The great Wayne Shorter may be gone, but the spirit of Weather Report was carried by bassist Alphonso Johnson Friday night at The Baked Potato. Participating in arguably the band’s halcyon days, Johnson delivered a 90 minute first set with a band that relit the fuse of fusion, with sounds that expanded upon the initial vision of the seminal band.
Wisely, Johnson selected a team of musicians with completely different instrumentation than his alma mater, with a front line of Alex Sill/g, Christian Hebel/vi teamed up with Mitch Forman/keys, Joe DeLeon/perc and the indefatigable Simon Phillips/dr.
Johnson started things out playing his bass stick in solo format in a moving tribute to the recently departed jazz giants, with their names softly looped through the theme. With the band, Johnson then dug deep and grooves with a rubbery bounce under the tropical tones of “Nova Iguacu” and a riveting read of “Afro Blue” that had Hebel’s string soaring like a gypsy caravan and Sill searing through the rollicking beat.
From there, as Johnson joked, the band “entered Weather Report Land” , with a funky bass line of “Cucumber Slumber” caroming off the walls as Sill and Hebel jabbed and jived, while “Lusitanos” filled with Forman splashing bright colors of sound like a Peter Max painting. Phillips and DeLeon went arm in arm with the leader, kicking up the butanes to boiling hot before letting the sounds simmer to a calming close.
Adding extra color and widening the musical palate, vocalist Katie Hampton stepped up to the mic for an enchanting duet with Johnson on the intimate and exotic “O Que Sera” with the blending of Spencer’s strings during “Someday” (from Johnson’s latest album) adding to the romantic nuance of the melody.
Johnson closed things up with his patented and relentless bass line for the optimistic “Black Market” with the loping line a perfect foundation for the mixing of the three types of strings dancing with the percussion discussion. While the vast portion of the songs were close to a half century old, they sure sounded fresher than 95% of what these ears have been hearing the past year. What was the second set dedicated to the Mahavishnu Orchestra like??!?
Johnson’s renditions of pieces on albums like Tale Spinnin’ had the audience’s head spinnin’. WHEW!
Upcoming shows at The Baked Potato include Kara Grainger 09/11, Groove Legacy 09/12, Noy/Chambers/Haslip 09/15-16 and Mark Lettieri/Bob Reynolds 09/22