Best jazz concert you've ever ben to?

[sk8terguy316]

This thread is for all the jazzers.

What was your favorite jazz concert you have ever been to in your life?

I will go first, For me it was the Ron Carter birthday concert at Carnegie Hall in NYC, it was amazing. It was like a who's who of jazz legends and it was a fantastic show it included the following:

Trio: Ron Carter with Mulgrew Miller and Russell malone

Duo: Ron Carter with Jim Hall

Ron Carter's modern quartet

Quartet: Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Billy Cobham

your turn

[lefty007]

Oh, man, too many to mention:

-Chick Corea with the Origin Band (early 2000s) with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard.

-Ray Brown at the Blue Note, a few months before he passed.

-Believe it or not, Meshell Ndegeocello with the Spirit Music Jamia Project. It was definitely jazz, and just brilliant.

-John Scofield at Yoshi's, early 2000s.

-Wayne Krantz with Anthony Jackson at Bar 55.

[KJung]

I have six that are very memorable... in no particular order:

- L.A. 4 with Ray Brown in a small club on Rush street in Chicago during NAMM in the late 70's or very early 80's, with George Benson sitting at the bar! Amazing.

- Keith Jarrett Standards trio at Chicago Symphony hall about 5 or 6 years ago... stunning!

- Weather Report... the classic line-up with Acuna, Jaco, etc. at Jessie Auditorium at the University of Missouri sometime in the 70's (it gets a little cloudy on the memory if you know what I mean). Weather Report at the absolute TOP of their game.

- Return to Forever... the 'Romantic Warrior' tour in the 70's at the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis.

- Opening week of the 'Return of the Brecker Brothers' tour at the Blue Note in NY.. with Chambers, Stern, Genus and Chambers... whew, was that something.

- The Modern Jazz Quartet 'Farewell Tour' at Powell Symphony Hall... late 70's... total class.

Nice memories....

Edit: OK... two more:

- The first Pat Metheny band tour with Egan and Gottlieb at Washington University... I had never heard anything like that at the time

- Paco DeLucia's American Tour about 10 years ago (I believe at Powell Hall in St. Louis), and the recent Chick Corea tour with most of Paco's band, at the Detroit Symphony Hall.

[Jazzdogg]

Oscar Peterson trio at the Catamaran hotel in San Diego back in the seventies;

Sarah Vaughan in Denver - on her birthday - in the early eighties. She accompanied herself on piano for about six songs for her encore;

Bill Watrous at Dante's (used to be in Universal City, CA. No longer exists) in the early eighties. We sat front-row-center (when I asked my wife and her girlfriend how they liked the performance, they were both bothered by the fact that brass players empty their spit-valves on the stage while performing )

Ray Brown at the Club Loa (used to be in West L.A. No longer exists) with John Clayton

[MysticMichael]

• Return To Forever at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan - October 1974
  
• The Chick Corea Electric Band - featuring Bunny Brunel on bass - in Orlando, Florida - October 1982
  
• Bruford-Levin Upper Extremities (with David Torn & Chris Botti) - The Knitting Factory in New York - September 1998
  
• McCoy Tyner Trio at the Blue Note in New York - November 1998
  
• Maynard Ferguson Big Band at Ronnie Stott's in London - August 2000
  
• Bugge Wesseltoft and his band at Club Soda (Montréal Jazz Festival) in Montréal - June 2005

MM

[scootron]

Cedar Walton Trio - Village Vanguard NYC 2004

Javon Jackson feat. Dr. Lonnie Smith - Seattle, WA 2003

Ted Ludwig Trio feat. Joe Vick on double bass - My House 2006

Ted Ludwig is a fantastic young jazz player from New Orleans, displaced by Katrina. I predict we will be hearing a lot from him in the years to come. He plays 7-string archtop guitars made by Jimmy Foster, and is an amazing young talent.

[Mojo-Man]

For bass.
Pat Matheny Group.
Jaco and Bob Moses.

Same club.
Bill Buford One of A Kind.
Allan Hollsworth, guitar, Jeff Berlin Bass.

[werbo1]

Trio!: Stanley Clarke, Bela Fleck, Jean Luc Ponty at SPAC Freihofers jazz festival 2004 I think.

Also there was the Jean-Michel Pilc Trio who impressed me very much.

Saw an "experimental" Jazz concert in Kingston with Brian Haas, Jason Smart, Reed the bass player from JFJO, and The Benevento Russo duo

[Munjibunga]

Dave Koz consistently puts on very entertaining shows, and his bass player, Bill Sharpe (The Rubberhand Man) is a blast to watch. Check this at about 3:20.

Dave Koz - You Make Me Smile

[markjazzbassist]

Chris Botti - Last year playing with Earth, Wind and Fire. James Genus playing bass, billy childs on keys, billy kilson on skins they were all smoking good.

Jack DeJohnette and Giovanni Hidalgo - Tri-C Jazz Fest 3 years ago. Sweet dang rhythm brothers. this was a night of drumming and rhythm awesomeness. Hidalgo is absolutely INSANE of the congas. Don Byron on sax and clarinet, some sweet keys, bass, and aux percussion dude as well.

Chucito Valdes - At Nighttown in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago. HOT DANG, i love latin music, and this cat could jam and then some. HIs bro on skins, some white dude on upright, and a sax player, Yikes man, made me wanna move to mexico.

