Soul Jazz Orchestra for free in Ottawa on Friday

[bradm]

It turns out that Soul Jazz Orchestra is doing a free show on Friday, July 28 on the Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa as part of their summer concert series. The start time is listed as 7pm. If the weather holds, this could be a fun way to spend the night; anybody else interested?

Aloha,

Brad

[slavetothegroove]

After getting a taste of them last thursday I'm going to take up any chance I get to groove to these guys. And a free show friday night, can't go wrong!

[mattm]

and since I slept through them last week I not only owe it to Steph (slavetothegroove) up there but even moreso to them (and me of course). All that to say, count me in. Your review (brad) coupled with Steph's has made me quite mad that I missed the show last week.

[bradm]

Bump.

I've been checking the weather forecast, and for this afternoon it shows a 40% chance of thundershowers , but only a 10% chance of rain this evening.

The hourly breakdown looks better, though: nothing worse than cloudy periods from 4pm onwards.

If the weather looks crazy/scary at about 6pm I may back out, but I'm pretty confident I'll be in for this.

I'm not sure exactly where the stage will be, as all they say is that the concerts are on the mall between O'Connor and Metcalfe.

Aloha,

Brad

[bradm]

The weather looks amazing, so I'm out of here pretty soon. See y'all there (he said, hopefully)!

Aloha,

Brad

[bradm]

Last night was one of those times that actually can make you believe Ottawa is a hip, cosmopolitan city. I think that was probably the most people who have ever seen SJO in one night, but with the total # of "person-minutes" of viewing about the same as their usual Thursdays, as people would stroll along the Mall and pass by SJO, maybe catching a minute or so as they walked.

SJO put on a good show: three sets (each a bit shorter than their usual Thursday sets), leaning more heavily on covers, especially jazz standards (e.g., "Milestones", "A Night In Tunisia", etc.), than usual. Big props to them for not only hyping the Moses Mayes show tonight, but even for covering MM's "Dub".

As I was getting set up, the sound guy walked by, recognized me and came over. We each said "Hi," to the other, and he said I could have a board patch in about 10 minutes. I thanked him, but said I wanted to use my mics; this was one of the first opportunities I'd had to this kind of back-from-the-stage recording outdoors. The recordinds came out really well; I was a bit off-centre, but it sounds balanced and crispy clear.

SJO will be back there on Friday, Sept. 1; I wish I could be there, but I'll be going to moe.down. If you're in the city and near the Mall after work, I heartily recommend checking them out.

Aloha,

Brad

[SmoothedShredder]

Wow, do they put their shows up on the Archive?! If so I'd love a copy of this! Irregardless of if can happen, thanks so much for doing this service, though it's kinda obvious you really enjoy what your doing BradM. I miss these guys(SJO)... Steve Patterson (The skinny sax player with the big chops), is my homeboy from back in the days I used to roam around Bytowne and chop the grass. I love the level of success and acknowledgement they are getting back home(Jazzfest, this Sparks thing, taking over for Raggamuffin with a weekly powerhouse threesetter!), and totally think they deserve it. A nicer group of guys are hard to find.

[bradm]

I've mentioned the LMA to them, but haven't pushed it yet. That's the next step.

Aloha,

Brad

[bradm]

Good news: SJO will be at Sparks Street Mall twice more in the coming month: Friday, Aug. 25, and Friday, Sept. 1. The concert schedule for the Mall hasn't been updated, but the band says they'll be doing both nights.

They're also at Social on Wednesday, Aug. 16, and the band lists the show as 7pm - 10pm, so even though it's a weeknight, it'd still be possible to see the show and get home in time to be productive on Thursday.

Aloha,

Brad