I Gottcha!

October 15, 1997

I can't say I've ever seen James Brown live, but one of things I have always found most interesting about his performances (that I've seen on video or TV) is the combination of raw energy and technical precision. Well, the spirit of James Brown is alive and well in the San Francisco-based band What It Is.

Saturday night I slipped out of the Go Fest to check out the group at the Sapphire. The place was packed, and the audience's attention was glued to the group on stage, which consisted of Avi Bortnick - guitar, Jerry Kennedy - bass/lead vocals, Tom Hurst - drums, Russell Tillitt - keyboards, trumpet, sax, DJ, and back-up vocalists/dancers. The band's energy had completely infected the sometimes unwilling Orlando crowd, and rampant dancing brought an end to more than one dangerously balanced martini on the struggling waitresses' trays.

As I found myself sucked into the more funky than jazzy sounds, I began to notice that I was witnessing a precision operation on stage. Every move - from key changes to pauses to accent beats - was orchestrated by the band leader. Using hand gestures and verbal cues, Kennedy handled What It Is like a race car driver behind the wheel of a precision automobile. The best part was the Brown-like spirit behind this control, which brought out great performances by all the band members by keeping them challenged and entertained. There were lots of smiles as he made particularly demanding cues.

The set ended with a thunderous jam that kept building way past any sane level. As relative silence fell over the Sapphire, the crowd had that dazed look that can only come from a transcendent musical experience. What It Is had brought the house down.

Dan Leeds
I may have broken the dreaded 30 threshold, but internally I still feel like I stopped getting older some time around 25 or so. Yea, I've become more responsible and maybe even a little more ambitious, but not so much that I've lost track of my guiding ideals or my ability to play. While getting older may be inevitable, aging is much more relative. What else is there? :)