When the temperature barely reaches 20 degrees and its been snowing for three days, it doesn't get much better than having Karl Denson's Tiny Universe heating things up in the house while sipping on a Guinness or two. Karl's played here three times since last December and I'm guessing that the plan has been to just keep hitting the same city several times in a row so people start spreading the word around, something Dylan tried out when he began touring again in the 90's. Must be working because last night there were easily twice as many people as a year ago.

If not familiar with Karl, he's assembled one of the best funk bands on the road today, if not the best. The shows are always great fun, especially getting a chance to hear someone who can blow a sax as well as he does and not have to sit at a table like your listening to chamber music. Jazz is that, jazzy, and its nice to be able to loosen up and move your body a bit to feel the music. I'm guessing that people used to get all sorts of passions and spirits running through them back in the day of Bird.

The guitarist, Brian Jordan, can really tear it up too, but seems he's going for more and more of a traditional soul jazz sound with no effects and straight picking, but he's still not against stepping onto a distortion peddle for that added edge here and there. I actually would have liked to of heard him play more solos than he did, but like any art its always better to be left wanting just that tad more.

I can't leave out that Karl had one of the best openers I've ever seen, a ukulele player from Hawaii named Jake Shimabukuro. If I had told this guy before the show, without knowing who he was, that the ukulele isn't an instrument to be taken seriously, he probably would dished out a well deserved sucker punch. Never knew the instrument could be played as well as he did- very similar to a mandolin where the small bridge and closeness of the strings allow the player to go at it really, really fast. He then also would finger tap the bridge in addition to the chords, and I'm guessing that he has a pretty strong classical training. The set included the most original and beautiful version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps I've ever heard, a Schubert piece that I was not familiar with but was claimed to be a Christmas tune, and then closed with Karl Denson up on stage with him for Chick Corea's Spain, from my favorite album of his, Light as Feather.