Jazz at Wild Birds - Anniversary Concert

It’s more dangerous than it looks.

The thing that makes Jazz Jazz is the crazy improvisational risk that is at the heart of it. Typically, while there’s a known rhythm, a shared melody, a few rifts agreed upon beforehand, there’s a lot that’s unknown and unpredictable. At times, everyone is improvising, and if there’s bad juju, things can go horribly wrong. Add an audience, fuel them with alcohol, and you never know what’s going to happen.

This was one of those nights.

It was our local place Wild Birds’s first birthday, and they’d brought together an all star band featuring Alex Asher’s Thursday night Quartet showcasing the great Wayne Tucker on Trumpet. There had just been emotional and inspiring speeches, an almost religious revival touching on the why of live music, and the crowd was ready for a good time.

Sometimes the magic just happens.

I think what makes live music so special is that you’re not really sure what’s going to happen. I kinda hate prepackaged concerts where everything is played just like the recording. I want the musicians to sweat, for there to be some danger of a mistake. And then when it works, it’s truly magical, even the band is surprised a bit. The whole house is shaking, people are dancing, the musicians are vibing with the audience and the audience is responding to the musicians, and it’s the greatest high you can get, even perfectly sober. This was one of those nights, and one I wanted to capture on paper.

Painting is scary too.

When I paint, I take myself back to the time and place, and try to recreate both the feeling and the look of that moment. That night was special; I felt like I was part of something bigger, and I wanted to bring that feeling to the work. There’s a lot of improvisation in this painting, but there’s also structure. I wanted to capture the energy and the back and forth of the crowd and the musicians, the darkness of the club lit by the vibrations and brilliance of the music.

It’s a diptych for a reason.

Just like the musicians play off each other, I wanted the two sides to interact similarly. Each painting can stand on its own, but the two together play off each other.

The original paintings are each 24" x 18". For the diptych, you can either purchase prints at 22" x 34" or 19" x 26". The larger size is a more accurate representation of the original.

The prints are gorgeous, printed on Hahnemuhle paper with pigment ink.