Played what will be our last show for some time at SummerStage in central park last night. There was an almost constant sprinkling of rain, but no one seemed to mind too much. Pink Martini opened. Incredible musicians, and China Forbes has an amazing voice. I hadn’t seen them in years, so it was a treat.
The audience was the youngest I’d seen in a while, which made me feel pretty good. And surprisingly, for New York, where I’m usually feeling tense playing a hometown gig, I was pretty relaxed.
We never left for the usual game of encores. Instead, without a pause, I brought on The McCollough Sons of Thunder, a massed trombone ensemble based out of The United House of Prayer in Harlem. I figured that way the audience wouldn’t even have time to even think about leaving before experiencing a little of their incredible sound and energy. They started off slowly, the seven or more trombones (plus sousaphone and trumpet) creating a huge wave of sound, a giant chord, while Elder Babb praised the Lord and exhorted the crowd. It gave me chills. Not just because of the music, but also because here was faith, religion and spirituality that was manifesting itself as joyous, life affirming and uplifting, as opposed to militant, oppressive and death-dealing. We’re getting too much of that these days, from Muslims and Christians alike, so this was a beautiful healthy antidote, and a reminder not to throw out the spiritual baby with the bathwater — those of us who feel the nastiness of fundamentalisms cast doubt on belief of any kind.
It was a good way to end the tour.
You can order a CD that features the Sons of Thunder here.
You can view photos from the show here.
