Last weekend I had the extreme pleasure of attending a jazz set at one of my favorite jazz venues, The Kitano.
I wish that my pictures were large enough for you to get a better image of the incredibly gifted trio I heard. The pianist Don Friedman is pictured here and you can barely see the bassist George Mraz and the drummer, Matt Wilson.
But seeing them is hardly the point. Usually when I am engrossed in a jazz performance I respond by keeping the rhythm with my fingers, my foot- anything that resembles my dancing in my seat to the beat.
Good jazz to my liking really moves me. This trio was so far beyond my usual experience that I am reluctant to even try to describe my response.
I experienced an openness to the music that moved me inside. I felt the organs and the space inside me was expanding and melting into the complexity, sophistication and extreme beauty especially of Don Friedman’s original compositions.
I was too moved to move!!!
I understand that a recording is being made of one of the trio’s sets this past weekend. I will be keeping tabs on this because I will run to get a piece of that enchantment into my life again.
Don Friedman returns to The Kitano with other musicians on June 14th and June 25th. But alas, the poignant strains of the indescribable bassist George Mraz will not be with him then.
Meryl Chodosh-Weiss 