Smalls Concert Report
On October 20th, 2017 I attended a performance at Small’s Jazz Club, in Greenwich Village. Smalls is a very cozy, comfy, underground club and I loved that it was so tiny because the sound was bouncing all around the room. I was very enthusiastic about dragging my 2 best friend to a jazz club, for my unappreciated fondness for jazz. We saw the Scott Wendholt/Adam Kolker Quartet. Scott Wendholt was on the trumpet, Adam Kolker on tenor saxophone, Ugonna Okegwo on bass, and Billy Drummond on drums. This whole performance lasted about an hour long, but it definitely felt shorter. I noticed that there was mainly a young crowd, but then the people we sat next to were middle-aged. The crowd was very respective and clapped when it was appropriate,
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It wasn’t until a minute and a half until the drums and upright bass came in. The co leaders (Wendholt & Kolker) introduced this song with their own solos. The actual song by Thelonious Monk, had a more classy vibe, whereas the quartet had a more jumbled vibe. They definitely included their own style into this song. One thing I observed with the drums at a jazz club, the drum sticks are held differently. Instead of a vertical hit, the sticks are held with a tilt, so its like the drummer is flicking the drum. The next song they performed, “Coo Coo”, is actually written by Kolker, the saxophonist. He told the audience he wrote it for someone a while back, hence the title of the song was what he thought of them. It is a very fast paced song, more with a funk element. It featured a trumpet and saxophone solo, and it was very visible that the drummer was working hard throughout the whole song. There were times of purposeful dissonance and had many dynamics which made the song have a mysterious feel. The saxophonist and trumpeter carried the melody through certain parts of the song. They were very much into the song, espcially in this one because one of the members actually wrote the song. The bassist and the drummer had a special connection, they really blended together. The third and final song was by Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, entitled “Halucha”. This was the hardest piece out of all, the bassist was working very intently and the drummer had his own
It wasn’t until a minute and a half until the drums and upright bass came in. The co leaders (Wendholt & Kolker) introduced this song with their own solos. The actual song by Thelonious Monk, had a more classy vibe, whereas the quartet had a more jumbled vibe. They definitely included their own style into this song. One thing I observed with the drums at a jazz club, the drum sticks are held differently. Instead of a vertical hit, the sticks are held with a tilt, so its like the drummer is flicking the drum. The next song they performed, “Coo Coo”, is actually written by Kolker, the saxophonist. He told the audience he wrote it for someone a while back, hence the title of the song was what he thought of them. It is a very fast paced song, more with a funk element. It featured a trumpet and saxophone solo, and it was very visible that the drummer was working hard throughout the whole song. There were times of purposeful dissonance and had many dynamics which made the song have a mysterious feel. The saxophonist and trumpeter carried the melody through certain parts of the song. They were very much into the song, espcially in this one because one of the members actually wrote the song. The bassist and the drummer had a special connection, they really blended together. The third and final song was by Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, entitled “Halucha”. This was the hardest piece out of all, the bassist was working very intently and the drummer had his own