Metheny, James Cotton and Queen Bey
 

Last Friday evening, my friend Jill and I went to see some of the most remarkable music making I've seen in a very long while. Queen Bey is a local vocal jazz/standards legend who opened the show. James Cotton is a 72 year old bluesman who blows the harp like nobody's business, despite the fact that he sounds like he can barely talk. Playing with him was Bob Margulies, Chicago slide guitar mainstay, and a bunch of freakishly good young backup players, all capable of being stars in their own rights someday. Topping it all off was Pat Metheny, native of Lee's Summit, MO (right down the road about five minutes from me), past guitar teacher to some of my friends, and winner of more Grammies than you can shake a jazz guitar at.

Awesome time...here are some pics. Might do a MySpace vid of some of it when I've got the time.

Dude makes some guitar faces, doesn't he?

James Cotton had some interesting expressions as well. Dude could wail. Queen Bey is just a sweetheart, and boy, does she do justice to the standards!

And finally, one of the cuter members of the audience that day, my friend Jill, who asked me to go with her because its a big old scary world out there and she's a single female. Pretty damn cute 50 year old, huh? I mean, look at me, then look at her...her birthday is exactly two weeks before mine. So take a guess at which one of us has taken better care of themselves. And no, we are not intimate in the way you're thinking. I want to be, but she has morals, damn it all. I'm working on that.

Hey Wolf, doesn't she look a bit like Witchypoo?

Q: What do you get when you cross a guitar, a ukulele, a hammered dulcimer, and a swiss army knife?

A: Whatever the hell that thing is. :3_eyes: :eek6: :unsure:

I'd seen close up pictures of that guitar before, but it's cool to see that he actually plays the thing and it doesn't sit on his mantle.

Outstanding, Els. So are the musicians.

I have video of him playing it. I'll see if I can get it converted tonight and post it on YouTube (linked here, of course).

It is a one of a kind, made for him by a female luthier.

Elspode, you'll be my hero if you get that posted. I already envy you for having been at that show. I know James Cotton is great, and Pat Metheny (with or without that guitar) is one of the finest musicians out there. Period.

This is very brief, but I didn't record much of him with the Pikasso (the name of the bizarre guitar) as it was sort of sonically rambling. I have a much longer chunk that I'm working on, which I recorded because he was using the Roland GR 300 guitar synth, a 25 year old piece of technology that only Metheny and Fripp really ever utilized to its full potential...and Pat is *still* doing that.

Thanks -- you are the man!

He sure gets a lot of music out of the thing.

Metheny rips it up in a big way with the Roland GR 300 guitar synth.

Hot damn, now that's what I'm talking about! You rock, Elspode!