A week ago, I heard Gene Perla. The event was in Central Florida. Billed as a “Jazz Club” I’ve attended several times, to hear someone I may find interesting. I’ve heard drummers Danny Gottlieb and Jason Marsalis.
Gene Perla was playing with a saxophone player led quartet at this gig.
The first time I saw Gene’s name and heard him play was in 1972, from the record Live at the Lighthouse with Elvin Jones, Dave Liebman and Steve Grossman. This record and group was surreal to me in 1972. I was just discovering the avant-garde music of Sun Ra, Art Ensemble of Chicago and others.
This was the first record of Elvin in my possession.
The sound of his drums and cymbals was, is, amazing, a great live recording that captures Elvin’s sound.
In 1975 I bought Elvin’s record “Elvin Jones-Is on the Mountain” with Jan Hammer and Gene Perla.
This record caught me by surprise. Elvin was playing with an electric keyboard and synthesizer. Gene Perla produced this record.
I had a brief conversation with Gene after hearing him for the first set. I mentioned the Lighthouse and On the Mountain were two of my favorite Elvin recordings. He told me Elvin told him the same thing.
At age 84, Gene sounded great. Currently 10 years older than me, it’s inspirational to see older musicians still bringing it, knocking it out of the park. Not phoning it in like most plug and play jazz musicians, I hear.
There was a great moment during the first set at this gig. I believe they were playing Body and Soul, it was a ballad. This gig is on a Sunday, with an open jam session after the first set. The room was full of youngsters and their friends waiting to sit in.
I was listening, but also noticed it was loud with chit chat, mainly from the tables of young student musicians. After the intro and saxophone solo, transitioning into the piano solo, Gene stopped playing and motioned the band to stop. He spoke in the direction of the noisy - non - listeners and reprimanded them for being loud. He announced they were playing sensitive music. His lecture was professional.
I immediately applauded his transition and the room got quiet as the band continued.
Looking at his performance itinerary, he is very active. It was a pleasure to hear this great musician, producer live in person. I will revisit these 2 albums myself.
An aside about noisy adiences, except in this case it was the mucisians on the stand. We'd gone through the tune and the usual predictable order of solos and during my solo the pianist and bassist were talking so loud that I could hear their coversation. I started playing quieter and quieter and finally stopped. It took about 30 seconds until they realized that I had stopped playing and looked over at me. I said, "I'm sorry if my playing interupted your conversation, and continued my solo. After the set, they did have the graciousness to apologize.