BeatNonStop A Weblog by Chris Macias Bee pop music critic Music geek (n. myü-zik 'gEk) 1: A person who proudly wore KISS commemorative pajamas in third grade. 2: A person who owns multiple copies of the same album, still buys vinyl and has a room dedicated to 2,000 or so CDs and records. 3. A person who wrote a five-part series about traveling with a local band in their stinky van - and loved every minute of it. 4: Chris Macias, the Bee's pop music critic, serving Sacramento's music scene since 1999.

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March 13, 2006

Classical Gas

This weekend was something like a press of the iPod “shuffle” button, and it started on Friday night with a trip to Lomo Argentine Grill in Old Sacramento. Jerry “Papa J” Martini was leading a duo and blowing some tasty saxophone licks while diners noshed on rib-eye steaks. Martini is the saxophonist from Sly & the Family Stone, and you might’ve seen Papa J blowing his horn during the Sly & the Family Stone reunion/tribute at the Grammy’s last month. I’d only heard Martini play funk and blues-rock, but this gig at Lomo was out of the jazz standards songbook (“Girl From Ipanema,” “Misty”). Papa J sounded very tasty, and so did his keyboard player, who played some nice walking bass lines that made the duo sound like a trio.

Later that night I popped into Old Ironsides to catch the Trouble Makers. The band was halfway through their set when I got there, so that was kind of a bummer. But at least I got to hear “Wild Man” and a few other garage-punk gems.

But the highlight of the weekend was Saturday night’s show with the London Philharmonic. It was my first symphonic concert at UC Davis’ Mondavi Center, and wow, Jackson Hall has some fantastic acoustics. The volume was practically at rock-concert levels when the London Philharmonic played at triple forte, but the nuances of softer passages were also well captured. Backstage after the show, conductor Osmo Vanska even remarked on how great Jackson Hall sounded.

I wasn’t too blown away by the concert’s first half, a violin concerto by Aram Khachaturian. I’d played some of Khachaturian’s “Gayaneh Ballet” back in my trumpet playing days, and remembered the composer’s flair for Armenian folk themes and charged rhythms. But this violin concerto felt kind of flat as a composition. The themes didn't really gel and the piece was merely a launching pad for Sergey Khachatryan’s violin heroics. Put this soloist on electric guitar and he’d be like Eddie Van Halen, but 45 minutes of cadenzas got a little old.

But the second half of the concert, Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1,” was a complete mind blower. The work encompasses so many emotions - triumph, tragedy, reconciliation and exaltation – and it’s delivered by a gorgeous sounding string section. The brass players were the rock stars of this group. The London Philharmonic has a huge horn sound, and the French horn licks from “Symphony No. 1” were brass nirvana. The brass was sometimes so pronounced that they overpowered the strings. But the finale of “Symphony No. 1” was all about turbo-charged energy, with Vanska practically jumping up and down on the podium and the London Philharmonic just cranking with power. Bravo? You could’ve given a cigarette lighter salute for this concert.

Posted by cmacias at 2:48 PM | Comments |