Larry Goldings Trio

This photo is of the gorgeous Philharmonie de Paris, where I first went, but this show was not. Luckily, a kindly usher pointed at the nearby building where I was supposed to be. One sweaty run later, I was in my seat just as the lights dimmed and out came the musicians. Cité de la Musique is an awesome hall, not too large or reverberant for jazz, even with amplified instruments. Think of it like four fifths of the Winspear Centre, but with more sensitive sound people. (Sorry pals!) I tried to keep a keen eye on what Goldings was doing - when he was playing bass on the pedals vs. just keeping time on them, how often he was using the expression pedal (constantly. noted.), etc., but I ended up closing my eyes and smiling broadly for most of the show. These three actually made me really homesick for my own organ trio - drummer Jamie Cooper and guitarist Peter Belec - partly because my guys bear a passing musical resemblance to them. A fair amount of bluehairs in attendance, but also a solid handful of music students, based on the person in front of me stealing Stewart’s hand-over-hand licks and air-drumming them. I’ve had this trio’s “Moonbird” stuck in my head for a few days in anticipation of the concert, so I shouted it out as a request for the second encore. No dice. But I’ve since come home and transcribed it. 10/10, would go again. Oh! And I wore my “CJSR The Organ Grinder” t-shirt with the Leslie speaker diagram on it, because of course I did.