Yesterday morning, Jacob Sacks (my best bud), told me he was doing a solo keyboard gig at a little juice bar in Manhattan called Elixir. I was surprised that he didn’t advertise it or if he did, I missed it.
I didn’t know what to expect (and I think, neither did he). It was a short set of about 25 minutes and Jacob played four short free improvised pieces. Each piece displayed a different characteristic of Jacob’s playing. In the first piece, Jacob used a lot of space and played (at times for me) uncomfortably slow. It was very effective. The second piece he ended with a surprise chord which was refreshing and spontaneous. His fourth piece started out like one of the previous pieces which made me curious (Jacob never likes to play the same thing twice). Of course, I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the music go in a different direction. I should have known better than to expect him to play anything the same way. This last piece was very rhythmical with dense harmonies that were stimulating to hear.
I was really glad that I stopped in to see this show even after a long day of rehearsing and teaching. I’m one of Jacob’s biggest fans (if not the biggest) and when I hear him perform he always keeps me coming back for more. Jacob is melodic, spontaneous, soulful and just damn good at playing the piano.