[Portland OR – and he really is! I figured he had retired
here or something but no] Music&Ducks told me, months ago, that Portland
had a resident Motown star who played regularly, formerly at Portland’s main
jazz place Jimmy Mak’s and now at Jack London Revue… I’m mixing up the origins
of all these facts and so it goes… [“In 1997, legendary Portland drummer Mel
Brown began his residency at the club and that relationship became the catalyst
for the club's growth into the city's premier jazz and live music venue.”—OregonLive.]
I was intrigued & started tracking him, and convinced Music&Ducks to finally
join me. This venue’s interesting. It’s somehow associated with a Portland
classic, Rialto’s, and maybe a hotel – the whole operation was confusing and
seemed just a little suspect. First, I entered into a bar where a truly-mixed
crowd, given I was downtown, was playing a serious game of poker. I was
immediately intercepted by a waitress who redirected me… shady—delicious. The
bouncer at the next door told me to follow the winding tiled path to find what
I was looking for… I was charmed—he was serious. So I walked through an average
pool hall, located the bathrooms, and then located the mythical winding tiled
path. It was good. Real good. It led me down a dark stairway into a dark
basement bar. I skirted past my third set of bouncer/hosts and found
Music&Ducks, who was righteously bitter. It was really making an effort at
being a jazz club—lots of little tables with candles—pretty mellow ambiance.
One old white guy scatting to himself. Mel was the show for me. He was classy,
refined, cool, smooth, but in a friendly folksy way. Outfitted in a white
collared shirt tucked into his khakis with a modestly gold-toned belt &
necklace. He told us it was his 74th birthday. He told us his many
grandkids call him “GGPa” (something like that). And he said that after a long
day of crunching numbers (he’s an accountant by day, which sort of made me sad
with his glorious Motown history…), he “needs this.” 
But the best part was how
he’d drop crazy info casually… “So I was playing with a group called The
Supremes.” Boom. All in all, the band members (guitarist, organist,
saxophonist) support Santana, Merle Haggard, Dave Matthews, Kris Kristofferson,
Pink Martini, etc. Their sound was dense, perfect, clean. And they made it all
look really really easy. Mel-drumming was even better than Mel-the-introducer.
Beatific. Blissed out. A pleased orchestrator, teacher: he made all this happen
and it’s damned good. A perpetual white-toothed smile and head bob – I did
wonder if he wasn’t just a little stoned. They all did solos, and Mel smiled a
little bigger during his but he didn’t break his easy pace. When he was
over-excited, his eyes would blink a little faster. Or he’d shake his head with
his lips pursed at the beauty of it all, cocking his head to look at the angels
above him, nodding at their secret messages. Mel: I was entranced.
The
guitar and saxophone were ridiculously good but don’t ask me to judge organ
quality. But, counter to Mel, the guitarist stressed me out with face
contortions, grimaces, and pretty much constant mouthing of something. Like his
mouth was frequently doing more than his guitar. So he’s insane, or a genius,
or both. He also wiped his fret board with a cloth midway through, a new
experience for me, stress=sweat. The sax player was a whole lot more restrained
than the rest of the band. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a sax sound as good and
complicated as his did. He smiled once on stage, and once when I passed him,
and I was excited. I always crave the smiles of rare-smilers. The organist did
some Elvis sneers. I called them “loungey jazz” “jazz I can tolerate” but
Music&Ducks disrupted this thought pattern by observing they’ve got “R&B
riffs… some structure… an amazing tone… warm.” Trying to keep up, I said “yeah
round smooth” jaja. While in the back at the bar being ignored, things really
picked up, into perfect covers of Mel’s heyday. I head “It’s Your Thing” but
Music&Ducks corrected: "Shotgun" by Junior Walker & the All-Stars. Important messages on the toilet too :)
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