That Thing You Doo Dat

After numerous Jazz sets, I've decided I don't like the genre much (as played live in the city) even I loved it long ago. The format of interminable solos seemed uninspired and boring in the 21st century. Also, typical Jazz venues require you to shell out additional money (ie, buying dinner) to get a good seat.

But I enjoyed the orchestral jazz of Marie Goudy so I headed down to the Rex on Tuesday night to check out her quintet. She has a month-long residency here with Adrean Farrugia (piano), Artie Roth (upright bass), Andrew Scott (drums), and her go-to singer Jocelyn Barth.

Luckily, the Rex has a reasonably priced menu of bar food so I ordered the tofu sandwich ($11). It came with fries which I only munched on as I was mostly full from Gyu Gyu Ya. The sandwich was all right except the kitchen didn't know how to prepare tofu.

The Goudy quintet played some songs (Winter, Autumn's Embrace) off her debut album Bitter Suite as well as several new numbers including The Friendship from an upcoming 9 movement composition. I thought Goudy's trumpet solos were the most evocative. Perhaps as composer she has lived with with these songs for such a long time that there was a deep understanding about them. The other performers came close on the blues-jazz The Show Must Go On (not the Queen number). Barth's singing was an odd beast. Like a lot of Jazz singers, she used her voice like an instrument. So it was technically precise and yet created a distance such that I don't feel the emotions underlying some of the lyrics.