I was on the fence about coming out on Friday night since I was kind of tired from the week, but having a chance to see Peter Sprague play the music of Pat Metheny was too good to pass up. And since this show was being put on by the San Diego Jazz Musician's Guild, Heather and I got to see it for free, since I'm now their house photographer.

They started off with a song that ended up being the opening track to my favorite Pat Metheny album, Bright Size Life.



Did I mention that Tango Del Rey is a gorgeous venue? You can go up to the balcony and sit upstairs, giving you a great view of the music. A new restaurant opened up inside as well, Mazurka, which has some Eastern European delicacies that I grew up with as a kid, like stuffed cabbage and kotlety. I might have to offer the owner a free photo shoot of the food as long as I get to eat the models afterwards.





I picked up Gunnar Biggs' new CD between sets. He's been the bass player for lots of people over the years, including Buddy Rich. It's not a fiery CD by any means, but it's got some of the same players as seen here and it's top notch. He's got a CD release show coming up next week at Anthology.



Pat's music is almost completely instrumental, but Leonard Patton sang several songs at the show, written by a lyricist who was in attendance too.



Leonard's a great singer, but his mic was a bit overamplified and he drowned out the other musicians in certain quieter passages.I'm sure these small issues will improve as they put on more shows here.



Tripp Sprague pulled off some Ornette-style sax work on "Missouri Uncomprimised".







Peter is an amazing guitarist and can channel Pat Metheny's sound better than anyone, but at the same time he still sounds like himself. Music flows effortlessly out of him, and he can give his solos a storytelling arc just like Pat, only he tells his own story.





He keeps a very busy itinerary, but it includes small solo shows at restaurants in North County and duo gigs with Leonard at libraries all over town. We are very lucky to be able to see such a huge talent in such small spaces.