Raul Midon at Highline Ballroom

Last night I went to Raul Midon's concert at Highline Ballroom.
http://raulmidon.com/
This was second time to go his concert and last time was at Blue Note.
Maybe because of the venue and audience, last time he sang songs but he didn't talk much.
But this time, he sang songs so beautifully, funny, energetic and also he explained how he made the song, how to practice his magic instruments, why he started music and so on. I didn't know he was such a funny guy.
And I went there by myself so I could seat front table so I could see him just in front of me.
And how his hands moved was just unbelievable!!! His hands were like magic. They moved faster than feather of bees!!! And he made sounds of trumpet, playing guitar with guitar sounds and bass sounds at the same time!! Or he sang or made sounds of trumpet, play the guitar and play the percussion at the same time!!! He is crazy!!!
And when his friends told him "You are genius." He said he told them "just practicing!!!" He's just amazing!!!
Also he performed piano for the first time on stage in his life!! How lucky I am to see it!!
He was a little bit nervous about it and it was different from guitar performance but he was amazing even with piano... I liked both his guitar and piano:) And of course singing.

And what I enjoy there every time is conversation with the person at the same table.
Last night I could have good time even waiting time because I could talk with someone who was at the same table. I always enjoy this new meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro-21ivVHKU&feature=related

Surprise from Blue Note

A few days ago I found Blue Note was giving 2 seats for every show of Yellowjackets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGOoLicrQmk&feature=related
So I just applied without any expectation.
But yesterday around 4:30, they sent me email and they said I got those seats for 8pm show!!!
I was so surprised but just changed the cloth and I supposed to go to dinner with my friend so we went there together.
Yellowjackets was the jazz band who has been playing together for 30 years!!
Their music was like everyone played different things individually but those sounds got all together and made amazing music!!!

V.I.P even I didn't pay for seats... lol

I wanted to have something very American that day!!

And Sapporo beer is not mine...lol

Sooo big!!

His drums were amazing!!!! 

Interesting instrument... 

It was fun night!!

Chemical reaction of music!!

Last night I got chance to go to see the concert of Stanley Clarke Band featuring Hiromi.
A friend of mine who I met in the concert of Hiromi last winter asked me to go there....
I only saw her concert by herself but this time was different. Because they were playing music with deep communications. They listened and saw each other a lot and communicate with eyes, faces and sounds.
We could get seat just between of Hiromi and Stanley. Their communication was so interesting. I couldn't stop smiling whole show and after that my cheek had muscle ache....
And I've known how interesting instrument the bass is.... His bass was amazing!! I've never seen such a style of playing bass!!
After the show I could have chance to talk to Stanley and Hiromi but she was so aggressive on stage but when she stop playing she was just shy Japanese girl.... :) That makes me like her more though:)
Ummmm, music is magic!!

Blue Note

That night we wanted to try musical but we couldn't get the ticket so we went to Blur Note.
http://www.bluenote.net/newyork/index.shtml
And we saw the show of Diane Schuur!! She was awesome!!
My favorite one was "taking a chance on love" ... ummmm I love this song!!!
And it was fun to talked with ladies who from Canada too... lol
But it was funny to see how many Japanese were there...
I felt I was in Japan for a few hours. I could hear Japanese conversation as much as English... lol

Jazz Festival

Yesterday I went to Red Hook Jazz Festival.

When I heard about this I thought it must be big event. But when I went there, it was in small space and everyone was lying on grass and there were many kids running around.

And I really liked this.

Of course I like big event but this event was really comfortable and I could enjoy music and it was relaxing:)

I hope there are many event like this in Japan too...

昨日は近所で行われたレッドフックジャズフェスティバルに行って来ました。

最初にこのイベントの存在を知ったときにはどんなに大きな野外イベントかと思いましたが、行ってみると、とっても小さなスペースで小さなステージがあり、観客は思い思いに芝生の上に寝転んだり、子供が走り回ったり…とっても心地よく、リラックスして音楽を楽しむことができました。もちろん大きなイベントも好きですが、こんなのもいいですね。

日本にもこんなイベントがもっとあったらいいのにな。あるけど私が知らないだけなのかしら…。