So I was, ahem... on tour, ahem... with Diana Krall backed up by Robert Hurst on bass, Jeff Hamilton on drums and Steve ?? on guitar.
OK, OK, she hired the Hamilton Philharmonic to back her up on her tour of southern Ontario. We played mostly whole notes and half notes. The orchestra only played in 8 of the 16 tunes and the basses only played in 5 of those 8. So, most of the concert we could just sit back and enjoy the performances.
Watching Jeff play the brushes with a view from behind the set was a real education in subtlety and rhythmic variation. The guitarist was awesome as well.
Robert Hurst plays most standing. He was totally solid in his time. He uses Evah strings by the way. We was using a Marvin tailpiece for a while and he really liked it but he said the ball end of the string eventually wore through the brass loop. He used a really nice German bow that had an ivory frog and screw.
His playing was completely solid and a super nice guy as well.
Interestingly, most of Diana's solos were the same night to night but the other fellas played differently each night. Robert sometimes used the bow but mostly played the solos pizz.
