Poster for Kenya Moses’ Valentine’s Day program at Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club (courtesy of Kenya Moses)
Yesterday evening my wife and I celebrated Valentine’s Day by going to the first set at Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club. This was where I first encountered jazz vocalist; Kenya Moses and at least some readers probably know that, since that initial experience, I have done my best to keep up with her performances in San Francisco. Some readers probably know that the last time I saw her was this past August, when I made my first visit to Keys Jazz Bistro in North Beach.
Once again she was accompanied by Aaron Germain on bass and Brian Andres on drums. This time, however, instead of Tammy Hall, her pianist was Erick Peralta. She calls her group the Bossa e Bossa Quartet; and, as is usually the case, bossa nova and samba figured significantly in her repertoire. That said, last night’s set was framed by two familiar selections from Frank Sinatra’s book. She began with Bart Howard’s “Fly Me to the Moon” and honored the holiday by concluding with Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E.”
As I make regular visits to Moses’ gigs, I become more familiar with the bossa repertoire. In my own listening experiences, my “faithful standard” has been Luiz Bonfá’s “Manhã de Carnaval,” probably because Black Orpheus is one of my favorite films. (One of the reasons it is a favorite is because it introduced me to Brazilian music.) The tune clearly registered with just about everyone in last night’s audience.
Mr. Tipple’s seems to do well it drawing a Civic Center crowd. Last night’s set played to a full house; and, given the food-and-drink ambience, things could get more than a little hectic. Fortunately, our table was right by the bandstand, so our attention to the music was barely disrupted by the ambience. That was advantageous. Both Moses and her instrumentalists had a generous number of adventurous riffs to share with the audience, and there was nothing more enjoyable than relishing every last note of them!
No comments:
Post a Comment