as i walked out of the car in noisy traffic for office, he said he had passes for a jazz show, before waving good day…

unusually for us, at 5 in the evening we decided to leave work in an hour… and reach the place before 7… and really unusually for us, we actually managed to do that!

it was steve smith and his vital information group comprising tom coster (of santana fame), vinny valentino and baron browne.

we were already excited due to the celebrity names and the fact that we would be able to interact with them as it was a small auditorium, and some decent jazz loving crowd.

as the auditorium slowly filled up and they closed the lights, all the four musicians, walked in assumingly, and just picked up their respective instruments and just started playing… almost instantly…

for the uninformed, jazz is a type of music which is free flowing. in a jazz group, any of the musicians, sometimes piano, sometimes guitar sometimes drums, take the lead one by one…. when one takes lead  and plays his piece, others accompany him and provide supportive/background music.

steve, who plays the drums, is just god when he does it… everyone in the auditorium actually just gaped at him, and we gave him a standing ovation too… i mean with that kind of energy, coordinating both hands and legs (which is really difficult as while playing drums each of the four has to do different tasks) and his blend of drums with carnatic classical notes was nothing less than fantabulous !!!

vinny who played guitar, wore a chirpy smile and did some sweeter pieces. tom who was on sysnthesizer did a santana number, ‘europa’.. 

each of them had their different identity and still they were coordinated perfectly…

after the show… we got to exchange greetings and got dvds with autographs personally signed for us…

some information on vital information picked up from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vital_Information    

vital information was formed by steve smith in 1983 with friends tim landers, dave wilczewski, dean brown, and mike stern. years later and after several personnel changes, vital information has become a formidable fusion juggernaut whose longevity surpasses the zawinul syndicate, tribal tech and even weather report.

the current all-star lineup of tom coster (keyboards), vinny valentino (guitar), baron browne (bass) and steve smith (drums) serve up a veritable banquet of sounds, from slamming funk and syncopated second line grooves to seriously swinging, uptempo b-3 burners, south indian carnatic inspired jams and sizzling fuzoid romps. vital information continues to hone its “u.s. music” direction while staking out some adventurous new territory..

..and of course you have.. http://www.vitalinformation.com/