Oh, the People You’ll Meet at the Kennedy Center!

Last evening’s concert at the Kennedy Center turned out to be two separate acts, the Dave Brubeck Quartet followed by the Ramsey Lewis Trio, rather than the monumental duet concert I was expecting, but there was nothing disappointing about it. Each delivered a phenomenal set–Brubeck a program of standards and surprisingly contemporary sounds, Lewis one of his own gospel roots and gospel-tinged originals, capped off by their respective hits, “Take Five” and “The In Crowd.”

During both, I was sitting in a side tier with a charming lady, perhaps in her late sixties, who told me stories between sets of seeing Brubeck, Stan Getz, and others on the West Coast Jazz scene of the 1950s. When I told her that I was a freelance music critic, she got a funny smile on her face.

“Do you know a fellow named Ian MacKaye?” she asked.

“Of course,” I replied.

“My daughter lived with him for about 20 years,” she said. “He’s an amazing man, and he really encouraged her in her own art.”

I was sitting with the mother of Cynthia Connolly–longtime Dischord promotions director, D.C. scenester, and author of Banned in DC: Photos and Anecdotes From the DC Punk Underground (79–85).

Between that and the two divergent pianists on the stage, I can only conclude that the Kennedy Center has a unique ability to bring people together.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 10:29 am and is filed under Dischord, Jazz, Out and About. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.