Train." Talk about a a crowd pleaser! These guys played classic big-band-style jazz with excellent musicianship. The sax soloists impressed the heck out of me (former appalingly bad clarinetist) with their fast fingers and one of the trumpet players was clearly using circular breathing (according to my former-cornet-playing spouse) for one smoooooth loooooooooooooong note!

Byron was a great trumpet player and singer--and showman. He came out, introduced Patti before they did a duet, and since Paul had intro'd his band Byron said, "No one's introduced me, so I'll introduce myself--I'm Wynton Marsalis." Nice try, dude. No, he wasn't Wynton (whom I had the pleasure of hearing at Rutgers--OMG how fantastic) but he was great nonetheless. Byron's portion of the show was a tribute to Louis Armstrong, complete with anecdotes of his life, such as how he declined a fancy mansion to stay in his little house in Queens and continue buying ice cream for the neighborhood kids. Can't remember all the tunes he did, but his trumpet work rocked (jazzed) and he did one heck of a powerful "St. James Infirmary Blues"! Byron got us all singing "hey baby" along with him on one song--we needed lots of coaching to get the proper swing to it.

Miss Patti Austin did a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, again with anecdotes, plus her "girl singer" theory that girl singers don't do well with marriages because they get to get all dolled up, go out on stage and be the center of attention all the time--just like a bride. So who needs a man? (Well, she admitted she did--but it was a fun theory, and she did have a wonderful swishy long black gown on!)

The songs--oh, she did a wonderfully styled "Miss Otis Regrets," and a fun "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" (Mom and Dad, do you remember seeing the video clip of Ella herself doing that at the Museum of American History when we were there a couple of years ago?)

So anyway, an excellent musical afternoon, and the light-rail gods smiled on us again as our train arrived about two minutes after we got to the station.

Today I'm sick at home--just a minor respiratory infection--so if there's any typos it's because my energy and higher brain functions cut out when I'm sick (good reason to not be at work messing up search commands and having to ask patrons to repeat their question multiple times as I start falling asleep at the desk...)