Yale Percussion Group 2/27/26 Sprague Hall

 Billed as a send off for storied Yale professor Martin Bresnick, the winter YPG concert is must-see viewing for any music fan in the New Haven area. Free, open to the public, the concert must take place at Sprague Hall due to the size of the instrumentation. Huge grand piano, no less than six xylophones, marimbas,  drum kits, the evening is a delightful mash of music and performance art. Bresnick is in the same club as Glass, Reich, and Adams,  where the music is modern classical as shot through the YPG lens. The first piece was Bresnick’s 2007 composition Caprichos Enfaticos. A concerto in 8 movements, it was commissioned for Australian pianist Lisa Moore and the world famous So Percussion group. The work was inspired by Francisco Goya’s book of etchings Los Desastres de la Guerra, fitting for our time. The movements are titled “farandula” or “farandole” which was a chain dance popular in Provence. The show starts with Moore coming out and playing a xylophone sequence, the four students appear one by one and seamlessly push the chain forward. Moving from one side of the xylophone, pushed to the opposite side, pushed to a drum kit, Moore finally landed at the piano bench, her perch for the piece. The movements were fascinating with piano as counterpoint to the student banging. Drums, shakers, even a long tubular bell were expertly struck. Goya’s images were projected on the large screen to lend context to the farandula. The (translated) names of the movements also invoked context. The “ravages of war” movement had Moore playing a peaceful melody that was interrupted by the militaristic squall from the drummers. The  “ politician-against the common good” movement starred whistles and shakers that emphasized politicians as jesters. At the junction of each movement, the players froze for about 10 seconds, mid strike or plink as the case may be. The audience, fearful for clapping out of turn,  also froze. A wonderful composition that had Bresnick coming to the stage for applause was expertly delivered by the group and it’s commisionee. After the intermission, YPG director and Bresnick cohort Robert van Sice takes the mic. The next segment was called “A Bouquet of Surprises for Martin”. Apparently van Sice reached out to contemporaries to compose farewell minis for the event. Five short pieces were introduced by van Sice with stories of their Bresrelevance. One piece, by David Lang, had two marimbists interlocking an arm so that their one mallet was striking in front of the other player. It was mesmerizing from my stage right seat, I caught the students chuckling about their reach and proximity. van Sice, too, beamed from his stool, as if the shrooms were about to kick in. Another piece was composed by one of the students, Kyle Rappe, who seems to be heir apparent at Yale. The final flower was by colleague and New Music New Haven director Aaron Jay Kernis. A Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner, Kernis came out with a choir of students to add to the YPG. He conducted his piece that was a riot of percussion and voice about the family cat. The final piece of the evening was Hallelujah Junction by celebrated American composer John Adams. Adams’ work has the expansive feel of Copland, and this piece was originally written for two pianos. Transposed for the group by Bresnick protege Doug Perry, the YPG reveled in its execution. My annual glowing review of this event is a bright light in a dark month.

Instantiations 2/15/26 Real Art Ways, Hartford

 We’ve established that local guitar hero and educator Joe Morris is a higher order thinker. He teaches at the distinguished New England Conservatory and wrangles a monthly jazz series formerly known as Improv Now. Joe changed the name to Instantiations which requires some Websterin. Turns out that instantiations refers to “the act of representing an abstract concept with a concrete example.” The music is certainly concrete, but covered in the abstract. Today’s offering had Morris on guitar, Adam Matlock on accordion, Diane Buetner on clarinet and bass clarinet, and Yoona Kim on ajaeng (a bowed zither from Korea). Regional improv masters, this crew fashioned a heady stew of sounds. The mix of instrumentation was fascinating. Morris quietly squiggled, Matlock could sustain a note indefinitely, Buetner’s bass clarinet gave a cartoonish vibe, and the ajaeng emitted a wide array of sounds. At the start of the set, Joe mentions that next month he will receive a lifetime achievement award at New York’s Vision Festival. Adventurous music for a wintry a Sunday afternoon.

