Saturday night, I saw the New York based jazz quintet, The Flail, at Twins Jazz on U Street. They were joined by a local guitarist (whose name, if I heard correctly, was John Lee; but don’t quote me on that).

They are clearly a very good group, with an innovative sound and great chemistry. You can hear the ‘but’ coming, can’t you? But… I was disappointed. Honestly, I thought the addition of the electric guitar was a bad thing. His sound was very demanding, very dominant. Except for one song, I felt it was distracting. The insistent noise of the guitar left little room for the band members to switch up and let others take the lead and solo, because it rarely seemed able to slip into the background and let others take center stage.

On another note, the pianist looked like a clean cut Allen Ginsberg – his wild, middle aged Ginsbergian mane pulled back in a pony tail and his thick, leftist beard well trimmed in its fullness. I had to go home and read Kaddish after seeing him.