{"id":12983,"date":"2012-04-19T11:02:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T15:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/?p=12983"},"modified":"2012-04-19T11:04:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T15:04:36","slug":"jay-stolar-at-rockwood-music-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/19\/jay-stolar-at-rockwood-music-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Stolar at Rockwood Music Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay Stolar<\/a> headlined a set at Rockwood Music Hall<\/a>. That, in itself, is not news. Jay headlines there every Thursday, but, at 1am, which we have yet to keep ourselves awake for. Yesterday, he kicked off the evening with the first set, at 6pm. For us, that\u2019s as good as it gets.<\/p>\n

\"JayStolar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For most people it\u2019s not. Typically, even when someone awesome plays a 6pm show, the place is relatively empty. Not so for Jay. It was the best (biggest) crowd we\u2019ve seen for an early show.<\/p>\n

This was our first full set seeing Jay. Now that we\u2019ve experienced it, I want to hit rewind and catch every one of his previous sets (including staying up for the 1am ones!). I don\u2019t mean to sound surprised by Jay\u2019s performance. We\u2019ve seen him sing (at least one song) five times before, either at a benefit or as a guest. The longest stretch was at a Backscratch, where he sang three songs.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I wrote when I saw him for the first time, in January 2011:<\/p>\n

Jay Stolar (lead singer for Julius C) was up next, and he shared the stage with Chrissi Poland. He was also incredible. What a voice and what passion and energy on stage (very theatrical, in the best sense). I shouldn\u2019t be surprised. For the past month, every time I ask a question of a friend in an audience (like: \u201cWho\u2019s that guitar player\u201d?), the answer often comes back: \u201cOh, he\u2019s in Julius C, you really need to check them out!\u201d. Indeed, I do!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ignore the Julius C part, they no longer exist. Since then, Jay was known as Jay and the Birds. I no longer see him use that moniker either. Now it\u2019s just Jay Stolar, or Jay Stolar and Friends (for the 1am shows). No matter, Jay has enough talent to shorten it even further, to just J. \"Winking<\/p>\n

\"JayStolarGuitar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s obvious that I knew before last night that Jay has an incredible voice. That\u2019s been evident at every show. We also got a few tastes of his guitar play, so that wasn\u2019t a surprise. Last night we found out two additional things. 1) He writes great songs and 2) he plays the piano quite nicely.<\/p>\n

\"JayStolarSinging\"<\/a>\"JayStolarPiano\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have absolutely no doubt that we would have loved the set if Jay came out solo, accompanying himself on the guitar and piano. Jay had more epicness in mind though. He had more than a full band supporting him, left-to-right on stage:<\/p>\n

Catherine Brookman<\/a> on vocals. She was fantastic on every number. Very powerful and crisp voice. She never sang lead on a full verse, but she took the lead on a number of bridges\/choruses, where Jay was playing around (amazing us) with his voice, dancing around Catherine (and the others). Catherine has been on Broadway in the revival of Hair (and possible some others). I can definitely see her in that kind of role.<\/p>\n

\"CatherinBrookmanSinging\"<\/a>\"CatherinBrookmanJayStolar\"<\/a>\"CatherinBrookmanPaulMaddisonJayStolar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Maddison<\/a> on electric guitar. I\u2019ve always been impressed by Paul, but most of the times that I\u2019ve seen him, the guitar hasn\u2019t been highlighted (The Thang Band<\/a> was one exception). Last night, Jay let Paul rip it a few times, and even when he wasn\u2019t soloing, the lead guitar was an integral part of the sound. Excellent!<\/p>\n

\"PaulMaddison\"<\/a>\"PaulMaddisonGuitar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jason Wexler<\/a> on grand piano, accordion and vocals. Wow. I\u2019ve only had glowing praise for Jason on every show we\u2019ve seen him (which is eight times including last night). Toward the end of the set, Jay stepped aside to let Jason take a long lead on the piano. Holy moly, it was so fast, so clean, so interesting. Basically, mind-boggling. When Jay took to the piano, Jason came center stage and played the accordion. He also sang harmony on practically every number. An all-around wow (to repeat myself).<\/p>\n

