In the 1990’s Earl Palmer’s jazz trio (piano, bass, drums) was performing in the bar at Chadney’s Restaurant in Burbank, located directly across the street from the NBC studio where the Tonight Show is taped. I lived two blocks away, and would occasionally walk over and sit on a bar stool, nursing a Scotch-on-the-rocks while listening to (and watching) them for a set or two.
Recordings are great, but there is nothing like watching a master musician playing live, up close if possible. I went to literally hundreds of live shows in the 1960’s, seeing everyone from The Beach Boys (my first concert, in the summer of 1964 at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in San Jose, with Brian playing bass and singing falsetto), The Beatles in ’65, and all the local San Jose groups and bands during 1965-67 (including Fritz, whose membership included Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. They were just another SJ group).
Then it was up to San Francisco to see and hear Hendrix and Cream, Procol Harum and The Kinks, The Nice (Keith Emerson’s pre-ELP group), The Dead and The Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks (Dan had a Jazz drummer in his band when I saw them), and too many others to remember.
In ’68 The Electric Flag (with Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles) and the doors appeared at The Santa Clara County Folk-Rock Festival (held outdoors. Ugh, I don’t care for that). The poor doors had to follow The Flag, and paled in comparison. Buddy Miles was amazing!
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