Meshell Ndegeocello No More Water- The Gospel of James Baldwin 2/6/26 Sprague Hall

 Grammy winning electric bassist Ndegeocello presents a wonderful Baldwin tribute as part of the Ellington Jazz Series. The show was highly anticipated and was sold out months in advance. As the first woman to be featured on the cover of Bass Player Magazine, Meshell is an uncompromising artist that refuses to be pigeonholed. An in-demand bass player, she has played with a wide array of artists including The Rolling Stones, Madonna,  James Blood Ulmer, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and Chaka Khan. Her projects include works related to Sun Ra, Nina Simone, and on this evening James Baldwin. A pivotal voice in the Civil Rights Movement, Baldwin’s work seems just as pertinent in 2026. The show kicks off with an opening set by Jake and Abe. As part of Meshell’s band, Jake Sherman on organ and Abraham Rounds on drums played some cuts from their new album Finally, aptly named by Meshell cuz it took forever to be released. After some light opening tunes, the meat of the tomato ensued. Meshell, Jake, and Abe were joined by vocalist Justin Hicks and guitarist Christopher Bruce. Baldwin’s visceral take on the plight of African Americans is on full display. Meshell would read or recite some passages from a paper that resembled a newspaper. At one point, the page she held up read “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do”. Topical in today’s information- rich but truth-deficient times. Vocalist Hicks had a wonderful haunting style that brought me to tears at several points. The interplay of male and female voice is always compelling, Justin and Meshell were no exception. I did not spend time with the recording prior to the show and was blown away by the performance. Songs like Travel, The Price of the Ticket, What Did I Do? , and Trouble were expertly delivered. For one tune Hatred, she quietly chanted  “ hatred, that which causes so much destruction, never fails to destroy the one who hates”, we can only hope. Disdain for “the other” is a well worn thread through our society, and Baldwin’s observations ring so true today. I notice that this group will soon be heading to Minneapolis, warriors on the current battle of love versus hate.

Patrick Bartley Quartet w/ YUJC 1/31/26 Sudler Hall at Yale

 The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective is a loose assemblage of well connected jazzbos that flex for an annual festival. Usually held in the spring, this one took over the final weekend of the longest month of the year. I’ve seen such luminaries as Randy Weston (at Toads!), Dave Holland, Jason Moran. Recently, the emphasis has been on emerging talent, young lions so to speak. Nate Smith and Kinfolk, Dezron Douglas, and this years offering, Patrick Bartley are all new to the scene.

The afternoon show starts with a set by the students. Piano, bass, guitar, drums, clarinet, and dueling saxes made up the septet. A disparate group of nerds might birth a future lion, more likely a behind the scenes, Yale-educated, inhabitant of the music teaching or business world. A capacity crowd at Sudler enjoys their offering.

The beauty of highlighting emerging talent is to see new directions in jazz. Dezron Douglas shared the stage with Phish and Patrick Bartley has the notion of fusing video game music with jazz. A self-deprecating intro has Bartley describing his slacker youth as a video game obsessed anti-student. His suffering grades would inhibit entry to such a prestigious school but, here he is. He polls the audience as to their familiarity with video games. 62 year old me is in the minority, with absolutely zero knowledge or interest in the genre. The set is fascinating as the quartet blows through Pokémon, Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and others. Having no baseline for the tunes, I am pleasantly surprised by how complex the renditions are. Mario has a distinct tradjazz feel while Final Fantasy feels like a film score. The other players were also jazz visionaries. William Schwartzman on piano, Wallace Stelzer on bass, and Dom Palombi on drums capably handled their roles. Turns out that Patrick is Grammy-nominated and has played with Wynton Marsalis, Jon Batiste, Emmet Cohen, Herbie Hancock, and Carole King. Lead jazz nerd seemed Asian-American and met up with Patrick in Japan, a hotbed of video game music I assume. There has always been a push-pull relationship between tradition and the notion of “music” with jazz roots. I am happy for the existence of the YUJC who continually shine a light towards the future.