About 10 days ago I went out on a Saturday night to see the amazing Ashley Cleveland play at a local club. Now, Ashley is one of those absolutely world-class singers that can do about anything and sound better than 99% of people opening their mouths. I've had the privilege to work with Ashley a couple times in my career and I'm still as impressed as ever with her craft and how she continues to get better.
Ashley's husband, Kenny Greenberg , is a similarly talented freak of nature. He's one of Nashville's most sought after guitarists and has gained great acclaim as a producer as well; I happen to think that he resembles a cheerier Hunter S. Thompson, which aside from his genuine graciousness, earns him more points in my book. Watching Kenny play is a pure joy, and he always seems to surpass any expectation I have for his amazing playing. Also in Ashley's band were bass player Michael Rhodes, another top level session player whose credits are too long to list; I understand that when the Rolling Stones were auditioning bass players a few years ago he was one of 5 to even audition. On Hammond B-3 organ that night was Reese Wynans, a member of Stevie Ray Vaughn's Double Trouble. Ken Lewis - an up and coming session and live drummer, held down the kit with Ashley for the first time and did a great job.
So I'm watching this set transpire and thinking that aside from NY or LA, maybe Chicago, if I were to walk into a divey bar & grill and saw a stage of late 40 - early 50 year olds playing blues and soul influenced rock, I'd instantly go to a cartoon image of my college buddies trying to recreate "Brown Eyed" Girl" or "Jumpin' Jack Flash". In Nashville, however, we're fortunate to get absolute world-class players almost any night of the week, stretching out and having fun, trying out new ideas and not taking themselves seriously at all. No ambition-riddled, trying-to-prove-themselves posturing, just some of the greatest musicians around having a blast.
After the show Kenny, another friend and I talked about new music (Thom Yorke in particular), and for the 13 years I've known Kenny he has only expanded his musical vocabulary - not only with new stuff but by mining classic, obscure things. It shows in his playing. He'll be in the midst of a 12 bar blues solo, and I can see where he's goign with it, and all of a sudden, WHAM! He pulls out some Radiohead-inspired blast or an angular, Roxy Music type riff that comes out of nowhere to broadside you. It's that amazing whiff of the unexpected that makes this band such a joy to see.
Now, as I was watching and being broadsided, I got to thinking about an article I'd been reading earlier that day. Disclaimer: what I'm about to state is an anomaly in my reading habits. You see, I've somehow received subscriptions to a number of publications this year, one of them being, to the delight and humor of my family, Scientific American. A couple asides:
1) Anyone who's ever witnessed my participation in science classes in the past would shake with laughter at the sight of me reading this mag, much less trying to comprehend much of it.
2) The magazine's title must be a shrinking population in recent years, with the White House declaring global warming an untested theory and stacking the FDA with big pharma lackeys. But I digress.
The cover story is called, The Expert Mind, and it tracks, particularly in champion chess players (another laughter-inducing proposition for me), the way the mind works in true experts. Several theories are explored, with the most fascinating asserting that true experts are able to assimilate more information from their long-term memories into a given context. An example: in a chess match, there may be 50,000 – 100,000 different possible moves during a given match. Studies showed that there is little difference between a merely good chess player and a grand master in terms of ability to see different options. The difference is in how the grand master can so quickly assimilate those options into the present moment to make the best move possible.
Watching Ashley Cleveland, Kenny Greenberg, Michael Rhodes, Reese Wynans and Ken Lewis play made me think of that, Kenny in particular. Many talented players could figure out how to do what he does. Very few can come up with that stuff on the fly, and assemble parts so varied in their influence and heartfelt in the execution.
And so, in the midst of the profane heat/humidity combo that is another Nashville summer, I will remain thankful for the experts in the midst.
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