Higher Ground benefit concert

[bassgeek]

Sorry if this has been posted already, but did anyone catch the Higher Ground benefit concert put on by Wynton and Jazz at Lincoln Center Saturday night? What a great concert! The list of performers was outstanding, with lots of great bassists. Here are some of the bassists who participated:

Reginald Veal: he played in lots of settings (JALC, trio with HERBIE HANCOCK and Idris Muhammed). Doubled on electric a few times.

Carlos Henriquez: sounded great with JALC and others; also doubled on electric.

Charnett Moffett: in trio with MCCOY Tyner and Al Foster. Played an interesting solo.

Neil Minor: with Jon Hendricks.

Rodney Jordon: best sound of the night IMO, with Marcus Roberts and Jason Marsalis.

Also worth mentioning (on electric bass, though): Bakithi Kumalo with Paul Simon, and great ebass player with Terence Blanchard.

I think I just heard a commercial on WFUV that they will re-broadcast this tonight (radio, not TV).

[Ed Fuqua]

Any interesting stories you'd like to relate?

I thought that was Neal; I ran into him the night before. He and Pete Malinverni were playing at BLUE FIN, which was around the corner from my gig.

I have to shamefacedly admit that I watched it with the sound turned off; I had just gotten my bass back from Jeff and was playing it all night.

[Craig Garfinkel]

Glad to hear it was happenin'...especially Neil Minor with Jon Hendricks. I was at my lesson at Ray Parker's pad this past Saturday and his homey Joel was in from Toledo specifically to work with and for Jon (he did the arranging for the gig), so we had a great hang and Joel was looking over the charts as we spoke. Great cat, and I'm sure he'll be thrilled when Ray tells him you dug it. Joel's a bass player and singer too...can't remember if he was singing that night with Jon or not.