What is the sight of one hand clapping?

I picked up this new DVD last week--a live recording of Fred Anderson, Harrison Bankhead and Hamid Drake performing at the lamented Velvet Lounge, Fred Anderson's great jazz club. The new VL should be opening soon, I hear, but the old one was really a special place. So the DVD is a pretty cool document to have of the joint, in addition to being extremely worthwhile musically.

As it happens, I was at one of the two shows that were filmed for the DVD, along with my buddy Jay. So let's just get to the question on everyone's mind: Can Rob be seen in the DVD?

Well, at the very end, the camera pans across the whole crowd, but stops right at edge of me: You can see my right hand clapping at the edge of your screen. I think you can hear me chuckle once during Bankhead's solo on the corrugated tube thing. And--most intriguingly--I think you can see me way in the background of the opening scene. I say "think" because even I can't be 100% sure. But I think it's me.

The only hope of a positive ID is probably if I get accused of a murder that took place that night, and my crack defense team has to use Blade Runner technology to digitally enhance the thing, and then call in the expert witnesses. Then it'll be up to 12 angry men to decide.

Barring that, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Seriously, this thing has some great music (also available on CD) by some great players. Harrison Bankhead must be the greatest unknown bassist in jazz. Hamid might be the greatest known drummer. And Fred is in rare form.

Recommended, if you like this sort of thing.