John Surman Quartet
Blues Alley, Washington, DC, USA
27 August, 2009
early set

John Surman - bs, ss
Drew Gress - b
John Abercrombie - g
Jack DeJohnette - d

1. HIlltop Dancer
2. slanted sky?
3. kickback
4. no finesse
5. free piece (Haywain?)
Counter Measures

Recorded on a Zoom H2 using the internal microphones. Transferred, normalized and tracked with FinalVinyl, then encoded to flac with Xact.

It was another humid evening in Washington, DC, and Georgetown was coming to life with returning college students and the last of the summer tourists. I was the guest of my friends John and Katy. We were in a table right at the front, near Abercrombie. The sound wasnÕt that balanced being so close, Surman was a bit hard to hear in the mix from our table, but it was a great show, and the recorder seems to have a better mix than my ears perceived. I had the recorder in my lap, usually held by one hand. There are several shufflings of the microphones due to the tablecloth and applause, and you do get the slight feeling of being under a close ceiling sometimes, but it was a pretty full house and the first night of a run. Enjoy and share!