“We’re recording tonight, so please sing along!”
So joked guitarist Michael Landau as he took some time off from his stint with Steve Gadd, teamed up with fellow Gaddite bassist Jimmy Johnson and rounded out the power trio with none other than drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. for a night of swinging and rocking blues.
Landau is one of the few six stringers around that has the highly quested “one note and you know” styles, using his guitar like a violin to create a wide range of swirling sounds and tones. The 75 minute set mixed deep rivulets of grooves from Laboriel and Johnson and wide ranging solo explorations.
The first two tunes, “Renegade Destruction” and “A Peaceful Ride” both opened with Laundau in solo form, creating spacey and impressionistic atmospheres before the rhythm team joined in. The former had Johnson create a lurking noir bass line to Laboriel’s funky back beat, while Landau’s tensile tone delivered the theme and variations with cries and sighs on the latter to caressed cymbal support that eventually had the three build up to a dramatic climax.
Landau thwacked his strings to the riffy “Blues For Robben” that was veered by Johnson’s thick jogger’s pulse with sweet lurking lines on the guitar bending and snapping like Reese Witherspoon. Landau sang with the voice of a well travelled hitchhiker on the chiming “Why You Lie” that mixed murky harmonies with a thunderous avalanche supplied by Laboriel.
A pretty and pastoral “Dust Bowl” melded soft brushes with delicate strings and effects, while the closing and peppy “I’m Buzzed” had Landau bringing elliptical extrapolations to the deeply dug jam as Laboriel gave a high hat heaven sizzle that eventually lead to a volcanic climax. The mix of adventurous harmonies, technical acuity and muscular tempos filled the room as well as the sautéed mushrooms and cheese do in the famed Baked Potatoes.
Upcoming shows at The Baked Potato include Carl Verheyen 11/15, Jerry Vivio 11/29, Don Randi 11/23 and The Lineage Trio 11/27