Saturday, August 27, 2016

Kamasi Washington at Mavu

Locorotondo, Puglia, Italy. Saturday 27-August-2016

Kamasi was appearing as part of the Locus Festival 2016. This was our first visit to the atmospheric venue that is Mavu although our friend Kath has been several times before. It is a masseria (country house) approached down a winding, candle-lit country lane.


We got there early to ensure we could grab some of the limited seating - cushions on hay bales.


The main courtyard is surrounded by trulli where the food and drink concessions followed the Italian system of queue to pay the cashier for a chit, then queue again to get your food, and queue again to get your drinks.


The concert started towards 11pm and went on till gone 1 am. The first piece was not to my taste at all with some self indulgent trombone soloing but the rest of the set mellowed into more melodic jazz funk.


There were two drummers who did an excellent extended duet or "conversation" was how Kamasi introduced it. The bass player, Miles Mosley, was particularly talented musician whose solo was a virtuoso display of musicianship.


At the end Kamasi took a selfie with the crowd, the moment captured by another photographer, and you can see Mary in the white cardi with me, blue jumper, and Kath next to us.



A unique evening of jazz in a wonderful setting.

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