Drummer Aaron Alexander had a delightful
quartet at their Lotus Bell Atlantic gig, with the always propulsive
Stomu Takeishi on electric bass, and Jamie Saft on electric keyboards.
Saft played the keybs as if it were a piano, not a synth going for effects.
The first piece had an old-timey feel and turned out to be "Yew
Piney Mountain," a traditional ballad, with Peter Epstein playing
a bittersweet sax line. "Padjuska," a Bulgarian song, followed,
and was a tasty duet, Takeishi picking tasty bass notes and Alexander
hand drumming. They did an arrangement of a piece from Ellington’s
"Sacred Concert," and were especially sweet when the keyboard
and sax doubled each other, Saft ending with a clever waver/sustain
on the final chord. They played with time changes, false endings, and
they had fun; the members of this totally cohesive unit were smiling
at each other as they played.