UPDATE: This original post contained videos of Snarky Puppy‘s May 24, 2012 performance at Cosmic Charlies in Lexington, KY. Since then, Snarky Puppy returned to Cosmic Charlies on August 16, 2012, and I have added videos from this performance also.
Snarky Puppy
August 16, 2012 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlies
Bent Nails (ending), Mr. Montauk, Earflower, Thing of Gold:
Barry Mando Project
August 16, 2012 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlies
unknown song:
Snarky Puppy SBD audio can be streamed or downloaded from Live Music Archive.
Snarky Puppy
May 24, 2012 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlies
Binky (ending), Strawman, White Cap:
Snarky Puppy
May 24, 2012 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlies
Flood (with Amber Baker on drums) (daughter of Terry Baker, drummer for Kirk Franklin), Bent Nails, Quarter Master:
Sexual Disaster
May 24, 2012 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlies
Now Or Never, Improvisation:
It’s not often you get to see master New Orleans drummer Johnny Vidacovich play outside the city of New Orleans. But last November at Bear Creek Music Festival the man was everywhere sitting in with at least 5 different acts. I captured quite a big chunk of Bear Creek with my video camera, and I got some great footage of JohnnyV.
First I want to share a few videos of The Trio (which is the name of Johnny’s weekly Thursday night gig at the Maple Leaf, whether it involves 3 players or not). This particular Trio gig featured George Porter Jr on bass along with Jennifer Hartswick on trumpet. Freekbass was also a special guest for this set.
The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(4 of 4) Big Chief:
The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick (w/ Freekbass)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(2 of 4) Don’t Be Squeezin’ My Heart:
The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick (w/ Freekbass)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(3 of 4) Don’t Be Squeezin’ My Heart (cont.):
The Trio: Johnny Vidacovich, George Porter Jr & Jennifer Hartswick
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1 of 4) Careful Who You Idolize:
Next up is JohnnyV sitting in with Jon Cleary‘s “Piano, Bass & Drums” group, which features Johnny’s longtime Astral Project collaborator James Singleton on bass. BTW, the drummer on the second video here is Doug Belote, a drummer of quite some repute down in Cajun country. [Interesting factoid, Doug Belote briefly replaced Raymond Weber in Dumpstaphunk for a short run of shows in December of 2010 when Raymond was busy filming episodes of the HBO TV show Treme.]
Jon Cleary: Piano, Bass & Drums (w/ Johnny Vidacovich)
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Reconsider Baby, Get Low Down:
Jon Cleary: Piano, Bass & Drums
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
I Get The Blues, Tipitina:
Finally, I have some videos of Johnny sitting in with Marco Benevento performing the James Booker classic, Junco Partner. After that is a few more Marco Benevento videos, including one where Marco passes me his bottle of Makers Mark from the stage. That was a good start to the afternoon!
Marco Benevento (w/ Johnny Vidacovich)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Junco Partner (James Booker cover) (1 of 2):
Marco Benevento (w/ Johnny Vidacovich)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Junco Partner (James Booker cover) (2 of 2):
Marco Benevento (w/ Robert Walter)
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse cover):
Marco Benevento
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Greenpoint, The Real Morning Party:
Marco Benevento
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
The Real Morning Party (cont.), Atari:
Marco Benevento
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
Hearbeats (The Knife cover):
And if you made it this far, then you are certainly a big JohnnyV fan. At that, you will be glad to know that Johnny was recently added to the Live Music Archive. I have recently uploaded over 30 audio recordings spanning from 2001 to 2011 and they are all available to be streamed or downloaded for free over at http://www.archive.org/details/JohnnyVidacovich.
Last night I saw Lionel Loueke & his trio make sounds that were at times radiant, beautiful, and even mischievous, but always, in Herbie Hancock‘s characterization, fearless. As Mr. Loueke himself put it last night, “there is some joy on the stage.” In fact, the encore nearly brought tears to my eye.
Anyway, I tested out my new Tascam DR-2d recorder and pulled a pretty nice audio recording. You can listen to one track above, and the full recording can be found at dimeadozen.org. UPDATE: An even better recording than mine has become available: here.
Also, while I’m on the Lionel Loueke tip, I want to share the MP3’s of an impromptu Superjam at the 2005 Bonnaroo Music Festival that featured Herbie Hancock, Lionel Loueke, Pino Palladino, and Questlove. A few days after the performance, Questlove began posting the SBD MP3’s one by one to the okayplayer.com messageboards. I quickly scooped them up and I have gone back numerous times and enjoyed this 90 minute set of improvisation. The full download is here. BTW, Questlove is the one that named the tracks, but they are all improvisations.
