What is Hip?

I had to hook up the computer to do grades, so I thought I might give some respite from the Shotries posts.

Today was like LIVE MUSIC SUNDAY here on the break. We started off going to House of Blues' Gospel Brunch. It was a fairly interesting experience, although in hindsight I am not sure I would go again. The music is good, the food is good, the bar is an open bar, the people have a good time, and yet still the summation of all of those things just didn't make it for me and Mrs. TANBI. Probably the hardest part is that depending on the table you're seated at you could be fairly packed in. If you do decide to take in this experience I would go to the box office and see if there's any way you can get yourself at one of the round tables on the periphery rather than at the long tables in the front. I mean, you really are in the thick of it up front, but that might not be conducive to your being able to finish eating your shrimp, get it? The event is really food, and then a show and you're a little pressed to finish up if you're down front. After further review I think I woul dhave liked to have been further back and at my leisure to finish my meal. But, cool event.

Tonight we went to see Tower of Power. I've been angling to go to one of their shows for a good long time and just never made it work until today. This is a soul band, big horns, James Brown rythms - big sound, and a lot of fun. In some ways they're like the worlds foremost wedding band - they would TEAR UP your wedding. But that's not fair, because they are so much more than that, but when trying to answer the question "what are they like" and not having a real command of music terminology, that's the answer I came up with once. I think I like their sound because I think they're most like the band I would like to be in if I were in a band. It's like they were all in High School Jazz Band and made it stick and made it cool. There's a lot here that sounds like Chicago might have been had they gone a different way - funk instead of pop. At one point in this show tonight one of the horns was playing a trumpet in his right hand and a trombone in his left, alternating from one to the other. I'm not sure I could ever be that good, but if I were to change careers mid-course, and if I were to become a better horn player than I ever was in my life, and if I got together with some kindred spirts to for a soul band, maybe a Tower of Power tribute band; I have the name: Radius of Gyration.

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