Concert Review by: Unknown User
Venue: Rose and Crown (Palo Alto, CA USA)
Sundays - There is an amazing trio you will know about sooner or later anyway so I want to be the one to tell you about it - that way you can all see how hip I am. The Eddy Sambuaga Trio are based in the San Francisco Bay Area and I caught one of their first bi-weekly shows at Palo Alto's Rose and Crown Pub - a good place to take a break from the Palo-Alto-osity of the general Palo Alto vicinity - it is a laid back little place where you can grab a Guiness and try to plot how, exactly, to escape from Palo Alto Proper.
I went to check this group out because their pianist, Eddy Sambuaga, also plays for my favorite vocalist in the area, Eleonor England, whose shows I haunt when I can get a seat (not very often). Eddy is one of the best young pianists I have seen in the Bay Area and is apparently fairly well-known in his native Indonesia but has been living in the Bay Area for several years where he is a student of Mark Levine. He is an amazing player and can practically bend a pitch on the piano which, if you have ever tried this yourself, you will know that normally in order to do this you need to break the piano first. Eddy Sambuaga is what you would get if Thelonious Monk & Art Tatum had a lovechild. (I didn't mean to give you a bad visual, but that is what would happen.) He is technically superb with a "chunky" aesthetic at times - a combination that is riveting to listen to so when I saw his name in the paper I had to go check it out. Especially since it was free and right before payday. A man has to get his priorities straight...
I had not idea what lay in store for me - sheer, unadulterated musical ecstasy. The bass player, Nate Peas, another young player, was also phenomenal. A protoge of the phantastic local (and I think massively under-famous) bass player Mandy Flowers, Nate did things to the bass that I have not personally seen before. In this state, anyway. His style was kind of hard bop meets rockabilly slap bass. At once in the pocket and one of the most creative jazz bassists I have seen of late, this young player, who may not be in his mid-twenties, is phenomenal.
But wait, there's more. The drummer. The Drummer! Jon Wagner, another young player, has the artistic sensibilty of Art Blakely and at his best I was just forced to stop and stare with mouth agape as this guy blew me away with his mastery of the instrument. His playing is melodic, textural, and his drum solos are intersting. How often do you hear that?
As strong as each player was, though, the band together was what brought it home. They played through standards and it was literally just a wall of amazing strident jazz coming at me. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have stumbled in upon this group in some little place in the middle of Palo Alto of all places. If you think Palo Alto is just for dinner jazz, you need to swing by this Rose and Crown every other week and check this group out. This is what I would classify as hard bop in the style of the Jazz Messengers, Thelonious Monk, and the Marsalis family - very listenable, strident, striking jazz with strong melody and blues influence while at the same time riding the line of unconventionality. I go fairly often and have seen some of the Bay Area's most reknown players and some of the hottest young ones as well sit in including saxophonist Bob Johnson, bassist Mandy Flowers, guitarist Scott Sorkin, saxophonist Kristen Strom, guitarist Rick Vandivier, vocalist Eleonor England, and drummer Jason Lewis. You will not be disappointed.
Eddy and the trio stir it up Sunday nights at the Rose and Crown where there is no cover and the atmosphere is down-to-earth.
For more information: Eddy Sambuaga Trio
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