ersh Posted May 27, 2003 Report Share Posted May 27, 2003 Man! Caught Garth Hudson last night in Toronto for the final night of his five show run. Garth was of course one of the two keyboardists with legendary Canadian rockers THE BAND. He performed solo on piano, synthesizer and accordian with 2 guests throughout the evening. Sitting down at the piano wearing all black, a worn brown leather jacket with "ROAD" written on the back, and some kind of round black hat with his long grey hair and beard poking out from underneath, Garth simply began playing the piano as though he was in his own living room. With the odd grunt and comment he went from tune to tune (if they were actual songs at all) improvising and twisting and basically playing a sixty minute version of 'The Genetic Method' for the first set. Garth had a Korg Triton synth on stage with him and occasionally tinkered with it... producing strange and pleasant sounds for no more than a couple minutes randomly throughout the set. "Play with the toys and keep it short, I'm told," he said. He weaved chords and melodies and rhythms like he was a part of the piano... Second set he was joined by his wife Maude Hudson on vocals. I was hoping she wasn't just there to sing because she was his wife... ya know... but turned out to have a fantastic voice... almost sounding jazz trained. She sang tunes with him like Blind Willie McTell (stating it was Bob Dylan's birthday the day before), It makes no Difference (which Garth said was his song for Rick and Richard), The Shape I'm In, Stand by Me and The Weight. Garth was also joined by former One Step Beyond guiarist Jake Langley on a couple tunes (Jake joined OSB while original guitarist Andy Scott was away at school). Jake played some tasteful solos over Garth's magical chording. With a twenty minute set break the show spanned over three hours. I felt like Garth could have played until 4 am and I definately could have sat there watching him that long as well. A true musical wizard.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted May 27, 2003 Report Share Posted May 27, 2003 Nice.. Thanks for the report Jeff! I wish I could've made it out to see Garth Hudson play. ps - what is Andy Scott up to now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted May 27, 2003 Report Share Posted May 27, 2003 Damn, that was a very enthusiastic read. I hear that stuff was being recorded? Is that true? Ms. Hux and I recently saw Rob McConnell Tentet at the Top of the Senator (same place?), and I must say, it is an incredible place to witness such incredible music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted May 27, 2003 Report Share Posted May 27, 2003 Hey, that's funny... The other day I opened Rob McConnell's pool! We got to talking - he's a nice guy. He was cleaning out his house and gave me a pile of these old long sleeved black shirts with "BB" embroidered on 'em. (stands for Boss Brass, the big band he led for 32 years). Then just before leaving, he came out and gave me a cd of his from '94. What a guy! Ahhh, the life of a pool boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted May 27, 2003 Report Share Posted May 27, 2003 hey that's real cool KevO! I hope you made a new friend! The guy seems way friendly. I used to play in our high-school jazz ensemble (GO FRONTENAC!), and we were treated to a jazz clinic hosted by Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass at Queen's. It was quite an experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.