I traveled back to Woody's again to hear Yve Evans, a performer that many of my musician friends have been raving about over the past few weeks. I found out that Yve has been singing in the Desert for many years, but I never had the chance to hear her. Tonight I heard Yve sing and play keyboard and in just a few minutes of listening to her I fell in love with her. It is hard to describe the multi-talented brilliance of her singing and to my surprise, her ability on the keyboard was just as great as her singing. And if this wasn't enough, it turns out that Yve also has a very funny sense of humor that she sprinkles into her performance. Yve has a heavenly soft voice that reminds me of Ella and Betty Carter all rolled into one. Yve has the ability to understand lyrics and use them to tell her audience an unbelievably emotionally-filled story. What a talent! It took me a long time to "discover" Yve but there is no chance I will miss any future opportunity to hear her again when she comes back into town.
Backing Yve tonight were two extremely talented Desert players, Bill Saitta on upright bass and Jeff Olsen on drums. Bill showed his creative ability on the upright bass giving us some of the best bass improvisations I've heard and Jeff supplied some of the softest drummer hands that blended into Bill's bass and Yve's lush sounds.
I understand that Yve will back at Woody's in a couple of weeks. I will try to keep you posted as to her next appearance. Don't miss the next chance to see and hear Yve. She is worth making the extra effort to see!
The other night I was looking at some YouTube videos of some of the great musicians that had impacted my life when I came across a few great videos of Oscar Peterson. I enjoyed these videos so much that I decided it would be interesting to do a series of blogs on the "The Jazz Giants ".
THE JAZZ GIANTS: CHAPTER ONE
OSCAR PETERSON
Oscar Peterson is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all times. I think he was the absolute best! During his long career, Oscar recorded with most of the jazz greats including Louis Armstrong, Ella, Count Basie, Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and almost all of the great singers of the past 50 years. He released over 200 recordings and won seven Grammy Awards. He was much more than just a jazz pianist, he was a teacher and composer. But don't take my word for it. Take a look at the YouTube videos I have attached below. On the first YouTube, Oscar plays "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" and his playing has been transcribed so you can follow along. Hearing what Oscar is playing is one thing but seeing the actual notes is just heaven.
On the second YouTube, Oscar plays "I Can't Get Started" and it just flows with emotion and grace. Hope you enjoy these videos as much as I did! PS: Playing on guitar with Oscar at this session was another of my favorites, Joe Pass.
