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THE ADONIS ROSE QUINTET @ BLUE LLAMA JAZZ CLUB (Concert review by Eva N.)

When I walked into Blue LLama Jazz Club last Saturday, I first saw a standard elegant bar setup. Neatly arranged bottles on warm wooden shelves. Pendant lights. A dapper bartender shining a marble countertop. Stuff I knew. But as the host escorted me into the seating area, I felt like I’d been portaled into another world.

Indigo light filled the room. Simulated stars winked in the ceiling. A purple striplight snaked with the curvature of the wall. Stagelights, table candles, and sconces added to the symphony of color and mood, and I felt thrilled to be part of it. I was seated at one of the small, round tables by the edge of the stage, where I Shazamed every funky song that blasted through the speakers while waiting for the show to start. Servers garbed in black tended to an audience of big friend groups, families, couples, and solo-goers of all ages. No one wanted to miss out on Grammy Award-winning drummer Adonis Rose and his band, tenor saxist Miles Berry, bassist Max Moran, and pianist Seth Finch.

Once the group had settled at their instruments, Rose announced the guest appearance of New Orleans-based vocalist, Phillip Manuel, who wrote their opening song, “Unusual Suspects.” The group’s talent instantly shined. Manuel’s rich voice moved nimbly between styles, from smooth to raspy, sonorous to light, and sentimental to boppy. Rose’s drumming possessed a controlled wildness that enthralled me on its own, but also backboned many of Berry and Finch’s soulful and dynamic solos. Rose and Moran’s constant playing and unrelenting quality served as the core of the quintet’s sound throughout the set.

Moran was a performer I kept coming back to. He wore his love for playing on his face, and frequently met eyes with the other artists, nodded at them encouragingly, created moments of chemistry on stage that transcended cohesion in sound. These sparks of camaraderie are what I wanted more of. While no one could deny the sharp technical skill of this quintet, when one of the artists wasn’t playing their instrument, they’d often lose their stage presence. It felt like they were waiting to be part of the performance again – like they couldn’t feel the music in those spaces between playing. During the quintet’s second song, Sting’s “Fragile,” I looked into the audience and saw people more focused on their dinners and side conversations than on the elaborate performance in front of them. Something was missing the mark.

But the show grew more spirited as it went on. Between songs, Manuel – looking like he’d just been freed from a spell – said, “woah, I got lost in that for a second.” I believed it. The quintet played the weight of the blues and the joy of bebop; with each song, the audience fell deeper into the spell with them. To keep the momentum going, Rose introduced tap dancer Lisa La Touche, who used the clack of her tapping and the movements of her body to add an extra something beautiful and unique to the performance. She first tapped with Moran’s bass alone, which sounded like an echo and a whisper – the audience silenced with attention. The next song, “Evidence” by Thelonious Monk, started with La Touche’s tapping and Berry’s sax and grew more lively as each musician joined in. But the show’s star performance was its finale, “All of Me,” an explosion of intensity, collaboration, and joy. Everyone, on and off stage, was smiling or bobbing their heads, and feeling the music take up all the space in the room.

I left the venue believing in the powers of lighting, patience, and tap-dancing in jazz, and I left wanting more of The Adonis Rose Quintet.

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