Freddie McGregor

July 10th Today we did our shopping and later headed to Prospect Park to see Freddie McGregor, a fantastic Jamaican born roots reggae artist. He had a full band with backing singers. There's obviously a large Jamaican community in Brooklyn and it seemed as if they all turned out for this concert. It was again reminiscent of Womadelaide! Freddie sang for about an hour and covered all his hits including `Big ship'. The lightning bugs were out again in full force and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Les Paul

July 7th Just after 6 we set off for the city to see Les Paul at the Iridium Jazz Club. Les Paul is of course a pioneer of the electric guitar and inventor of numerous recording techniques, such as reverb and multi-track recording. He is now unbelievably 93 years old (or should I say young?). The club was packed to capacity as so many people want to see this legendary guitarist play. Many famous guests have also appeared at these Monday night sessions. Les has a quartet featuring Aussie double bass player Nicki Parrot, Lou Pallo on rhythm guitar and .John Colianni, piano. Their repertoire is mainly jazz standards interspersed with interesting anecdotes from Les. With song a long career in music he has plenty of stories to tell. On this night his special guest was Steve Miller who played some of his hits with his band. Then Norton Buffalo the harp player showed off his versatility with a beautiful rendition of `Autumn leaves'. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get any autographs as patrons were queuing already for the second performance Apparently after that show Les does appear to sign autographs so next time we'll know. Lets hope he can continue until he's 100!




John Earl with his Les Paul!

Dr Lonnie Smith

July 3rd In the early evening we set off for Smoke, a jazz club way uptown to see Dr Lonnie Smith and his trio. I've been a fan of Lonnie's for many years. We got there early and to our delight Dr Lonnie arrived early and began chatting with the patrons. When he came to our table he chatted to me about his music for a while and we took some photos and he signed an album I'd brought with me. He played with guitarist Peter Bernstein who I'd seen at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1996 and they were really smokin' It turned out to be Dr Lonnie's birthday and the club presented him with a large cake to his (I think) surprise! .

Carolina Chocolate Drops

June 26th We decided to go to another `Celebrate Brooklyn' concert in Prospect Park. The performers were The Dixie Hummingbirds and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. We thought the Hummingbirds would be on last so we took our time getting there but we just caught the end of their set. However the Carolina Chocolate Drops didn't disappoint. They are an American roots band playing bluegrass and traditional music...but the surprise is that they are black! They are all multi instrumentalists and all took turns at singing. On a few numbers they had a guest from the Ebony Hillbillies on percussion! Not my normal style of music but I can really appreciate the great musicinaship and authenticity of this band.

John Scofield

June 22nd Today we headed Manhattan and the Blue Note where we saw the John Scofield Trio with the Scohorns. I've been a big fan for many years and have a few of his albums to couldn't miss the chance to see him live. For those who don't know him John has a style that is all his own and very contemporary. He's always changing and hardly ever plays the same thing for long. Steve Swallow, the bass player is a legend in his own right too. The club is very cramped as they obviously like to pack as many people in as possible. I had my back to the stage and got a stiff neck continually turning to watch! I couldn't tell you the names of anything that was played as the tunes were mostly not announced and even though I have several albums by John Scofield it's hard to identify tunes.

Isaac Hayes

June 12th The first concert in the Celebrate Brooklyn series was tonight and featured soul singer Isaac Hayes. Although he is now in his sixties his voice sounded as rich and smooth as ever! He got a big audience response when he sang his big hits `Walk on by' `Do your thing' `Shaft' `Never can say goodbye' and `Joy'. He ended with a great version of Little Milton's `The blues is alright'. The band were great and had a full sound with horns and backing singers. Isaac played keyboard most of the time but played sax on one or two numbers. Unfortunately less than two months after this concert his life ended at age 65.

Little Richard

June 8th Tonight we headed to BB Kings in Times Square to see rock 'n roll legend Little Richard. We recently watched the biopic of his life story which revealed how he was always torn between religion and `the devil's music'. He's now well into his 70's and doesn't perform too often these days. The ten piece band came on first and played some rockin' instrumentals to get the audience in the mood. Little Richard came on stage on crutches as apparently he has sciatica. Once he was seated at the piano he let it rip working through most of his old hits like `Good golly Miss Molly' `Tutti frutti' `Long tall Sally' `Rip it up' `Ready Teddy' `Slippin' and slidin' `Lucille' `The girl can't help it' and `Money honey'. The only slow number was `Directly from my heart to you' which was of course covered so well by Frank Zappa on `Weasels ripped my flesh'. He also did a tribute to Fats Domino with Blueberry Hill. He can't quite reach those high notes the way he used to but still sounded good on most of the tunes and his keyboard skills are still right up there.