Yoshi's presents Hiromi, with Hadrien Feraud and Simon Phillips
2016-11-07
Yoshi's
Jack London Square, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, CA 94607-3506 USA
8:00 PM, Monday, November 7, 2016

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[8:01 PM lights down, announcements, band out]

1. [8:02 PM] Spark
2. [8:12 PM] Desire
   [banter]
3. [8:23 PM] Wonderland
4. [8:29 PM] Indulgence
5. [8:42 PM] ? (unidentified, introduced by Hiromi as something like “iranma” … maybe Dilemma?)
   [banter; Hadrien and Simon head offstage]
6. [8:55 PM] Wake Up and Dream (solo piano)
   [Hadrien and Simon return]
7. [9:07 PM] ? (unidentified tune #2)
   [set ends 9:21 PM; group bow, then all off for a minute]
   
   Encore
8. [9:23 PM] ? (unidentified tune #3)
   [show ends 9:32 PM]

• Hadrien Feraud: 5-string bass;
• Hiromi: piano, keyboards;
• Simon Phillips: drums.

It was very crowded at Yoshi's tonight – we arrived about 7:30 PM to find that the only seats left unassigned were way over on house right, tucked away underneath Simon's huge drum kit, or way back in the far corner on that side. Sigh. Should have showed up early and eaten dinner there, I guess!

So we took our lumps, settling into a pair of seats in the back corner of the room, and waited for the show to begin. Once it got going, I realized that the arrangement of folks in front of me blocked my view of the performers except for a sliver of piano, where now and then I could see Hiromi, but mostly saw only the top of her head while she looked down at the keyboard. Sigh. At least the people around us were quiet. So I closed my eyes to listen.

A couple minutes later – maybe five minutes into the set – one of the house staff tapped me on the shoulder and offered to reseat us. Oh yeah! So by the mysteries of grace, we got promoted to a pair of empty seats at Table 43 on the other side of the house. Still a little off to one side, but with an excellent view of each of the performers. Oh happy day! And watching Hiromi from that new seat, I was reminded at what a bubbly, vivacious performer she is … it's really quite inspiring to watch her play. She appears to be really having LOTS of fun!

I was surprised to see that Anthony Jackson wasn't part of this tour – apparently he's suffering from unexpected health issues – but Hadrien Feraud performed admirably as a replacement. In fact, his playing style was so similar to Anthony's that I thought Hadrien might be one of his students; a bit of research on the Internet tonight has turned up no support for that theory, so I'm probably wrong on that count. I found an interview with Hadrien where he mentioned that he has a good ear for imitation, so perhaps that's what I was picking up on.

Anyways, the show was great fun, and I look forward to seeing them again very soon!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!