Lawrence Ku septet rocks the house
The final concert in Shanghai Center theater’s “Jazzy saturday” concert series was a major success this past saturday evening. The house was nearly three-quarters full when Lawrence Ku and his band walked on stage, and they all stuck around to hear us play two smokin’ sets of his compositions and arrangements. The audience was quite receptive, taking the cues to clap for solos at the appropriate times and not letting cell phones ring incessantly or talking loudly on them during the show. In fact the entire band was impressed with how well the mostly local audience remained attentive throughout.
I had a great time playing, as Lawrence’s charts are all interesting and creative, and the band was solid. Everyone sounded great. One thing that makes his tunes so fun to play is that he sets up different types of sections for different people to blow over, and has good intros and transitions, backgrounds and shout choruses. None of this boring head-solos-head stuff that so many jazz gigs are.
Lawrence is planning a recording session later in the summer, so he should have an album out of his own stuff by early next year. Will have info here as it breaks.