insky

dewey redman was a last minute invite to the festival as chico hamilton, the scheduled headliner, had to spend his birthday in the hospital. there was no previous announcement that i heard, and when he walked out on stage my jaw dropped.
dewey.
redman.
one of those performers i never thought i'd get a chance to see. can't afford the vanguard and lincoln center, so i end up passing on most of the legends. but there he was. and oh, what a show he played. and what a band behind him.
by the end of the show, it was obvious he was really enjoying himself. so much so that he started scatting to the music and then managed to get the crowd scatting the exact same sounds with him. while they were doing that, he got them to clap along with him to the beat (only a jazz crowd is savvy enough to keep proper time, apparently-i've never seen this done right before). slowly the band and dewey faded out and what was left was the crowd themselves, transported from observers to participants. he had broken the fourth wall in the most organic way, and it was beautiful.

for a final magic touch, we were to meet friends at a little bar on 7 and b.
about halfway through the first beer, guess who comes walking through, by himself, and sits at the bar while husker du howls in the background?
yup.
after several minutes of internal hemming and hawing, i quietly excused myself, got up and made my way over to say hi.
he seemed a little nonplussed at first, or maybe just tired, but he soon warmed up and we were talking like old friends (almost).
told him what a pleasure it was seeing him, how ed love from detroit's wdet had turned me onto his music probably 22 years ago.
he told me about a detroiter, frank tatum, he first started playing with about town when he was going to college in texas. how proud he was of his son, joshua. said, you know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. said he wasn't jealous, just a little envious of his success, but that he was a working musician and he'd just keep on playing. smiled, shook my hand, thanked me for coming over.
when i looked over to where he was, fifteen miinutes later, he was gone - just another empty seat on a sunday afternoon.