We were back at the Iridium Jazz Club Thursday night to see Jorma Kaukonen perform. Some of you may not recognize the name, he was a founding member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. The club gave me a free pass simply for entering the lottery for the Jeff Beck show. The place has practically no presence at the street. Its storefront is only about eight or ten feet wide wedged between a Broadway theatre showing Mamma Mia! and Stardust, a restaurant that touts its singing wait staff. Once in the door you see there is only a small landing and a long staircase to the basement club. There are probably a lot of house concerts that have more space than this. They require a $10 purchase drink or food per set which is easy to meet as beers are $7 and wine is $12. We opted for a couple of entrees, a smoked salmon dinner salad and a roasted chicken breast. We both agreed that they might have been the best meals we have had the whole time we have been here. Jorma took the stage exactly as our happy plates were whisked away.
The show was great and incredibly intimate. The place seats about 200 I figure, cabaret style. It was an all acoustic set, Jorma, another guitarist, and mandolin/banjo player all seated for the whole show. I think they were primarily bluegrass players but they were so well rehearsed they must play with Jorma regularly. He had good stage patter and was pretty funny adlibbing with the audience callouts. The sound was identical to his last three albums with extended solos in every song generating applause sometimes three times on each song. Needless to say the audience seemed to be filled with guitarists.
The sound was perfect too. I guess Les Paul had a lot of input on the system put in there so that is to be expected.
I got to thinking when I last Jorma live. It was when he was in Jefferson Airplane at Memorial Hall in 1969 which was also my very first concert…forty-one years ago.
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