the show was fantastic.
I had a wonderful afternoon and evening. Hit the ROM up for a few hours in the afternoon. Went to the Museum Tavern for dinner. Ended up sitting at the bar with the tabla player Salar Nader. We had burgers and fries lol. Very cool guy. He plays full time with Stanley Clarke's band, and was off the next day to Ireland to start a 80 show tour.
Had great tickets, which provided nice sight lines. Cyro's band was quite good, but for whatever reason, John Zorn didn't show up. They didn't even mention his absense. Kevin Breit essentially stole the show, which he generally does. He's so damn good. I was expecting much more improvisation, but I guess that wasn't in the plans. Still fun and had a nice latin jazz style sound.
Jamey Haddad's band was amazing. First time for me seeing Billy Drewes and man can that guy play the brass! Much more loose than Cyro's band, definitely a step up in professionalism. Having Jamey Hadded on drums, with Luisito Quintero on Percussion, and Salar Nader on Tabla made for some truly amazing exchanges. I went down to front row for 2nd set allowing me a closer look at the interplay, which I really enjoyed.
Caught up with an old buddy Forbes and stuck around after the show to have a beer with Cyro. Such a down to earth guy.
While it was cliche I suppose, the best jam was when Cyro and his band came out to play the final song with Jamey's band.
Wish John Zorn would have played. I think it would have brought some more improvisational free jazz, but still Cyro's band was great. Jamey Haddad was beyond expectations.
I would say I enjoyed the evening as much as the Metheny show a couple weeks back, maybe even more (just because of the smaller atmosphere and meeting Salar was really cool! Cyro too!)