Posted by On June 27th, 2013 the Ottawa jazz festival offered up some incredible, soul-elevating music, the kind that forces you to close your eyes tight so you can listen that much harder; the kind that makes you walk out of the concert in a daze, wondering how mere vibrations can affect you so very, very deeply. And Boz Scaggs too.
Not to belittle the very catchy-named Boz, whom wikipedia tells me* was actually born William Royce Scaggs (kinda surprised he didn’t name himself “Rolls”), but the show I saw inside the National Arts Centre at the tiny 4th Stage before his set eclipsed the multi-million selling Grammy winner by gigalumens. No disrespect to Scaggs – who did a fine job recreating both of his forty-year-old hits and several other songs besides – but c’mon now, as I stood in the field waiting for him to play Lowdown the quirky wonder of Kevin Breit’s slinky fingers still rang inside my head.
For Stretch Orchestra had just performed a mind-dropping set in front of a hundred amazed patrons inside the short and austere 4th Stage. Never heard of Stretch Orchestra you say? Well, in addition to being Canada’s tallest jazz trio (standing an average of 6’5”)** the had just won a freakin’ Juno Award (Best Height: Group)! I’ll say they’re big!
All kidding aside, Stretch Orchestra consists of the amazing Kevin Breit on guitar, which right there is more than enough for me but wait! There’s more! On drums was the monstrously talented and versatile Jesse Stewart – who can and does hit anything and everything with an unpredictable and organized musical manner – and Matt Brubeck on ‘cello. And yes, Matt is related – he’s Dave’s youngest son – but even more notably he has played and recorded with a ton of highly respectable musicians like, oh I don’t know, perhaps you’re familiar with Tom Waits, Sheryl Crow, or perhaps Yo-Yo Ma***?
So, you put my favourite guitarist in with a mad-scientist on percussion and a heavily steeped musical Renaissance Man on the mid-low end and you think I’m supposed to get excited about Lido Shuffle?!? Not a chance, buddy. Ninety minutes of frantic, thoughtful, jazz-ish melodic concepts and cascading spidery scales had focussed my mind in upon itself like a fractal kaleidoscope and not even a doubleshot of Steam Whistle draft beers was going to shake me loose.
Again, no disrespect to William Royce “Boz” Scaggs, who was…fine.
*Uh-huh, I actually occasionally do a smidgen of research for these things, in the same way some people research hydroxychloroquine or, say, cat videos. Today, such research revealed that Boz Scaggs was old buddies with Steve Miller, and he even appeared on Miller’s first two albums. I also learned that Scaggs’ second album featured the Muscle Shoals Swampers and session guitarist Duane Allman. Further, I learned that the band on his breakthrough album (1976’s Silk Degrees) was Toto – or at least the guys who would soon become Toto – and of course we all know that Toto were the musicians behind almost every big album ever by everyone for about a dozen years or so (another rabbit hole of research). And whattya know, despite all of today’s research none of these factoids appeared in this ticket story. Except asteristically, of course.
Hence the asterisk, otherwise I can’t bill for the research hours.
**See? Research.
***You guys don’t know the hours I spend.
Todd Man Out 