Kaeshammer Gives Eclectic Performance at the Garde

Rick Koster, TheDay.com - Kaeshammer, a New Orleans-style boogie woogie pianist shows off chops and vision at the Garde.

Jan 11, 2010 1:36 PM - Well, the first thing I did at the Michael Kaeshammer concert Saturday in the Oasis Room of New London's Garde Arts Center was shatter a few time-honored journalistic protocols.

First, I spied Steve Sigel, the Garde's director, and approached him with a note.

"Will you please take this to Michael Kaeshammer?" I asked Sigel.

"Uhm, sure," he said. "What is it?"

What it was, was a request of Kaeshammer to play either a James Booker or a Professor Longhair song during his performance. (Not sure you know this, but a working critic covering an event does not typically ask the subject of the assignment for artistic favors.)

Here's the deal: Kaeshammer, the German-born, Canadian-based musician, is one of the finest New Orleans-style boogie woogie pianists in this solar system.

Period.

And while material over the course of his six albums ranges from blues and barrelhouse to original pop-jazz tunes (some destined, in time, to become standards), it's also true he regards Booker and Fess as major inspirations. I figured it would be my one chance to see a true monster go at these late giants.

Sure enough, Kaeshammer, accompanied by a wonderfully empathetic drummer/percussionist (whose name I unfortunately didn't catch), broached the request-note almost at once. In fact, he asked - of the 90 or so folks in the spectacularly intimate room - who had requested Booker and Fess. Since the Oasis is like being in a living room, I felt ridiculous obligated to wave my hand.

I'm certainly glad I did. Kaeshammer threw down Booker's sun-hot arrangement of "Sunny Side of the Street" - and it just flabbergasted us. Later, he obliged another fan's shout out - "Play your favorite song!" - by ripping through Professor Longhair's "Go to the Mardi Gras."

Over the course of a two-set, two-hour show, other astonishing tunes included Ella Fitzgerald's "Comes Love," "St. James Infirmary," "Honky Tonk Train Blues," "Sweet Georgia Brown" (as though rendered by Thelonious Monk), "People Get Ready," and a ripping take on Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home."

In fact, for most of an evening in which he came off as gracious, charming and funny, Kaeshammer happily emphasized the archival boogie-woogie. In his stunning hands, a genre that often seems limited by its I-IV-V chord structures exploded with the infinite possibilities of skill and imagination. He double- and triple-timed, infused pop, classical and jazz material within the recitations, one-upped Jerry Lee Lewis-esque showmanship, used the brand-new house grand piano as a percussion instrument, engaged in musical call-and-response with the drummer - and at the core of it all showed off chops and vision that could only come from love, genetic talent, and an insane work ethic.