Jim Brickman

Concert tonight. I almost didn't go, as I seem to now have the sinus nonsense that should have come with the fever. I suppose that next week the sinus stuff will be gone and I'll just have body aches or something equally bizarre. Anyway, Jim Brickman is a pianist, but he had plenty of company. Just as well. I would have been bored halfway through if it had all been his piano stuff. I mean, he's good, but his style tends to make things sound alike after a while. No where near as bad as George Winston, though. Jim Brickman's pieces tend to be enjoyable one or two at a time, but a bit blah en masse.

So he had help from three sources. First up, a local backup orchestra (Teton Symphony? Teton something, anyway). That added some interest, though they needed to turn the amp on the piano down just a smidgen as it was drowning out the orchestra. Second, Tracy Silverman on the electric violin. He is awesome. He occasionally extemporized rock "guitar" solos on his violin in the middle of other songs, as well as more standard accompanying. Third, Anne Cochran sang some songs with the piano and/or violin and/or orchestra. She's got a good voice, though she's just a touch too twangy for my tastes. I think that a 3 hour concert of any one of those three artists would have been too much, but combining and swapping out the three of them worked beautifully.

So overall I liked it. I did find some of the between-set-schtick rather tiresome, but that was partly because I was in analysis mode and noting things like, "ah, yes, invoke local names as often as possible" and "deliberately make a fool of yourself so any later mistakes seem intentional." Nothing unusual in it, except that I was in the mood to rip it to shreds rather than to enjoy it. Probably on a night that I was feeling better, I would have liked it somewhat more.