Fwd: Mitch Weiss Is Bad

[Aeskow@xxxxxxx]

      Though Mitch and I had never met--except through the auspices of
Harp-L--I was in New York City last night, and invited him in to a
weekly jam session in the bar area of B.B. King's club that's
hosted by a friend of mine named Jon Paris (ex-harp-player and bassist
for Johnny Winter.)  It's one of thet truly amazing things about this
forum that suddenly a cyber-phantom-acquaintance can materialize before
you as a flesh-and-blood cat with a Brendan Power-tuned CX-17 n one hand
and a $20 bill in the other, ready to amaze you with his virtuosity on
chromatic AND buy you an overpriced Wild Turkey--and somehow it all
feels so easy.  When Paris called me up to play, I violated Jam
Etiquette #101 by suggesting he tap Mitch first, on trust.
      Luckily, he did so.
      For those of you who've heard Mitch's stuff on-line and been
stunned by his unique mix of creativity and technical command, I promise
you it's twice as dazzling in person.  After he elevated Paris' fairly
stumbling version of Freddie King's "The Stumble" with a tone that fused
Chicago grit with Lee Morgan-style lyricism, Mitch was finally cut loose
on the seond tune, Santana's "Black Magc Woman"--hardly the easiest tune
to leap into, unrehearsed, wtih strangers.
     It was one of those very rare, jump-for-joy jam-session miracles.
>From the moment Mitch nailed that challenging openig riff, even the
drunkest tourists shut up and dug his mastery (and Paris, on guitar,
looked out at me with a look that said "are there any more like him back
home?")  Playing with minimal volume but maximum dynamics, Mitch
squeezed true jazz out of that chunky black chromatic, and awakened a
crowd that had come expecting the usual--i.e. 16:32 minutes of "Good
Mornin' Little Schoolgirl" in the key of X flat--to a journey through
be-bop, funk, blues and Latin and back.  It was jazz played not as
museum-type music, nor as self-conscious Ken Burns "American classical
music," but as a vibrant force enlivening the whole space.
      And I didn't even finish the Wild Turkey.
      I'm grateful to Harp-L for creating a small universe in which
these moments can happen, and I urge those of you who are not yet
familiar with Mitch's work to give yourself the pleasure of checking it
out.

Peace and Respect
Johnny T