Gilles & Company in San Francisco
It’s Monday night, and it’s quite late. I’ve spent some of my day preparing the two most recent shows. While the editing takes some time to do prior to creating the final audio files to upload, the most time consuming part (next to actually recording the shows) is the long wait for the final audio file to render. If you can imagine a two-hour show having to generate into the final mp3, it takes about an hour on my machine. And we aren’t talking about the time it takes to edit, do some minor slicing and dicing, and cleaning up the audio enough so that the volume is more-or-less even. But that’s how it goes for now.
So while I’m waiting for the file to finish up (I still have one more show to put together before I’m done), I thought that I’d take a little time to share with you my adventures from last weekend.
First, I gotta say that it indeed was a good one. It was great to see friends old and new who are also into the music scene, and are/were involved in radio, promotions, or some related aspect of the scene.
I’ve had dinner with Rocky Rococo, who is a DJ that fills in once a month for the Rucker Park show on San Jose’s KFJC. Also joining us was Frank, formerly known as Reggie Halogen and Frankie Cutless, who is also a KCPR alumnus and possesses a rather sardonic wit. We’ve spoken a great deal about nu-jazz, radio, jazz, and other aspects while consuming a delicious Thai dinner at a great restaurant that we’ve eaten at before during the San Jose Jazz Fest.
Then it was time for us to break up and for me to make the trek to San Francisco. That, in of itself, was a bit of an oddessy. Getting on the freeway was easy, but I was thrown off a little bit after crossing the city limit and ended up out of bounds. I was given directions by both a gas station attendant and a gentleman at a convenience store. Alas, I’ve meandered around and had to call Mr. Rococo, who had given me the directions on how to get the venue from San Jose. The second set of directions he gave me over the phone ended up getting me out of jam and within the general area nearest the venue. By then, I was about two hours’ over when I was expecting to arrive.
From there came a bit of walking up and down streets, and calling up another friend, Kate, whom I was to meet at the venue. I’ve already spoken with her on the phone about thirty minutes earlier when I was lost during the drive, and spoke to her again about my arrival to the city. I was a bit disoriented. Argh!
After another hour of having to go through false alley ways and given the wrong directions several times while walking on foot, eventually a security guard gave me what was needed to find the place. By this time, it was almost midnight, but I saw a line with people that I’ve struggled to look for in the other alleys without luck.
The venue, The Mezzanine, was once a dot-com, I’m told. It has a swanky-looking exterior, that’s for sure. I’m sure the current owners of the property felt rather fortunate, because it’s a nice location for a club.
inside, I’ve found my friend Kris, who is also a KCPR alumnus. Then Kate found me and it was sort of a roundabout KCPR reunion, except that Kris and Kate were meeting each other for the first time. Kris left to be with his friends for a bit while I was with Kate for about 20 minutes. She had already been in the venue for two hours, and had to leave due to the impending overnight closure of the Bay Area Bridge. She lives north of the bridge, so she would have been otherwise stranded.
The timing of my arrival was good, because right about then the live performances were about to begin. Tastemaker Gilles Peterson, who was on tour to promote his BBC Radio Sessions live album, introduced Virgin soul crooner Dwele. He arrived on stage and did a live P.A. of some of his tunes from both his newest album and his previous debut of two years ago. The women were quite responsive to this groove. He was then joined by Kajmere group The Rebirth, who backed him up on a few tunes. He did some electric keys while performing one of his tunes from his first album. Overall, a respectable performance.
Then Gilles introduced The Rebirth, and they were surely the better live performance of the night. They possessed soul and energy that had the audience working things up. Noelle and Carlos, the two leads, did the business of working up the crowd, and upping the ante with a killer performance. They’ve performed both album cuts and cover tunes, and at times cutting through a tune with a few bars from familiar soul tunes that drove the crowd nuts.
It’s been said that it was their cover of “Evil Vibrations” that was usually the highlight of their live performances, and it was no exception this time around, with the audience by then dancing hard and singing along.
Somewhere along the last third of their set, band leader Carlos introduced Rich Medina to the audience. He did what seemed to have been one long spoken dialogue to a quiet, standing audience, encapsulating most of his previous spoken words over several tunes into one. I question if it was the appropriate time to drop it, especially during an otherwise dancey atmosphere. Still, he was greeted with cheers from the audience in the end.
After The Rebirth’s set ended on a high note with “This Journey In,” Gilles took the decks. By then it was around 1:45am, with the entire live schedule already pushed back by 45 minutes. But the audience got into his groove. He had a good time rocking the peeps with a combination of new tunes, old faves, and quite a bit of cutting and teasing on the CD decks. Of course, the almighty Technics were there to accomodate the vinyl collection that he has great pride in. I’ve danced for a bit in the very front next to some lovelies who were having a great time.
After a bit of dancing, Kris’s eagle eyes once again spotted some peeps. He caught Tom Thump, whom I’ve met some time back when Nicola Conte did a gig during one of his club events. We’ve had a brief chat, after which Rich Medina came along (once again, thanks to Kris). We’ve chatted for a bit, and Kris used his camera phone to get a shot. I don’t have the picture yet, but hope to get it soon. Man, the guy is tall! But he was gracious and appreciative all the while.
Shortly afterwards, Marky, yet another KCPR alum and one of the promoters of the event (he’s with an outfit called Massive Selector), had a bit of a chat session catching up with what he’s been up to. Following that, I was introduced to Hakobo, one of the members of the Fresco crew. He’s a nu-jzz fan just like me, and I really dig that. He’s been supporting that aspect of the scene, and I look forward to knowing him a bit more in time. I was also introduced to a few others, including people from the Kajmere label.
It was about time for me to wrap up the night. On my way up, I was told that I could see Gilles whenever I was ready to greet him on stage. And surely, I went to him and gave him a hug. We’ve exchanged greetings and well-wishes, as I didn’t want to break his stride. He was on a roll, and he was having such a great time that the local DJs decided to let him close the night. That should have been a great treat for the dancers, who were having fun and enjoying the music.
So that’s my tale of San Francisco, or at least a part of it. As I finish typing this,I have a little while longer before the second show that I’ve worked on today (yes, I’ve finished the first in-between writeups) is ready to load online. I’m rather tired now, as it is about 2am. I’m going to pay for it at work tomorrow night (or rather tonight), but that’s how it goes.
I hope to get in more in the way of music news this week, so look out for it. Stay coolio!
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