lenny pickett at the stone

Lenny Pickett played at The Stone on Sunday night, January 13.

He played tenor half the time during this solo show, in which he played against taped tracks. He explained that the pieces had been written for various benefit performances where he did not have a budget for a band. The pieces had no titles and were instead marked with the name of the show or, more cryptically, were marked with unhelpful notes like "1."

He left his sarrusophone home that night, but he did bring an E flat clarinet, also called, if you will pardon the jargon, a Small Clarinet.

Among charming trills, he made pops and plucking sounds with it that made me wonder if it was the clarinet or electronic sounds in the background. My companion assured me that Pickett was very deliberately making those sounds.

He also played a few songs on alto clarinet, which looks as if it is made from spare parts of other instruments. It did not seem to be very loud, unless it just was not miked quite right. Maddeningly, the position of its mike required him to stand so that the instrument was always partly obscured by the music stand, preventing the audience from fully enjoying the visual spectacle.

The show was delightful, both musically and because Pickett seems a very sweet and humble man, despite his prodigious talent and facility with at least four horns. If you believe Wikipedia, his appears to be a natural talent, and his charm likely comes from a self-presentation that is purely musical and rooted in the performative moment, without wearing his impressive resume. That is, he understands that this show must stand on its own, regardless of past accomplishments, something artists do not always remember.