tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4051519380220252201.post8332579988263510033..comments2024-03-21T10:16:51.212-07:00Comments on Impressions of Vince: The Trident: Then and nowDerrick Banghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4051519380220252201.post-28515425792849703592021-03-03T16:49:18.317-08:002021-03-03T16:49:18.317-08:00I was excited, in 2015 when I found out that The T...I was excited, in 2015 when I found out that The Trident, was doing business again under its original name. So I crossed the water to Sausalito one night to see a friend perform during the brisk weeks of November. This was one of two Bay Area long-stays away from New York City (the second would turn into more of a stay-cation away from New York, for me). As Toby Gleason was suggesting in the post, as with the original the club this time seemed more of a wine-and-dine situation with music, not likely to bring in the likes of Lee Konitz, or Jaki Byard, like Half Moon Bay's Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society did, where I went to a fundraiser show that same month, hosted by the late Pete Douglas's daughter.<br /><br />That said, the show I went to see that night was also more in keeping with the club's early image.<br /><br />What really surprised me, however, was how the bay's magic hour lit the whole arch-windowed space like a Douglas Sirk Technicolor film. The yachts moored up at the docks, barely stirring, the masts poking up into the dimming sky, into a timeless forested stillness, made of only boats and horizon.<br /><br />The friend, who was around for Vince's trio engagements during its heyday, showed me where the stage was originally: diagonally facing out toward that Technicolor natural screen, in a easterly direction, turning south. (In 2016, the bandstand was farther inside, recessed toward a dark wall in a southerly direction, on a platform against a hand-railed walkway lowering into the club, lit only with ambient lighting with the bar to the right.) You can see the original stage in that color photo of the trio with Monty Budwig and Colin Bailey, with Guaraldi wailing away on the wood-finished grand piano.<br /><br />For years, I wondered why Guaraldi pared down his trio approach around 1963 (for Fantasy Records studio work at least). After that opening salvo of The Black Orpheus album, it seemed like there was some coasting on real art, until the inspiration hit again. It could be that Vince favoring simple, melodic phrasing and bluesy struts, meant that challenging music happened for him, outside of a trio situation.<br /><br />Something answering towards that earlier question, may also be in the kind of music brought in by pianists like Chicago-born Denny Zeitlin, who began playing The Trident regularly around 1965. Zeitlin had the distinction of "inheriting" Vince's drummer, Jerry Granelli, and had forays into electronic music (Zeitlin's score for the San Francisco horror remake, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, in 1978). That pianist's rigorous approach to harmony and phrasing, not to mention his prismatic attitude toward the instrument and Bill Evans's influence, may've placed a fresh speedtrap onto more traditional-feel, Count Basie and Red Garland paced driving. <br /><br />Guaraldi covered "What Is This Thing Called Love?" for Don Wilson's 1964 radio shows, The Navy Swings. Here Zeitlin performs the same tune, at The Trident, in 1965. It's as though he asked this question in five different ways, and put it into one take (and maybe even bumped off the heart of the melody, Capone style, in a hail of bullets!):<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5jVbEEf1_Y<br />Ludlow Joesnoreply@blogger.com