Susana Baca at Jazz Alley

I'm not often moved to write about shows or movies I've seen. Mostly because my observations fall into the "see it, buy it" or "don't go, don't buy it" category. Even when I felt that I was a pretty serious, wide-ranging master of books, I learned that most people want the Siskel/Ebert approach to recommendations. Nothing wrong with that. After all, my blather time about the book could equal the reading time of the first two chapters. Most often, I'd say something like: "Here's something that you might want to know about." That was my most effective pitch.

Last night, Janeen and I went to see Susana Baca at her genius suggestion. I expected a pleasant evening with sedate rhythms wafting over the crowd. Didn't know that she's as much an ethnomusicologist as a performer. That doesn't typically impress me. A musicologist isn't necessarily a convincing performer. The best ones are the performers that can't help but dig into their music and unearth where their sounds came from. Ry Cooder comes to mind.

So my expectations were not sky high which was a great set up. Susana Baca, the vocalist, became Susana Baca, the band. A very hot band. Two percussionists, a bassist, a guitarist and Susana. All masterful musicians, each able to drive the music and the interest of the other band members. The one percussionist had a massive array of instruments including, my best guess, a shoeshine box that he strapped around his neck. He'd slam the lid and strike it with a dowel. Great sounds. How'd he do that? The other percussionist sat on a drum and provided chanting, call and response and racheted up the excitment.

The young man on guitar could play anything and accounted for so much of the flesh of the music that it didn't make sense. The bassist of course, bottom plus color that was sometimes hard to identify as coming from him. Susana Baca as vocalist had a jazz musician's sense of the band as well as leading the vocals.

So, overall, a crack bunch of musicians. But they had something which is rare. They LOVED playing with each other. I think they loved each other! They were joyful playing together. They paid a lot of attention during solos because they wanted to hear where the music was going. They'd literally stop what they were doing, turn and watch the soloist and be just as delighted as the rest of us at what they were hearing.

Last night's concert was an experience, a priviledge, that I would have paid a lot of money to see. That was an experience I nearly didn't have because I was stuck on the one album of hers that I listened to that underwhelmed me. CDs, downloads, are so convenient, it's easy to forget that they are recordings of music. This was music.