My friend Chris came through on another jazz band recommendation. Tonight we hit the Centre to see the “Al Dimeola World Sinfonia” which, being that I’m not tied into the jazz scene, I have never heard of. Well it turns out that Al Dimeola is on of the premier jazz guitarists in the world!
Before I get into that show, let me talk about the opening act, Celso Machado. Celso is an older Brazilian guy who came on stage and dove into some great songs on his acoustic guitar. We were expecting a really good show with him and his guitar but then he put it down and started slapping his hands on his body for a percussive effect while he warbled and called out these sounds that would make you think you were in the Brazilian jungle! At one point he even started drumming on his bottled water.
After Celso we were introduced to Al Dimeola who, like I mentioned before, is one of the world’s top jazz guitar players. His enthnically-diverse band was amazing too. The Hungarian accordion player nearly stole the show from him and it was tough to focus on one player since they were all outstanding.
I need to cut this short and get some sleep since we’ve got another show tomorrow night. It’s another band I’ve never heard of but I expect it’ll blow me away too. The thing I love about these jazz shows is the calibre of musicianship is through the roof. It’s going to be tough to be impressed by the next couple of rock bands I see.