Joe Sample Trio at Yoshi's, June 17, 2004

Yoshi's has been a local jazz establishment for a long time. Before they built a really nice place in Oakland, they had somewhat smaller place near Berkeley, which I also enjoyed.

The name is also shared by a Japanese restaurant, but as far as a Japanese restaurant goes, I'd say it's rather average from what we ordered in the club (also, I've been to the restaurant in their Berkeley days, and it was just so and so).

Anyway, my brother-in-law was in town from Korea, who I've been told likes jazz. So, I booked tickets to one of the Joe Sample Trio shows. I am only a casual Jazz listener, so I didn't know a lot about Mr. Sample, but I thought I heard his name before. For the show, Joe Sample (piano) was accompanied by Jay Anderson (bass) and Adam Nussbaum (drums).

It turns out Mr. Sample's albums fall somewhat into "smooth jazz" somewhat in line with George Benson. Actually, Mr. Sample began the set with some "begrudging" remarks, in a joking manner, on Mr. Benson. I thought it was amusing. :)

Mr. Anderson's bass was rather muted. It could have been because the acoustic controls weren't set properly (Mr. Sample complained about the sound being too loud), but (probably due to the arrangement) I didn't notice anything exceptional. On the other hand, it was exciting to watch Mr. Nussbaum play. I mean, the drummer usually is more interesting to watch anyway, but he was quite good, I thought (Hyun thought he played more like a rock drummer for one piece).

Mr. Sample, who seemed to be known for "keyboard", definitely had more of the lighter bouncier touches on the piano because, I think, most of his well-known compositions were for electric keyboards. Since I wasn't familiar with his work, I wished to hear them on electric keyboards for some numbers.

It was a pretty good crowd for a Thursday show, I thought. Due to a missed exit, we arrived about 30 minutes before the 8:00 p.m. show and it was full and someone had to find a table for us (there is no customer named "Tom" :p).