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SMV Concert at Rochester International Jazz Festival

Published on 06/16/09 - 0 Comments

This past Saturday night my daughter and I attended the SMV concert at the Eastman Theatre as part of the Rochester International Jazz Festival.

For the non bass addicts, SMV is Stanley Clark (Had the hit “School Days” back in the 70’s as well as playing with Return to Forever, Chick Corea and others), Marcus Miller (Jazz great that got his start with Miles Davis) and Victor Wooten (solo artist and bass player for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones).

After finding a parking spot about a mile away from the venue (the garage was packed), we arrived about 10 minutes after the start of the show.

All irritation with the parking situation disappeared when we walked into the theatre we were hit with an incredible sound from 3 electric basses, keyboard and drums. I’ve been to a lot of concerts and have never experienced so perfect a mix. It was very easy to discern each instrument and although it was loud, after two hours I didn't feel the aural exhaustion I usually feel coming out of rock shows.

There was so much going on between these three Masters of the bass that at one point I commented to my daughter I didn’t know where to look.

After playing a couple of songs from SMV’s Thunder album, Marcus introduced Victor. Everyone else left the stage and Victor proceeded to shred the bass for the next 15 or so minutes playing through “Me and my bass guitar”, into “Norwegian Wood” and back. It’s amazing that one person can make a 4 string instrument sound like a drum, bass, guitar and piano all at the same time. I’ve seen Victor do Amazing Grace on video and live with the Flecktones. But that doesn’t even hold a candle to what he did Saturday. I wanted to cry.

Then they played a few more excellent ensemble songs and before Victor introduced Marcus as “a Crazy bass player”. Marcus played for 4 or 5 minutes alone with the drummer then sat his bass down and picked up his bass clarinet. The first note he hit with the bass clarinet shook the rafters it was so low and pure. From there he started a medley of Jazz standards as the rest of the band slowly came back on stage and joined in. After about 10 minutes everyone was back on stage except Stanley, who walked on at the end with an acoustic upright bass.

Then it was time for Marcus to introduce Stanley. Stanley proceeded to destroy the upright bass in the same way that Victor had the electric. He started off playing Arco, evolved into flaminco guitar style and ended his 15 minutes flailing like a windmill ala Pete Townsend but on an upright bass.

The rest of the show was a slugfest between these three giants of the bass. These guys were having a great time playing together and it was clear that there was no competition between any of them. Just a love of their instruments and the music.

After about an hour and a half, the band said goodnight and left the stage.

Within 5 minutes they were back. Each took a turn to thank everyone for coming then Stanley announced one more song “an oldie but goodie” and launched into “School Days”. While playing they kept motioning for people to come to the edge of the stage and we did. The cell phone cameras came out and snapped as the band played the tune, shook peoples hands, and generally had a blast finishing off with the entire band signing the head from the snare drum and Marcus "frisbee" tossing it to the audience while they sang a short version of Happy Birthday to Marcus (his Birthday was this past Sunday).

If you ever get a chance to see this band, do it. I can’t wait for the video to come out.