Gomez Listening Party in San Francisco; Some Jazz & Blues to Enjoy

Wasn't able to get to the live shows in San Francisco that I was considering, but I was able to make it to the Gomez How We Operate Listening Party at the Boom Boom Room. I had a blast. Great group of people there, I hung out with Ed, the host of the party, for a while after the show; very knowledgeable guy when it comes to music.

Ed turned me on to a few acts I was unaware of:

Snooks Eaglin - Ed mentioned Snooks to me when I expressed my interest in Sonny Landreth, my favorite slide-guitar player. Real down-to-roots New Orleans blues. Blind guitarist with a lot of personality, Ed says he is amazing live. I wasn't able to find much in the way of tunes from this guy on the web, but there are song samples from one of his albums here, and you can hear songs from his other albums at the same site.

Astral Project - While I am mostly into alt-indie music, my tastes run quite eclectic, and this jazz band from New Orleans is striking. Starts out seeming like straight jazz, and then as you listen you hear a lot of elements from all sorts of other musical influences. My favorite cut so far is Bongo Joe from one of their older albums.

Garage A Trois - another great jazz band. I had heard of these guys, but hadn't heard any of their material. They swing. They provide full versions of songs on the discography page, and there are several live shows available at their live music archive page.

I probably won't be featuring jazz that often here, but the above are great acts that I am grateful to Ed for letting me in on.