A few of my own personal favorites of an overall brilliant set were the absolutely on fire Smokestack Lightning toward the end (this is where TD broke his second string) and a medley he did of some songs from a forthcoming record, co-written by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, as well as the aforementioned David Barnes harp solo
His voice had the rumbling power of a train in the still of night roaring through a small town. And while he slammed every song hard, some might claim too hard, his guitar playing could be very nimble indeed, letting a couple of smartly placed notes replace a solo before playing fast runs near the neck of the guitar.
Tomas is a large, imposing figure, he appears gentle but on stage he holds the center of gravity, everything revolves around him and he keeps it balanced as he leads the band through genre after genre. It is intimidating in its strength and righteousness and the buzz surrounfg him and the band is getting louder but hasn’t reached the tipping point yet
At 70 minutes it was very short and my sense is that if you went to all three nights it would add up to one a unfied vision but one set is not quite enough to get any real feel for what is going on musically
Maceo and the band referenced signature vocal hooks from these classic jams throughout an original composition to give the feeling of a story being told. The start of a never ending journey.
The opportunity to see Parker lead his band, he has been playing funk and soul classics for years and released an album of Ray Charles covers in 2011, should be taken full advantage. So make sure you do.
a proto cool nycentric pop-rock gem
