# The Microscopic Septet and Friend at The Kitchen: Videos, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/01/08/the-microscopic-septet-and-friend-at-the-kitchen-videos-photos/
- Published: 2018-01-08T14:03:07+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**2017 has been a year of wonderful music, meeting and hearing Nancy Harrow, interviewing
Dan Morgenstern, and more. The “more” includes hearing and recording The Microscopic
Septet twice.**

I know I am late to the festivities, since the Micros have been changing the world
one song at a time for more than thirty years, but I am certainly enjoying them.

The facts, or what they resemble: the Micros are co-led by pianist / composer Joel
Forrester and saxophonist / composer Phillip Johnston. The five other nobles in 
the crew are Richard Dworkin, drums; Dave Hofstra, string bass; Dave Sewelson, baritone
saxophone and vocal; Michael Hashim, tenor saxophone; Don Davis, alto saxophone.
They make uplifting, always surprising music.

[[

The first time I had the pleasure was on June 6, at the Astor Room in Astoria, New
York, and the results are here and here, gloriously.

Six months later, I very happily found myself in a reserved seat in the front row
of The Kitchen at 512 West 19th Street in the West Village of New York City, waiting
for the music to begin.  Phillip had gathered the Micros and two other bands from
the same time and place — the Jazz Passengers and the Kamikaze Ground Crew, for 
what he called FOREVER WEIRD.

At times, the music was weird, but in the most friendly ways.  To attempt to “interpret”
it would be an impudence both to the musicians and this audience. I will indulge
myself in only one metaphor: imagine a train rhythmically moving through a constantly
shifting multi-colored landscape, changing, morphing, returning.  Just as we’ve 
gotten comfortable with the purple stalactites outside the window, they are replaced
with three (not four) upholstered kitchen chairs. And we are happy.

[[Not knowing the two other bands, I did not video-record them (although we might
get to see the finale, when everyone gathered onstage and played DON’T MIND IF I
DO — in a future post) but I devotedly captured the Micros. The premise of their
hour-long set was a quick retrospective through their collective history — too rich
to compress into eight performances, but what a satisfying jaunt.  Here are the 
first four:

Phillip’s A STRANGE THOUGHT ENTERED MY HEAD:

LIEUTENANT CASSOWARY.

Joel’s SECOND AVENUE:

A “seasonal favorite” for the “generic holiday season”.

The second half will come soon.  I know this offering is but a fraction — one-half
of the closing third, but it’s a very rewarding sixth.

Thanks to Phillip Johnston, Don Davis, Dave Sewelson, Michael Hashim, Richard Dworkin,
Joel Forrester, Dave Hofstra, and to the kind people at The Kitchen, who couldn’t
have been more welcoming.

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