Tonight I was in musical heaven. Andy Roberts, LVC’s jazz piano instructor, is responsible for putting together a monthly jazz evening together at MJ’s coffeehouse here in Annville. This month it featured our sax professor, Thomas Strohman. He was joined by Westchester’s Peter Paulsen on bass and John Peifer on drums. John plays in Strohman’s jazz group, Third Stream. The night was amazing. It was just two hours of perfection. I saw one mistake happen in the whole night. The drummer missed the swing feel in A Night in Tunisia. Even then, he exploited his mistake and made a musical idea out of it creating something more beautiful than if he had never made the mistake in the first place. This struck me especially because it’s kind of reflective of how I feel we should deal with mistakes in life. That’s me being all philosophical when listening to jazz. Reading some existentialist literature lately is prodding me on in that area.

Any way. Tommy Stroh was just amazing. He pushes us on in our own jazz study so much and I’ve heard him talk about musical concepts so much. But it’s nice to know he can actually do it. And not just do it, he excels at it. He’s just perfectly musical. It’s so difficult to describe anything musical in writing but I believe that listening to a jazz musician who’s unencumbered by technical inhibitions (or any musician for that matter) is like seeing a door straight into them. And if that’s so then Mr. Strohman is alive and wild with a deep playfulness and a passion for those around him. Just listening to him playing off the other guys is so amazing. And yet there is still that reserved character that those who truly know him can appreciate any time he sees you and shoots you a big smile in greeting. It all comes through in his playing. I felt like tonight was his going away present for us seniors and I am so thankful for that.

Peter Paulsen played bass. He is the bass instructor at Westchester University. He was amazing. Almost as impressive as his playing abilities was his tone. It was both clear and bassy. This is rare in bass tone. Normally you get one or the other. You get to hear the individual notes or you get to feel the bass effect. I can’t even describe how creamy and smooth his tone was. I wish I had a recording so that before any gig I ever played I could listen to it and try to emulate it. It was the best bass tone I’ve ever heard live. My favorite moment of the concert was his solo in What Is This Thing Called Love. He bowed the solo; which was amazing. I’ve heard tons of bowed solos before and it never really did it for me like it did tonight. What really amazed me was his scooping into the notes that he placed every once in a while so perfectly. Don’t get me wrong. Scooping does not = expressiveness by any means. It can be overdone, a concept that Kenny G doesn’t understand. However, bass is so often intonationally challenged that to hear it move and express like a horn was gorgeous. He just did it so well. Definitely one of the best bass solos I’ve ever heard.

John Peifer was the drummer. He plays drums for Strohman’s group, Third Stream. They do mostly jazz but also pop covers and what not. So Strohman is very used to playing with him. All of the people who played there have probably played together before in some aspect. Jazz is such and incestuous art. The community involved is a beautiful thing. Anyway, John was a lot of fun to watch. He showed so many different faces throughout the evening. Surprise, joy, confusion. You could see that the music he was playing was coming from his feelings. He wasn’t an overtly busy drummer. I normally enjoy really busy drummers for some reason. His solos were very good. They never stood alone; they were always communicating with those around him; playing off of Strohman’s ideas or what not. My favorite groove he laid down was during What is This Thing Called Love. It was an extremely simple ride beat. It just felt like once he got into it he had started this perpetual motion that if he had gotten too busy with, would have totally thrown off everything. Sometimes that’s the joy of good jazz drumming; accenting the steady groove with variation. But this was different. Throwing this off would have been like taking earth out of orbit just to see what would’ve happened. Not a good thing. He just rode on and the band grew over top of it. It was hot.

Then Andy Roberts. What to say of this man! He was the M.C. of the night so it was fun to take on that role. This, sadly, is only the second jazz night at MJ’s I’ve been to. But I can imagine he is a quite endearing host throughout the entire season. To his playing: I have a friend who I asked about going to the show tonight and he declined. He said that he’s seen Andy play before and he said that while he was technically amazing, he didn’t really move him. While this is quite a matter of personal tastes, I respect my friend’s musical opinions most of the time. However, after hearing Andy play tonight I’m greatly confused by his observation. I personally feel that Andy is so technically proficient at his craft that any needless virtuosity or simple imitation of licks gives way to pure personal expression. He truly spoke truths to me through his playing that no language can convey. There is something deeply universal and human about music that I find in few other experiences. Different levels of players can reach that true pure expression on different levels of playing and some people are to skilled for there own good but that is far from where I experienced Andy to be tonight. He was deeply passionate in his playing and fed my desire for expressive beauty that I knew would be fulfilled this evening. It was so good. So, next month I hope Stief and I can come up from York to check it out again. It’ll be a new band and a new featured musician with Andy. It’ll be fun.

The whole experience just made my night come alive. Courtney came over and smoked and chilled with Stief and I and then Jordan and Rachel came over and chilled for a little bit. I just sat out on the front step smoking my cigar, talking to my friends, and listening to the traffic go by in this wonderful environment that I will miss so much in 2 weeks. It was all so gorgeous. Just a wonderful night.

Beyond the musical experience of the night, I just have to give a big thank you to some of my friends who I’ve hurt recently. I’m really a fickle person. Those of you who know me know this to be true. And that’s really painful to those who care about me. So I have to thank some individuals around me for their patience in recent matters. As I’ve told Stief recently, I’ve come to believe that amongst other things, friends are an inconvenience (not that they are just inconveniences that’s just one thing they are) and it is how we deal with these inconveniences that shapes our relationships and truly shows who we are. One can be gracious in our actions or one can be fare in our actions. Even worse we can be selfish in our actions. Lately I’ve been being selfish in my actions and I wait with hope and faith to see how graciously those around me will deal with me.  ¶ 3:01 AM