I went to this primarily to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy because I'd seen them previously with The Pietasters at Schine Auditorium at SU and thought they were a blast. My swing dance moves are super rusty, but I was willing to give it a shot if enough other people did and/or I ran into someone I knew willing to give it a try.
But this atmosphere was quite different -- thousands of mostly older people sitting in lawn chairs. So, I suppose not surprisingly, very few danced, although the cute couple with the girl wearing the little red dress did a nice job of it. There are some good photos of them on the Syracuse.com story: http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/i ... eview.html
Chatted a bit with Rory Edwards and then lost him in the crowd. I was super hungry after BBVD, so I headed to the long lines for the food trucks and then had to decipher who had veggie faire. I settled on Hello Arepa for a BBQ Tofu Arepa - which was awesome! - and got in line. And I didn't realize I was right behind Jocko of More Sound Studio who ordered the same exact thing from past experience. I haven't seen Jocko in quite some time, so we got to do a lot of catching up while waiting for the long line to order and then to get our food. Turns out we got the last two BBQ tofu arepas for the night. Jocko really wants me to see all the big changes he's made to his studios and I promised to do that soon. He also mentioned one of the former members of Cletus Doesn't Care has a studio in his building as well.
I was already there and had paid 5 bucks for parking, so I decided to check out Trombone Shorty. All I can say is W-O-W!!! Like the Syracuse.com story mentions: "Trombone Shorty is a mosaic of musical styles -- a literal mix tape of jazz, funk, blues and hip-hop. At the M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest Friday night he showed off all his pieces at once in a sprawling yet cohesive 90 minutes that left many a jaw on the floor. He touched on Cab Calloway. He played Ray Charles. He did James Brown, Louis Armstrong and Jay Z. He moonwalked a la Michael Jackson. He held a single note for more than three minutes, circular breathing as the crowd watched, stunned."
He bounces between a trombone and trumpet and is arguably better than almost anyone I've seen on either instrument, ever. They have really good alto and bari sax players as well and a guitarist with some nice tricks. I went down to the stage front once I saw what these guys were about and down there the crowd was mostly young and really into it, because this band really mashes new and old styles and music effortlessly. These guys really prove the adage that your genre or style of music isn't as important as what you can do with it. I wish more ska bands could figure that out.
All in all, what started off as a slow evening finished off with a bang from an unexpected direction, as often is the case.