\"JasonWexlerPiano\"<\/a>\"JasonWexlerJayStolar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rob Pawlings<\/a> on electric bass. This was my third time seeing Rob. Last night\u2019s performance was super solid, but not flashy. Obviously, he plays what\u2019s most appropriate to the specific set. Here\u2019s what I said about him the last time I saw him, when he supported Abby Payne<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Rob Pawlings<\/a> on electric bass. Rob was absolutely incredible. I\u2019ve seen Rob once before, as part of The Thang Band<\/a>, where I also had only superlatives for his performance. Given that this was a trio, Rob carried a lot of weight and he never spilled a drop of water all the way up the hill. He sang a bit, but mostly too far from the mic to really be heard. I heard him sing with The Thang Band and praised him that night, so he should bother to step up to the mic next time he sings with Abby as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"RobPawlings\"<\/a>\"RobPawlingsBass\"<\/a>\"JayStolarRobPawlings\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seth Faulk<\/a> on partial drum kit, cajon, percussion and vocals. Of course Seth was great on the drums, percussion and cajon, but I\u2019ll admit publicly, that the biggest thrill was getting to hear him sing harmony on every song. I\u2019ve written many times about how good Seth\u2019s voice is, but it\u2019s usually a taste here, a sip there. Last night it was every single song. It was almost always 4-part harmony (Jay, Catherine, Jason and Seth), but Seth\u2019s voice was so easy to pick out and enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"SethFaulkSinging\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That Jay, who is such a great vocalist, shares the vocals with three others, is a thing to behold. Kudos to all four of them. In fact, there were a number of a cappella moments (or very near a cappella, with a very soft guitar, or extremely light touch drums) where the singing was a nearly religious experience.<\/p>\n

\"SethFaulkSingingKennyShawBrushes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kenny Shaw<\/a> on drums. One of Kenny\u2019s floor toms was split off for Seth, who sat to Kenny\u2019s right. On Monday, I noted that it was unusual that we had gone two weeks without seeing Kenny play. Last night was only two days later, so things were back to normal. Whew. \"Winking<\/p>\n

\"KennyShaw\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I often write about my fantasy of having multiple drummers on stage at Rockwood. It\u2019s happened occasionally (closer to rarely), so last night (in particular at Rockwood 1), it was a surprise and a major treat. Even though we were so close to the drum kit, even with two them hitting at the same time, not a single strike was too loud. Fantastic.<\/p>\n

\"SethFaulkKennyShaw\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jay\u2019s songs vary in feel and genre, keeping the set interesting throughout. Rock\/Pop\/Soul\/R&B, even a bit of Gospel feel. Quiet, loud, full band, a cappella and everything in between.<\/p>\n

When he was done, the crowd would have none of it. Practically everyone in the place was chanting for more. It wasn\u2019t obvious to me that he would give in, but eventually he did. He gave the audience a choice of a new song, or a favorite that a number of people called out. The overwhelming response was for the new song.<\/p>\n

Wow, what a finish and what a great song. It\u2019s obviously not on the set list, since he really didn\u2019t expect to be forced<\/em> to sing it. \"Smile\"<\/p>\n

\"SetList\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Stolar headlined a set at Rockwood Music Hall. That, in itself, is not news. Jay headlines there every Thursday, but, at 1am, which we have yet to keep ourselves awake for. Yesterday, he kicked off the evening with the first set, at 6pm. For us, that\u2019s as good as it gets. For most people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[85,1326,980,1139,819,1367,1218,493,825],"class_list":["post-12983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-2","tag-a-cappella","tag-catherine-brookman","tag-jason-wexler","tag-jay-stolar","tag-kenny-shaw","tag-music","tag-rob-pawilngs","tag-rockwood-music-hall","tag-seth-faulk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12983"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12987,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12983\/revisions\/12987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}