Final offering of the Firehouse spring schedule did not disappoint. Pond Life is a trio with Bernard on guitar, Chris Lightcap on bass, and the omnipresent Ches Smith on drums. The original incarnation of this group included Tim Berne on sax. Bernard’s C.V. has him appearing on releases by Don Cherry and Galactic. In the 90s he formed the Bay Area guitar supergroup T.J.Kirk with Charlie Hunter. Playing the music of Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Roland Kirk, T.J. embodied Will and Charlie’s reverence for the masters in a groove setting. Lightcap is a stalwart downtown presence and seemed unfazed by the pyrotechnics of the guitar and drum interplay. Ches Smith is the best drummer you’ve never heard of. He is tireless, appearing in countless groups spanning free improv to jammy groove settings. His Haitian percussion group, positively reviewed here last year, had him driving the train behind 10 musicians. Happy then, to be sitting right in front of the kit for a close view of this amazing drummer. They played some cuts from the Pond Life release and some older tunes from a Bernard/Smith collab from 2004. Smith seems to be in his 30s which would make him a teenager in 04. The beauty of this group is their telepathic ability to shift from hard driving groove to free jazz at the drop of a hat. Speaking of hats, Will’s star-studded Medicine Hat release from the late 90s still brings me joy. Can’t wait for the fall lineup to come out.
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