Country ain't all that jazz
Jazz invited its country cousin to Lincoln Center's glistening new Rose Hall last night, and the result of this collaboration landed somewhere between the two.
The headliner of the evening was Ricky Skaggs, who started out as a bluegrass prodigy, turned into a country music star, and in recent years has returned to bluegrass.
Much of the night's musical heart, however, was provided by Mark O'Connor, an ace violinist whose music moves easily over every genre that can be played by a string instrument, from, well, country to jazz.
O'Connor, fronting a superb string trio with Frank Vignola on guitar and Jon Burr on standup bass, started his set with a breezy swing jazz number, "Momo," that would have felt right at home in a set by Les Paul.
From there, O'Connor ran through a range from "Limehouse Blues" to "Ain't Misbehavin'" and Charlie Parker's "Cherokee" that were as beautifully woven together as they were impeccably executed.
His wistful tribute to the late Claude (Fiddler) Williams was exquisite, and his "Gypsy Fantastic" left no toe untapped.
If there's a better violinist out there today, he or she will have to get past O'Connor to claim the crown.
Skaggs, as expected, played a more direct sort of country music with his band, Kentucky Thunder. But he, too, nodded to the jazz connection with a guest drop-in by trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, a veteran of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
Their first joint tune was a Skaggs instrumental titled, "First Corinthians 1:18," on which Gordon listened a while, then came in strong. They followed it with a swinging bluegrass take on "Sweet Georgia Brown."
Skaggs himself mostly stayed with straight, hard-driving bluegrass tunes like "Your Selfish Heart." His six-piece string band was tight on both the harmonies and the music.
At one point, Skaggs semijoked that he hadn't known what to expect "because most of the places we play in New York have flashing Budweiser signs."
Rose Hall isn't that. But lovely as much of the music was, and kindly as it was treated by the acoustics of the new hall, anything labeled "country" remains a tough sell in Manhattan.
With no country radio station on which to promote a show like this, Lincoln Center sold only about half the hall. Since O'Connor has sold out Lincoln Center halls solo when billed as a swing jazz artist, it's clear that many New York music fans don't see quite the kinship in country as the musicians do.
Bill Hinkley,
http://www.nydailynews.com
Country ain't all that jazz
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