Another afternoon of uneasy listening courtesy of local skronksters Bob Gorry and Joe Morris. First up was Ann Rhoades and Adam Matlock with a trio of local teenagers billed as Gneiss. Disciples of Anthony Braxton, Ann and Adam conducted the youngsters with a series of hand gestures. I got a peek at the sheet music, which was circular, and looked like a star chart. The teenagers, two young women on flute and clarinet and a young man on guitar followed the dizzying conducting. Matlock and Rhoades fresh off vocal detail on Braxton's recent 20 CD "opera", were weird bookends to the group. Ann chirped and giggled, sometimes looking like an avant garde ventriloquist, moving her mouth only slightly shading the improv with vocals. Adam, who also played accordion, sounded like a crazy-haired love child of Paul Robeson and Frankenstein.
Next in line was a trio of Morris on guitar, Carl Testa on standup bass, and Mike Pride on marimba. Morris' spider like hands are familiar at the State House. Testa was all over the bass, bowing and plucking all surfaces of the instrument. Center stage was Pride on marimba, he had many types of mallets that coaxed all manner of sounds from the marimba.
The third group was Gorry on a sweet hollow body guitar paired with local legend Stan Nishimaura on trombone. Gorry seemed psyched to pair with the tiny Asian octogenarian. One might think Stan would play soft given his age, but in fact some bleeps and blaps felt like a face slap.
The final group was Morris on standup bass, Paul Gunsberg on drums and soprano sax, and Chicago- based fireball Jaimie Branch on trumpet. Branch's recent release Fly Or Die, topped many jazzbos best of the year in 2018. Jaimie's delivery was all growl and gut punch with some excellent plunger mute work. The take home lesson was the wide berth of viewers and players. From the African American teens to the 80 year Nishimaura, jazz improv players and fans come in all stripes. Not all of us are hatched from a nest behind the train station.
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