Peter White has been playing at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in Seattle for many years now.  Jazz Alley has a wonderfully intimate setting and is the perfect place to see live jazz in the city.  On the first night of a four-night gig, Peter packed the house, playing his favorite guitar, the irreplaceable “Blue Beauty,” which he was parted from recently on a flight returning to LA - it arrived about 40 hours later than he did.  Peter started out his set with “Promenade” from his 1993 CD of the same title, followed by “Mister Magic” and “What Does it Take” from his Playin’ Favorites CD.  Peter played three songs from his new CD, Good Day, which I feel is one of his best works yet. He dedicated the first single, “Bright,” to the late Wayman Tisdale.  Wayman had the biggest, brightest smile and brought light into the lives of all who knew him, so a song called “Bright” is a perfect fit.  Peter also played “Always and Forever” and “Just Give Me a Chance” from Good Day. He played another favorite, “Walk on By,” and his mother’s favorite song, and one of my personal favorites, “My Prayer,” from his Perfect Moment CD.  

After catching a glimpse of the set list on the stage, it’s easy to see that Peter may stray wildly from what is planned.  Sometimes I wonder if the band truly does not know what will come next as Peter broke into Led Zepplin’s “D’yer Mak’er,” singing “oh oh oh oh oh oh, baby please don’t go.”  They looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, smiled and just played along.   Peter played “Who’s That Lady,” segueing into “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” a crowd favorite of the night, with Nate Phillips and Peter on vocals.  

He handed the stage over to Gregg Karukas for his song, “Girl in the Red Dress,” from his Looking Up CD.  Gregg is fun to watch - he looks like a young boy having a grand time doing the thing he loves best.  Shilts played his hit song, “Look What’s Happened” from his HeadBoppin CD.  Peter and Shilts (Paul Weimar) grew up in the same town in England, however their accents are quite different.  Peter often jokes about Shilts’ accent.  There’s nothing funnier than an English bloke making fun of another English bloke’s accent.   Shilts is a very funny man, joking with the crowd about his CD being hard to find, but you might find it in thrift stores.   Don’t be fooled - it’s easily found online and “Look What’s Happened” is a great song, definitely a head boppin’ song!

If you still haven’t had enough Peter White, stick around for the second set.   Unlike many others artists, Peter’s second set is often quite different than his first.  Peter had only recently returned from a trip to London.  When he started his second set, it was 6:00 in the morning London time, but from the way he played, you would never know.   He started with a special request for “Dreamwalk” from his Excusez-Moi CD from 1992, with a bit of “Just My Imagination” thrown in for good measure.  He also included “The Closer I Get to You” and “How Deep is your Love,” “My Cherie Amour” and “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You.”

I went to Peter’s show on Sunday as well, his last night at Jazz Alley.  The show was top notch despite it being Peter’s seventh show in four days.   He played a wonderful acoustic set with songs from his Reflections CD, dedicated to a woman in the audience.  It was beautiful.  Peter is truly Mister Magic himself, bringing life to the stage like few artists do, playing with such intense joy that you know this is not a job for Peter, it’s a passion.  As someone said to me after seeing his show – “the joy just oozes out of him.”  You can catch Peter touring this summer with Guitars & Saxes (with Jeff Golub, Kirk Whalum and Gerald Albright).  Look for a date near you on his concert schedule page at www.peterwhite.com.  You can also find Peter on Facebook where he updates his fans on a regular basis, and often posts links to videos from his shows.