No Way No Way NO WAY!!!!!!

Not a political rant tonight; this was the strand runnning through my head last night as I watched the Christian McBride Quartet rip through an eighty-minute five-song set of incredible modern jazz. Sax, drums, piano with moog and synth and bass, both electric and acoustic. Not much ground can be broken with these four, you probably think. I challenge you to catch this group live and be able to keep that same thought. Terreon Gulley is just about the most incredible drummer I've laid eyes on and I put him right up with Jeff "Tain" Watts. Three of the five songs, I couldn't even find the time signature for about half the song, Gulley's rhythms were so comples. The technical ability of these players matched the soul of their playing and what I saw left smoke on the stage of Yoshi's last night. My only criticism is that modern playing doesn't necessarily need to mean six hundred million miles a second, which often, many modern players suffer from. Sometimes there were just too many notes and yet there aren't that many groups out there that wow you with both musicianship and grace. Last night, I saw it.

My Spring Break has come to a close. Wah wah, you whiny school teacher you; you get two weeks off in the middle of March. Join the rest of society that, if lucky, gets two weeks off at all. I know this and so I am grateful for my profession. I'm just at the point that I'm tired of being sick as colds have kept me down for the count for seventy five percent of the break. Also, with spending so much time with my son, I've just hit a niche with him where we understand how we work when we spend 24/7 for several straight days. I've come to fall deeper in love with my little guy and seeing him learn and grow and develop makes it all so. To watch him problem solve, think or maneuvre his way through situations really makes me have a deeper appreciation for the human condition and see just how learning and development takes place. It is a bit of a miracle that life forms are able to grow and mature; the fact that my little boy is another gift of life that I have the responsibility and treat to raise makes me thank God for all of the weird but beautiful things we all go through daily.