[Foamy]

Count Basie and his band at a Jr High School in San Jose, California
Rampal and Bolling at a winery in Saratoga, California
Woody Herman at Vallco Mall in Cupertino, California

[ThomasG]

One of the best Jazz concerts I have been to was the Mike Stern Quartet with Victor Wooten on bass and the unbeleiavable nasty powerful Dennis Chambers on drums ! The saz players name eludes me at the moment. But Stern was smokin, Victor was Victor, and Dennis Chambers blew the M*&******* F**&** up !!!!!!! MIT is right next door and I think the whole school was there that night !

[Passinwind]

Sun Ra at The Bottom Line, NYC, mid-70s. w/30 piece band! If I have to pick only one, this is it...

Also:
ECM Festival, Avery Fisher Hall, NYC, mid-70s. Jarrett, Metheny, DeJohnette, Towner, Eberhard Weber, Steve Swallow, John Abercrombie, etc.
Ornette Coleman and Prime Time, Seattle Opera House, mid-80s.
Billy Cobham/George Duke band, w/Scofield and Alphonso Johnson, University Of Vermont, mid-70s.
Oregon, Hunt's, Burlington VT, mid-70s.
Pat Metheny Group, Hunt's, mid-70s.
Dave Holland Quintet, Rainbow, Seattle, mid-80s.
Jack DeJohnette, Rainbow, mid-80s.
Miles Davis, Paramount, Seattle, mid-80s.
Joni Mitchell, Providence Civic Center, Shadows and Light tour w/Jaco, Brecker, Metheny, Mays.
Mahavishnu Orchestra, Staples High School, Westport CT, early 70s.
Shakti, Central Park, NYC, mid-70s.
Jeff Beck, some country club in southern CT, mid-70s.
Paul Winter Consort, Joel Barlow High School, Redding CT, early 70s.

That's maybe a tenth of the great ones I've seen.

[Blake Bass]

Pat Metheny with Christian McBride in Annapolis, MD

Mike Stern with Richard Bona and Dennis Chambers in Washington, DC

Yellowjackets a few times in Washington, DC

[Dave Siff]

I saw Dave Holland's quintet at Birdland a few years ago, and it was amazing. They absolutely blew the roof off the place.
And, Christian McBride in 1998 at a wonderful venue called Spivey Hall, about 30 minutes south of Atlanta. A true virtuoso performance on both upright and electric.

[bassybill]

John McLaughlin / Billy Cobham / Jack Bruce / Stu Goldberg - Rainbow, London, 1979.

Weather Report on Night Passage tour, Birmingham Odeon, 1980.

Buddy Rich a few times - the best gig I remember him on was sometime in the late 70's.

Fusion rather than jazz, but I saw Brand X and Bruford on a double bill at Dudley Town hall and the playing was amazing. Also saw Allan Holdworth with Gary Husband about the same time, supported by a terrific vibes player called Ian Ballantyne. I think this gig was at Birmingham library!

I also remember being absolutely knocked out by a big band run by Jack Sheldon at the Moonlight Tango in Sherman Oaks on a visit to LA in 1994.

More surprisingly, I once saw this lineup in a little pub on a Sunday lunchtime in Blackheath (just a few miles out of Birmingham)...

Local jazz drummer Tony Richards
Violinist Ric Sanders (Second Vision / Albion Band, if I remember rightly)
A guitarist called Fred (also something to do with the Albion band, I think)
Steve Richardson on BG (his dad was a local sax player who my own Dad used to know quite well)

They blew me away, and a young guy I was working with at the time (a violinist) also. It was one of the greatest musical experiences I've ever had, just virtuoso performances all around that the likes of many of us can only dream about. And the two of us were the only audience in the place for the whole session - about 90 minutes I think. The band were really friendly and we stopped chatting to them for a while at the end. I remember thinking "Why are guys THIS talented playing in a pub to two people on a Sunday lunch time?" I still don't really get it twenty-five years later. Or maybe I do.

[CamMcIntyre]

Count Basie Big Band a few years back at my High School.

Wayne Shorter Quartet on the Foot Prints Live Tour a few years back at Butler University.

Pat Metheny at Symphony Center/Orchestra Hall 2005-i got hired onto the CSO Store the week of that concert. It went i was hired, the concert, i started.

Seein Guitar Madness [John McLean & Friends] at the Green Mill was great.

[Marcus Willett]

There's been a few, but 2 really stand out for me, both in 1987.

Michael Brecker during his first tour for his first solo release at the Musician's Exchange in Ft Lauderdale. I was front row, perhaps 7-8 feet away from the band, at the most...pretty amazing stuff.

Also, I was one of those who attended Jaco's funeral (also in Ft Lauderdale) and the (sort-of) concert at La T's and the jam at the Holiday Inn afterwards was an amazing night. In particular, seeing Pat Metheny (whom I had just met earlier at the funeral) and Peter Erskine jamming as a duo was mind-blowing. Borderline religious experience that night was....

[Deacon_Blues]

I haven't been to many jazz concerts with internationally famous artists, but I've seen quite a few really great shows by local and Scandinavian jazzers. I'll try to list a few of them:

Any concert with the great Finnish vibraphonist Severi Pyysalo. He's simply amazingly talented, absolute world elite class! If you ever get a chance to see him or hear him, do so!
A jazz guitarist I know made a Yellowjackets tribute gig once, "transposing" the keyboard parts to the guitar. That was great too!
I also absolutely love good big band music: I've seen a couple of concerts by the swedish XL Big Band, and one with Kvarken Big Band, a Swedish/Finnish big band.

There's many more, but I can't remember them now...