6/2/13 Gov’t Mule and Friends – Charles Ives Center for the Arts

Last night I attended the Gov’t Mule concert at the Charles Ives Center for the Arts. Thankfully the thunderstorms and precipitation never materialized and the cooled down evening soon took on mystical overtures.

This was seductively shown during Gov’t Mule’s second set when Warren Haynes and members of The Mule were joined on stage by saxophonist Bill Evans. 

Bill Evans

I first saw Bill Evans last year at the Allman Brothers\Santana concerts I caught in New Jersey and Connecticut. I recall how enchanted Carlos Santana was jamming with Bill Evans, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, and The Allman Brothers Band at these unique concerts.

According to my research Bill Evans has jammed regularly with The Allman Brothers since 2010 at the March Madness runs in New York City. At the age of 22 he joined Miles Davis and was part of his musical comeback in the early to mid-1980s. 

Bill Evans scaled new heights for me last night when he and Gov’t Mule segued from a rapturous edition of The Band’s “The Shape I’m In” to the authoritative rendition of  “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”. I have never been so pleasantly serenaded by one of my favorite Traffic songs, even when I heard Steve Winwood do it with The Dead in Hartford in 2003. The Bill Evans\Mule Jam took me to a special place in the stratosphere last night.

The Influence of Charles Ives

The last two times I have seen Gov’t Mule perform live has been at the Ives Concert Park. Warren Haynes has shown his deep respect for Charles Ives, American modernist composer by including in his sets improvisational compositions. I was very knocked out by the Charles Ives Experiment #1 (August 1, 2009) and then to hear the encore performance last night of Charles Ives Experiment #2.

Warren Haynes and company capture the essence of the experience that is Ives with these works. Gov’t Mule is an ever expansive jam band that educates, informs, and satisfies our collective music consciousness.

I couldn’t help but reflect on the walk out of the park upon the Western Connecticut State University, Visual and Performing Arts Center building under construction as it looms near the Charles Ives Center for the Arts park entrance. I envision in 2014 Gov’t Mule and friends performing Charles Ives Experiment #3 in this state of the art performance hall.

Gov’t Mule Set List 6/2/13 – Available from Mule Tracks for download 😉

Set 1

Hammer & Nails
Banks Of The Deep End
Time To Confess
Million Miles From Yesterday
Unring The Bell > with Eleanor Rigby Tease
Streamline Woman
How Many More Years
Endless Parade
Sco-Mule with Bill Evans; Oye Como Va & Smoke On The Water Teases

Set 2
Scared To Live
The Shape I’m In > with Bill Evans
Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys with Bill Evans
I’ll Drown In My Own Tears with Bill Evans, Nicki Bluhm, Tim Bluhm, Steve Adams & Dave Mulligan 
Broke Down On The Brazos >
Tributary Jam >
Lola Leave Your Light On

Encore
Charles Ives Experiment #2 ‘Sad & Deep As You’ & ‘Afro-Blue’ with Bill Evans & Dave Anderson

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• Jam Band Weekend At The Ives Concert Park and I’ll be there (musicofourheart.me)