Jazz Supergroup: Hancock, Shorter, Holland & Blade

WOW! WOW! WOW! I saw and heard these guys play last night, the opening concert for this year's Ottawa International Jazz Fest. It's hard to describe just how amazing this group of jazz geniuses was last night, as they will no doubt continue to be tonight in NYC and through the summer as they tour the European jazz fests.

Apparently, Ottawa and NYC are their only North American stops before they head off to Europe shortly. If they tour the US later this year and you are the least bit interested in jazz, you must get out to see/hear them.

Simply outstanding music and musicianship. They crafted beautiful, emotional, raw, real music out of seemingly simple and understated openings. Pieces lasted 15 to 20 minutes or more as they stretched out and played with the melodies, chords and rhythms. At times the structure of a tune was stretched almost to the breaking point, but always skillfully and artfully resolved and brought back to the underlying beat. Amazing stuff! To cap it off, they came back out for an encore and played a funky, energetic "Cantaloupe Island".

Just had to share (perhaps a bit boastfully) my thoughts and hope other Audiogoners have the opportunity to witness these jazz giants together.

Regards.

Max