All That Jazz

Apparently living in the city doesn't just mean we spontaneously go to events in the city, it also means we spontaneously go to events in Oakland.

Last night, two of my bf's coworkers, my bf, and I hopped BART to see James Carter, a saxophonist, and his "sax-tet" at Yoshi's in Oakland. I'm not really a jazz fan, don't really understand well enough to appreciate the music, but it was still an interesting night out. James Carter is apparently quite a famous saxophonist who seems to really like to explore every possible sound his instrument can make, from the sweetest, purest notes, to the loudest squawks and squeaks, to sustaining a note for long past when you think any human being could reasonably produce air and not need to breathe... His audience was highly appreciative, laughing at the expressive squawks and squeaks, cheering his super-fast, frenetic playing, and rocking their heads to the music. He was accompanied by a guy on the trumpet, an insane player on the piano, an awesome bassist (he played that bass like a piano, or something, every finger working away), a frenetic drummer (is there such a thing as a fat drummer? They get a full body workout!), and a musician who played a bit of everything - flute, a xylophone-looking instrument he was crazily good at, a number of percussive instruments... It's not really my style of music but it was neat to see. And it's interesting how each song is like 15 minutes long, so when they did their encore after an hour 15 minute long set, they basically extended their set by 20% (or whatever the math is). Pretty cool.

We had dinner at Everett & Jones BBQ, a couple blocks away. It was all right... Memphis Minnie's is better.