After last years viewing of drummer Ches Smith fronting a 12 piece HaitianVoodoo ensemble titled We All Break, I vowed to try to witness any event with his name in the mix. Smith immersed himself in Haitian culture and toured a group of traditional singers and percussionists garnering rave reviews. As Monty Python used to say, and now for something entirely different. Tonight’s lineup was a quartet of downtown jazzbos playing a more rocking straight ahead mix. Smith on drums, xylophone, and electronics; Nick Dunston bass and electronics, and the twin guitar attack of Liberty Ellman and Mary Halvorsen who I assume had electronics at their stations as well. The guitar interplay was fantastic with the duo facing each other. Their runs were either toward or away from each other, you could almost sense the telepathy of their movements. Smith moved easily from drums to xylophone, giving the angular compositions a Zappa feel (Ruth Underwood anyone?). Dunston’s excellent solo recording last year employed some electronics, and he seemed perfectly comfortable bleeping along. The electronic squiggles sometimes sounded old school, as if Leroy Jetson was trying to hail his friends on the CB. I have seen Ellman several times, but usually he is a buttoned up side man. In this setting, Smith let him free and he gave some Sonny Sharrock type fills. In order to appreciate the chameleonic nature of Smith, you have to realize he came on to the scene as a fill in drummer for Mike Patton’s avant noise group Mr. Bungle. This alliance placed him in the orbit of downtown free thinkers like John Zorn and Bill Frisell. The rest has been a marvelous journey through groups and musical styles which is still evolving.
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