[Dixielandjazz] Support live jazz!

[Marek Boym]

On Friday night I attended a show by Shai Brenner Swing Band at the
Felicja Blumental (sick) Music Centre in Tel Aviv.  Shai Brenner is a
soprano player (with modern tendencies, which luckily were not to tthe
foreground that night.   He had Merton Cahm, a veteran of Israeli
jazz, originally a Mancunian) on clarinet, Amnon Ben Artzi
(Trombone). Asaf Finkelstein (Piano; I liked him much more than the
group's former pianist who often seemed to play just scales).  Kosta
Adelkind (double bass) and Leon Habib, one of the tastiest drummers in
Israel, on drums).
The repertoire was evenly divided between swing and Dixieland
standards, and Sidney Bechet songs (originally, the band, without the
clarinet, was named The Bechet Project.
The band was hot and swinging; what else could one expect?  Merton's
contribution was very important - a wonderful player.  Shai is getting
there - he played his usual scales in just a few places, and those
passages were short.  A very ehjoyable evening.
Tomorrow and Thursday - Evan Christopher with Swing de Gitanes and a
drummer; if I like it enough, I'll probably go again on Friday.  My
friend Donna already attended two shows - on Saturday in Rehovot and
tonight in Jerusalem, and came back extatic!  She said that today's
show was even better than the Saturday one.
Cheers