The concert by James Danderfer and his quintet was grand yesterday, and was attended by a record number of audience members for JazzArt so far (about 250 people). It was nice to be back at Twocities gallery for a concert again, as that was where the first JazzArt show was held featuring Lawrence Ku’s septet. It’s a perfect venue for jazz concerts as they have a piano permanently in the space, a good sound system and stage, and the room is just the right size and shape to get really good sound without need for too many microphones. Plus it’s just a good vibe in there, the feng shui is really good and there’s always tons of cool art!
James has been writing some pretty amazing music this year, lots of creative stuff happening in that guy’s head. And the band executed it pretty darn well, too–these were not easy charts to read either. There was a good mix of rhythmic styles, in fact I only remember one or two times throughout the entire concert that they actually played a straight-ahead swing feel. The rest was all kinds of grooves, latin or straight-8th feels, and odd time signatures. Definitely enjoyable. It’s going to be a hard act to follow, since my band is going to be playing for the next month’s JazzArt concert over at MOCA in people’s square…
The fourth concert in the JazzArt series takes place this Sunday August 12 at 3pm at the TwoCities gallery on Moganshan lu, and will feature the music of Canadian Clarinetist and Composer extraordinaire 
This great picture of Chris is actually from the first JazzArt concert, and was taken by Cecile Renault. She was at yesterday’s concert as well, but got there late so probably wasn’t in a good position to take shots of the band. (At least not in the first set) But if you did get some good ones Cecile, send ‘em on over and I’ll post one! 
