Adam Dietch Quartet: Egyptian Secrets

2020/2/3 Adam Deitch Quartet @ Blue Note

Stanton Moore notwithstanding, Adam Deitch is one of the funkiest drummers around. I still remember my first listen to Egyptian Secrets, one of a small handful of favorite albums in 2019, and immediately doing a Google search and finding this show listing. I’ve actually never been to the Blue Note before, so it got me thinking that is exactly the type of show that changed my live music life some seventeen years ago. You see, I was used to seeing super expensive and impersonal shows in large and impersonal arenas and stadiums, so when I finally stumbled into a cozy jazz club, I mean, that changed me. And it doesn’t get more cozy than Eric “Benny” Bloom mooching fries from a random dude up front before the show. Such a small and random thing, but the first time you realize that musicians are not necessarily these larger than life human beings, but guys and girls like me and you who, when they smell a plate of hot fries, flash back to their grade school lunch rooms and have no choice but to act on a carnal desire to mooch one, it’s kind of an eye-opening experience. So last night, a personal favorite record brought to life by personal favorite musicians at a table shared with personal favorite people, yeah, that’s the good stuff. I can’t imagine that any of the reasons why this 200-cap room gets a bad rap apply when it’s 80% empty, so I’ll call my maiden voyage a smashing success.

The 10:30 show started at 10:42 with “Dot Org,” the first track on Egyptian Secrets. Bloom took the first opportunity to showcase his chops on the trumpet before passing his solo to Wil Blades on the B3. Where Deitch was not only the album’s composer but also the conductor of this live quartet, Bloom was clearly the cheerleader, a role he both relishes and excels in, egging on and applauding his bandmates at every turn with facial expressions, fist bumps, and general silliness. He’s an engaging character, very much an ordinary guy with extraordinary talent. This was the first time I’ve either seen or listened to Blades and I was kind of taken with him, as well. Flashing back to that first listen of this album, I remember adding up all the sounds I heard and coming up with much more than a quartet. The liner notes straightened out some of my questions, as the guitar I heard was the collaboration of John Scofield, but where was that bass line coming from??? While I was vaguely aware that a Hammond B3 organ has bass pedals, every time I see one played there’s also a bassist on stage so it kind of masks the sound or, at least, makes it harder to discern where the bass is coming from. Not so last night as I was able to track every bass note to the tapping left foot of Wil Blades. To contemplate how one person can create multiple layers of sound, two hands and two feet directed by the same brain to simultaneously do four different things was awesome to say the least. I’m going to want to see more of this guy, for sure. 

As for Scofield’s contributions to the album, you better believe that in New York, a city with a limitless supply of A+ musicians, Deitch et al were going to be able to find a guitarist to guest for a few songs. Enter Mark Whitfield, a jazz guitarist I’ve never heard of with a sparkling curriculum vitae that reads like a who’s who of modern jazz greats. Needless to say, he quickly found his footing and dazzled, enhancing this now quintet with the gorgeous tones of a custom Marchione Spanish classical guitar. {Please recall that I know nothing of instruments, in general, nor guitars, in particular, but was quite taken with both the beauty and the sound of this piece so I did a quick search. Google knows all.} 

Now at the point in the night, and the record, for Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel,” I was even more impressed with Blades’ left foot bass lines as I knew for certain he wasn’t just making them up as he went. I mean, intellectually I knew he wasn’t, yet I somehow had the lingering feeling that, hey, maybe I could tap out a pretty decent bass line, too. Um…yeah, no.  This cat is good. And Deitch’s funk/jazz interpretation of this song is just too good. It’s one that hopefully makes it into every setlist. Somehow I never picked up on the Egytian sounds behind “Egyptian Secrets,” but last night felt like I was seeing musical hieroglyphics unfold before my eyes (and ears). This track particularly transported me to another time and place and brought the whole theme of the record home, a tribute to Idris Muhhamed, the late New Orleans born drummer. Interestingly, after taking four years to write and compose these tracks, most of them were recorded in 2014, the year of Muhammed’s death, although not released till late last year. In that ilk, Deitch promised another album in 2028. 

I’d be remiss to wrap this up without showing a little love for Ryan Zoidis, saxophonist with the Lettuce horns alongside Bloom’s trumpet. He may take a backseat to Bloom’s antics, but man can he play. And Deitch, to really see him on this project as a bandleader and composer, with his signature sound, #funkjazz extraordinaire, all the while being recorded by his drum playing parents. Speaking of family trees full of talent, I just read the same about Whitfield’s family. I guess my point is my kids have a better chance of being alcoholics than musicians. 

Just to get this all in writing so I can look back on it one day, Monday February 3, 2020, was one for the ages. Sixty degrees and sunny, I ran a 5k in shorts and a t-shirt with my dog, then played one on one with my oldest (couldn’t peel my youngest from the video games – no one’s perfect), then hit the Big Apple for a Ranger game with a lifelong friend where I had about a pound and third of Luger shrimp cocktail before the Deitch Beats double with Julie and Geoff. The best of all worlds, Metro NY for the win!