Pictures, captions, endearing asides by Dorothy-June Fraser, Esquire

January 14th, 2007

Extry!Extry! Jazz history made this past weekend when legendary bebopper Lou Donaldson came to Vancouver for the very first time for a three night engagement at the Cellar Jazz club (please do NOT mistake this for the Cellar Nightclub, seriously) on West Broadway.
As he's recently celebrated his 80th birthday, he was in fine form, with charm only known by those performing for half a century.
Joining Lou were the fabulous Randy Johnston on guitar, Mike Ledonne on the B3 (oh, the B3!) and Fukushi Tainaka on drums.
The warmth of the keys and long-standing classic numbers brought the Cellar (which was filled ass-to-elbow) to its collective knees- there was no banter form the audience, a hush and reverence spread to the corners of the tiny club and the evening went by like knives through warm butter.
Besides the lineup of classics like "Blues Walk" and "Alligator Boogaloo", Lou and his Quartet played compositions by Parker, Davis and the band members, not only highlighting a long and storied past wit Lou himself, but also giving the audience a chance to see the individual talents of the musicians themselves, solo. This exists so much more provolently in jazz, and the extent of it is far-reaching. With one of the mainstays (and arguably requirements) for jazz being improvisation, it seems as though jazz players are infinitely more capable of realizing the talent of those around them, whether it be their own band, or a jam session, or some sort of late-night impromptu festivities.
The tight sets were all indications of the fact that not only was this history in the making, it was something else, maybe something this city can cling onto in our decline of the arts. Which I suppose is art unto itself. Remarkably, I wasn't in East Vant, I wasn't made to feel uncomfortable by any patrons or staff, whoever. It was a pure evening of straight-up jazz, deemed "No, fusion, no confusion, just jazz". It strengthened my resolve to see Sonny Rollins play when he comes in March, but also made me realize this city is a little sweeter for jazz than I thought. Or, at least, Sweet Lou made it so.