We arrived soon after the doors opened and secured seats just off the center in the row behind the booths, then sat down for a delicious sushi feast. Our waitress for tonight was Amy, the girlfriend of Ting's Tae Kwon Do colleague, Sam Sa. After eating our fill of fresh fish, we still had a while before the show started, so we ordered green tea ice cream with red bean topping. Mmmmmm!

Although we had arrived pretty early in order to get a good table, the house had reserved our favorite table for Orrin Keepnews, so we were out of luck. Fortunately, most every seat in the house is a good one, and we ended up sitting one table off to the side for the first set. Pharoah's show tonight had considerable overlap with the previous night, but was fun enough all the same. Highlights from the first set were John Coltrane's Lazy Bird and the Haymen/Green classic, Body & Soul. 

During the setbreak we hung out and socialized with Dave Weiland, aka Dr. Dave, who had reserved seats for us with him at the center table in the row behind the booths (where Orrin sat during the first set). Second set highlights included a tender reading of Coltrane's Naima and a passionate run through Mal Waldron's Soul Eyes.

After the show we had fun visiting with our friend Dan Pettit, the Yoshi's sound man. We were surprised to find out that Dan is a Pork Butt aficionado; somehow it seems appropriate. He then proceeded to astound and amuse us with his incredible mic stand swallowing trick (kids, don't try that one at home without proper supervision!). We knew it was time to go home when he offered to give us lessons, so when Ting created a diversion with her blinding camera flash, we grabbed our bags and ran for the car.

Music journalist Jeff Kaliss offers a bit of background on Pharoah in his article Sanders Back in East Bay.