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Michael O'Neill Quintet featuring Kenny Washington

Jazz at Pearl's
San Francisco, CA

"Washington is phenomenal. Right away he makes Al Jarreau sound like he's stretching and reaching and basically trying too hard. Washington is effortless and precise, but very smooth. He's a small man, and you can hear how that makes his voice unique. He's got the purity and straight-ahead sensibility of Bobby Short, he's got the playfulness of McFerrin, he's got the soulful sensibilities of Donny Hathaway and he's got the Jazz like no one else." "Michael O'Neill sounds as if he could improvise all night without ever repeating himself once. He hovers between mastery and greatness. His saxophone work is extraordinary. He plays with almost orchestral diction yet with classic jazz chops. It makes him a rare treat - it's almost as if he's not only playing but he's teaching saxophone on stage." -michael bowen

The Long and the Short of It
Michael O'Neill Quintet | Jazzmo Records
By Stephen Latessa

On The Long and the Short of It, the Bay Area-based Michael ONeill Quintet has devised a unique role for featured singer Kenny Washington. Washington sings a number of standards in a fairly straightforward manner, but on the originals by ONeill, he is essentially used as another horn, vocalizing the melody or harmony along with the horns of ONeill and Steve Campos. After this initial statement, he takes his turn along with the other soloists. There is ample opportunity for this arrangement to become, well, annoying, but Washington makes it work by virtue of his vocal range and improvisational imagination.

The quintet turns in a sensitive performance of the perennial The Nearness of You featuring a charming, almost bashful-sounding solo from ONeill. In addition, Washington turns in a vocal performance that is both soulful and modern, betraying the spirit of his acknowledged influences, Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway. Elsewhere, on the ONeill original Masai, which features percolating percussion from Danilo Paiz, Washington assumes the role of third horn and blends nicely with the band until he swoops into a solo that leaves no doubt about the expansiveness of his range. More often than not, Caravan is destined to be a highlight of any program, and the tense reading turned in by the quintet does not disappoint.

The Long and the Short of It features a thoroughly accomplished band blessed with the presence of a gifted singer who functions as part of the band and not as some sort of conspicuous and garish ornament. Such musicianship is rare and always welcome.

Note: TICKET TIERS FOR THIS SHOW Show Ticket: Sold in advance online and by phone. Includes guaranteed seating AND show ticket for our first or second show for arrival before curtain. 2 beverage minimum. ATM across the street. VIP Ticket: Sold in advance online and by phone. Includes tickets to both shows, front of line access, instant seating, chilled bottle of champagne waiting at your table (included in price), reserved VIP table for both shows (stay at your table), CD of act with autograph. No beverage minimum.

Kid Friendly: No

Dog Friendly: No

Non-Smoking: No

Wheelchair Accessible: No

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