Treat Night

Tonight was a treat night, a treat we had waited for since early October; it was a concert at the Cohn with Jesse Cook and his band. They put on a great show, and the audience, which was largely our demographic, the ones that the Grey Power commercials are aimed at, “boomers”, our friend W said, but I think of us as “geezers”, that audience loved it. We clapped and whistled and swayed and yelled. It was, like I said, a great show.

We bought our tickets last fall and chose seats in the second row of the balcony, which turned out to be a great place to watch and listen from. Lorraine suggested we bring binoculars, and though we didn’t need them, it was wonderful to be able to peer at the players close up. It was a guitar show, but it was also a percussion show, as well as a violin show, and we were both reminded of the great concerts of Mercan Dede in Istanbul where he shared the stage and sound space so generously with the amazing players he had gathered together for his performances.

There were many very high highlights in this show, but the one that brought tears to my eyes was the closing number. It was a performance of Fall at Your Feet, which you can listen to here, but unfortunately you’ll get just the gist of it and you won’t hear what we heard tonight.

First, you need to know that the good old Rebecca Cohn’s audience from our vantage point in the balcony was pretty much a sea of grey hair. And, for the “rumba party” segment of the show, the whole audience was on its feet, not exactly dancing, but swaying and clapping and shuffling its feet to the Latin rhythms and great guitars. When the band walked off at the end, we were still standing and clapping and yelling and whistling, and of course they all came back and did one more number that really rocked the place.

Then they all came to the front of the stage and Jesse asked if we could hear OK in the balcony without mikes (which we could), and then they started a quiet clapping rhythm with only Jesse’s acoustic guitar playing and Chris Church, who is from here and whose parents and high school math teacher were in the crowd, began to sing. Chris’ violin had been one of the great elements of the show, but his voice here, straining a little without a mike, was soulful and evocative.

And next to him was Chendy Leon Jr, the great young Cuban-Canadian percussionist, who led the gentle handclapping rhythm, and then, in a moment of pure poetry, sang the sweetest harmonies next to Chris’ vocals. We had watched Chendy play all night, often couldn’t take our eyes off him as he played, but this was the true moment.

I wish you too could have heard it. It was a song and a moment we toasted when we got home with Havana Club rum, neat with a slice of lime and a touch of bitters, truly a great one!