Stanley Clarke at the One World Theater

After Art City Austin, I attended the later (and latter) of 2 shows featuring Stanley Clarke, at the One World Theater. This was the second time in less than a year for me seeing Stanley play, having seen him before with Return to Forever.

For this show, Stanley was accompanied by 3 younger musicians (younger meaning under the age of 35), pianist, Ruslan Sirota, violinist, Zach Brock, and drummer, Ronald Bruner, Jr. The band was really accomplished and I was very impressed with both Brock's and Bruner's playing, the latter sounding at times, very reminiscent of Tony Williams.

I estimate they played about 6 tunes, for about 90 minutes, with Stanley playing Acoustic Bass throughout the show. For the encore, they did School Days with Clarke finally switching to Electric Bass. Other than the encore, the numbers were mainly arrangements of RTF tunes, and one song that Stanely wrote as a tribute to John Coltrane.

A very enjoyable show, which put the cap on a very hectic weekend.

Art City Austin 2009

Once again, I volunteered to help my friends at AMF, man their booth at Art City Austin. This time around, I was only able to work on Sunday, since the schedule conflicted with CloudCamp.

It was a pleasant, although overcast day, never actually raining. I was able to see several Austin Artists including Nakia and his Southern Cousins, David Garza, the Hudsons, and Brent Allen. I like this event because it gets to the core of Austin, and puts it on display. The setting, downtown along 1st Street, next to Town Lake, gives it a certain vibe, as well.

For the past 2 years, one thing that has astounded me, is the way the way they temporarily erect large sculptures on the 1st Street Bridge for the weekend. Last year it was a temporary hedge, this year it was a large metal barracuda. (Just for reference, I estimate that this statue is about 10 ft. tall at the apex, and about 25 ft. long:

Of course, you can see the white dashed lines for a car lane, to get the relative sense of scale. Here's to many more years of attending this event.