Tony Malaby's Tubacello Quartet 10/17/15 Firehouse 12

Sax player Malaby grew up in Tuscon and now resides in Jersey City ( home to WFMU, the best free form radio on the planet. Joined by Bob Stewart on tuba, Christopher Hoffman on cello, and John Hollenbeck drums and percussion. Malaby played tenor, alto, and soprano with the latter moving to pharaoh-sandersesque heights. Stewart's huge hands made the tuba look like a toy, the full brass sound can't help but evoke images of cartoon turtles loping. Hoffman plucked, and bowed the cello when in unison with the tuba fleshed out the low end. Hollenbeck got a wide array of sounds from the kit and various shakers, even doing a sequence with some Tibetan cloud bowls. Hollenbeck's uber-hipster appearance made me want to call him "the syncopated beat-nik ". Malaby's compositions waffled from compact song structures to wide open improv blowouts with Malaby sounding like a goose going through a woodchipper. All players were intensely focused on their instrument, Malaby found time to remove, shave, and shape a reed, Hoffman rosined the bow like an all-star, Stewart drained spit from many intestine-like turns of the tuba, and Hollenbeck kept his many contraptions in neat order like a librarian. As with many shows at the Firehouse, this was a collection of pros showcasing their chops before a European tour.