Butterfly Mind

Last night, my husband and I drove to the nearest city to see the Julius Rodriguez quartet. “City” seems like a generous word for what Roanoke is. It seems small to me. The population is nearly 100,000 and it has an airport that we fly out of when we travel, though, so I guess it’s bigger than a town. I say this to put into perspective how pleasantly surprised we were to discover that this small city has a jazz club. It’s not your traditional stand-alone jazz club downtown among restaurants and bars, but is an intimate room inside the Jefferson Center, a performing arts center a few blocks away from the bars and restaurants of Roanoke.

We’ve gone to several shows that are a part of The Jefferson Center’s Jazz Club series. I’ve not known any of the artists before showing up at the door, which is completely unlike how I used to experience live music. I’d go to a show because I knew the artist’s music ahead of time and wanted to see them live. With these shows at The Jefferson Center, we go and I get to experience something completely new to me. We’ve seen Bria Skonberg on the trumpet, G. Thomas Allen sing in his beautiful countertenor voice, Tatiana Eva Marie‘s French jazz, which made me want to go to Paris this summer (and we will!), and Sarah Hanahan on the alto sax.

I never know what to expect, and I am delighted every time.

Last night, the pre-show music included M.I.A.’s 2003 “Galang,” and other songs with hip-hop or funk sounds. I got excited because we haven’t gotten these styles yet. We’ve heard New Orleans style, vocal and blues standards, French style, and sax standards, but we hadn’t yet heard something funky or contemporary. The stage was set with both an upright and an electric bass, several keyboards — including a Keytar — instead of a piano, and a drum kit that included an electronic pad nestled in among the cymbals, snares, and toms.

I’m not a music critic, and I know nothing about music to be able to describe how they played or what they played. I only know how it made me feel, which was awed and energized, and full of joy. The music and the artists felt fresh and alive.

My favorite thing about this intimate little jazz club, besides the phenomenal sound, is that the musicians are only a few feet away, which means you can see every facial expression and gesture. I love to watch the band communicate. I love to watch them make eye contact to signal changes, nod, raise an eyebrow, smile, laugh, express surprise and delight during improvisation (they smile, laugh, and express surprise and delight a lot), call out to each other. I guess this is one thing I love about jazz, too — the in-the-moment creation of it.

In the final song of the set, Rodriguez, from his keyboard, conducted a live arrangement of an original called “Around the World.” Using hand signals, he communicated with the band how many of what to do when. He used his fist, he used three fingers, or four, or took both hands off the keys to flash nine or ten fingers. Their timing was impeccable. They executed perfectly what he signaled, and the whole thing just blew my mind. We gave them a standing ovation.

The saxophonist wore a Nintendo hat, which made me think of our son, and apparently it made my husband think of him, too. He texted our son a link to Rodriguez’s website, and when I looked at the link, I saw that the quartet will be at the Apollo in New York tonight and will play Blue Note later in the summer. I thought, how does this tiny no-name city of Roanoke bring these great artists in? I don’t know, but we’ll keep going to shows to keep the support rolling in.

Daily writing prompt

What was the last live performance you saw?

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