| One of the really nice things about the
venue at our Pickin' Parties is that incredibly talented guitar players
can sit in a room full of enthusiastic LISTENERS that quietly hang on
their every note. That is nice for both those listeners, AND the
artists - as most of them are typically relegated to providing background
"noise" to an inconsiderate restaurant crowd somewhere. In
fact, I've been proudly thinking that our "up close and
personal" venue is the best listening environment for all our
performers for quite awhile now - up until last night.
Folks, it is simply wonderful to hear Kenny
Poole,
finger style guitar jazz master, at one of our Pickin' Parties - but, the
ultimate is catching him even more up close and personal in the lounge at
the Heritage Restaurant in Cincinnati. It is "his room."
He plays one set that lasts all night long - or, as long
as his cigarettes hold out. Playing one tune after another (and,
smoking one cigarette after another) to a very small intimate crowd
completely immersed in his talent. And, takes the non-stop
bombardment of requests with the grace of a true gentleman - however, not
without a "story" of some sort to preface each tune. (One
in particular was a new fav of mine Bin Bon that Maggie Green sings so
well here in Columbus. His comment with a big smile on his face, as
he ripped into that neat Latin beat tune, was, "Nobody has ever
asked me to play this one, Palmer.." Wonderfully played.. (I
still can't wait to get him and Maggie together, sometime...) (Which
happened several months after this writing at the Blue Moon in Dayton,
OH..)
The evening continues with one story, one joke, another
request, wonderful interactive conversation with everybody in the room -
and, then another masterfully played tune from hands and fingers that seem
to effortlessly glide from one note (and, chord - and, bass line,) to the
next - never landing on anything I have ever been able to play.
--- The evening ends waaaay to soon.
Kenny knows how hard we work up here at keeping the Ohio
Fingerstyle Guitar Club focused on our basics of finger pickin' music in
the style of Chet, Merle and Jerry Reed. And, he readily admits to
the influence Chet had on him as a young learning guitar player. As
a tribute to Chet and our club, he ended the evening with an almost
note-for-note (which is very atypical "Poole") and superb
arrangement of "Petite Waltz." The most astounding
feat of all is that he doesn't memorize arrangements - he puts them
together on the fly - yet, this last tune came out almost identical as
when Chet recorded it. Guess what? Chet arranged
"on-the-fly" as well....
Oh, to have that much talent....
Kenny Poole is at the Herritage Restaurant,
7664 Wooster Pike (Rt 50), Cincinnati (513) 561-9300 - Wednesday and
Thursday evenings. (The Herritage went out of business in 2004) Kenny
Poole Biography |
