Tom Schuman night, OMG!

Tom Schuman of Spyro Gyra in the House!

OK, Mr. Off-The-Scale Verbal Dude is once again at a loss for adequate words. From the first percussion lick of the night till the final note, this was totally unreal. The energy level on stage was about as high as I've ever seen it. Tom Schuman, this mature, sophisticated, eminent jazz artist with an elite musical rap sheet a thousand miles long, was like a little kid at Disney World, he was havin' so much fun. The crowd repeatedly howled in delighted disbelief.

The guys threw it all down, nothing held back. In addition to doing Nathan's great new tune "Come With Me," they also did Dave's equally killer tune "Salvation." Tom simply read the chart. Done. Fabulous.

The band reciprocated by doing a couple of Tom's tunes in fine fashion. First, they blew the walls off with "Extremities." Then they accompanied Tom on his new "Fearless Fostic."

It was simply an amazing evening. Chiqui Garcia ("Havana Nights") came up do do a pyrotechnic percussion jam with Gabe and Pepe. And Brothers Johnson & Johnson (Johnny and Tyriq) closed out the night together. We had a great crowd. Everyone left mumbling and shaking their heads.

Some pics (I shot 167, so I'm again gonna be a while culling the keepers):

Wow. Couple of notes before I crash (it's goin' on 4, I'm runnin' outa steam). Jerry Jones gave me a copy of his group's CD, Fifth Avenue "For The Fun of It." I can't wait to listen to it and report back. The music bed on their website sounds really fine.

Also, my friend Steve Tuminello introduced me to artist Richard Ruby tonight. Check out his work, very nice.

BTW- Jerry and Lenny will be appearing this week at The Big Apple Bar in NY/NY with the fabulous Michael Grimm starting at 9 pm tomorrow night. Thursday thru Sunday they'll start at 4 pm and go till 9. Hey, Michael, thanks for the picture byline on your website, little Brother! Wow, how nice of you. Everybody: check out Michael's new website design (click his name). Cat does his own web work, stuff is beautiful! One talented young man.

Thanks to everyone for showing up tonight. It was really, really fine. Thanks again to Tom Schuman, and Chiqui, and Tyriq for throwin' down. Thanks to Ric and Jackie Gould for plugging the band on their awesome 97.1 FM Jazz Show on Sunday mornings. Thanks to Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns for this incredible work they continue to do. It is simply inspiring. Healing.

And, Ron Camire, we all hope you're healin' up fast, bro'.

VIDEO UPDATE from STEVE TUMINELLO and DAVE SIEFKES

Oh, yeah! Steve shot Danny and Gil doin' the dueling trumpets solo during "Negrita" last night. Enjoy. Thanks, guys.