Celebrating 55 years of the finest in jazz, the touring Monterey Jazz Festivals All Stars rolled into Santa Barbara (or “Saint Babs,” as leader Christian McBride joked) and turned the upscale packed house into a its own.
Before the entire band of Ambrose Akinmusire/tp, Benny Green/p, Lewis Nash/dr and Chris Potter/ts filled the stage, bassist McBride teamed up with Grammy and Tony winner Dee Dee Bridgewater to duet a tribute to Billie Holiday (who performed at the first festival). Their joyfully swinging “Mother’s Son In Law” set the pace for a night of erudite musicality and symbiotically powerful interplay. Bridgewater stayed on to perform with the quintet during a hard bopping “Filthy McNasty” and then left the musicians to keep the heat flowing with “The Shadow of the Cedar Tree” and “Fear of Flying” both which featured some fierce soloing by the visceral Potter and the strident Akinmusire. The shifting sands of the hard driving “Wise One” had Nash driving behind the drums like a scene from Red River, while his hip groove on “Asphalt Shuffle” drove the fingers of Green’s piano solo into red hot ecstasy. Green’s own solo reading of “The Man I Love” was a feast of ivories, while Bridgewater came back on to deliver a jaw dropping trio take of “God Bless The Child” that should win both a Grammy and Tony in its own right. By the time the band closed down the house with a swaying “ All Of Me,” the warmth generated from the stage was more than enough to make up for the uncommonly frigid outside air on this January winter’s night.
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