Yesterday I was invited to dinner and concert in the city of Cotati which is north of Marin County. The restaurant was Sweet Lou's Trattoria. The decor of this place is original, whacked and a lot of fun. For an example, inside the men's bathroom has a pair of congas you can play, as well as a scuba mask on the wall, flippers attached to the legs of the sink and a cymbal on the wall. The women's bathroom has an electric organ. The food was great. As an appetizer we had pesto fries which were really good. I had angel hair pasta which includes fresh chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil. My friend happens to know the family who owns and runs the restaurant. So with that connection came special treatment. Before the band started playing , we moved from our dinner table to a nice soft couch directly in front of the band that was reserved just for us.
The Winard Harper Sextet was incredible. Great musicians. The music was jazz with a shot of African Drumming mixed in. The leader and drummer is Winard Harper. He made the drums sound like a musical instrument instead of something that keeps time and makes noise during the solos. He enhanced the solos of the other players without putting attention to himself. That only happened when he soloed which was unique, fun and musical. Other member of the band are Patrick Rickman on trumpet, Brian Horton on sax, Jeb Patton on piano, Ameen Saleem on bass and Alioune Faye on djembe. There set had a nice variety from straight jazz playing Corner Pocket to a tune shifting seamlessly from jazz, latin and rock flavor. They also played a tune beginning with the bafalon, an African marimba, and djembe. They were having fun and being silly while really listening to each other and playing as one. I even got all of their autographs. What a great evening.
Posted by Eric at May 8, 2004 11:15 PM