Dec 21 2012
Jazz and Sass
Credit to: http://www.drummerworld.com/pics/drumpics24/cindyblackman.jpg
I generally like listening to music. Just not when it’s so loud it makes my head hurt. Cindy Blackman is definitely a good drummer, she’s passionate about her work and is able to drum amazingly. Her skills are amazing, how quickly she’s able to drum, the way her whole body works when she’s playing is a display of mastery. But the performance was a TRIO, not solo act of her best work. I enjoyed the pianist and bass player more than Blackman. The pianist was extremely skillful in the way he played, at one point he was playing two pianos at the same time. The bass player was great too. He was great with the upright base although I barely heard the base guitar. You could tell that this was their first real show together from the way the pianist and bassist kept looking at Cindy and trying to figure out what she was doing and what song she was playing. They did play well together and everyone had a little solo part that sounded good. Except for Cindy’s which was simply to loud. Overall she was great to look at she played because of her speed and movement, but her performance overpowered the trio.
Your post brought to my attention that I completely forgot this was the Cindy Blackman Trio, not just a Cindy Blackman performance. I agree that I would’ve liked to here a little bit more of her accompanying members, and that the music was a little too loud. I think that if she just let the other two shine for a little bit, the performance would have had a much greater balance. Do you remember how lost those two looked throughout the performance? She probably should’ve given them a heads up regarding what direction her pieces were taking as well.
I couldn’t agree more and I think we actually had this discussion after the show. I loved all three musicians but there were times I felt that they were just playing next to each other rather than playing together. The drums were very impressive but in the whole of the performance they were quite over-powering.