Tomas Fujiwara Triple Double 3/15/19 Firehouse 12

Caught the second set from these six regional improv tricksters. Truly a triple-double, with Fujiwara and Gerald Cleaver on drums, flanked by Mary Halvorsen and Brandon Seabrook on guitar, anchored by Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on cornet and trumpet respectively. The interesting lineup was begging for like musicians to flow from complementary to competitive runs. Halvorsen and Seabrook traded barbs. Mary, seated , and nerdy as last review, had a pedal effect that made bent notes sound Asian, her solo stretching out like someone slipped some peyote into Wes Montgomery's tea. Seabrook was phenomenal, his herky-jerky movements made me think of Seinfeld's Kramer crossed with Elliot Sharp on skronk guitar. Bynum, oozing hipster cool, played multiple cornets, one of them was blue. He should write a jazz improv kids book entitled The Blue Cornet, it would sell. The drummers leaned on complimentary playing. The understated force of one drummer using brushes while the other struck with mallets was palpable. The headshot of this triple double has them wearing Boston Celtics jerseys. While they seem entirely school-able on the hardwood, I wouldn't want to face them on the court of jazz improv, where they are Allstars.

Joe Russo's Almost Dead 3/14/19 College Street Music Hall

The hippies descended on New Haven for a sold out JRAD session at College Street. Russo on drums, Marco Benevento on a Rick Wakeman-sized keyboard setup, two guitars and bass filled the hall with sound. Two sets of Grateful Dead and inspired improv from these torchbearers of jam. First set highlights: Feel Like A Stranger, Candyman, and Bertha. Ever the Cheshire Cat, Marco a musical omnivore, teases his way in and out of many songs. At times, it seemed hard for the support staff to keep up with his Robin Williams ricochet. The second set started with Neil Young's Vampire Blues, swooped into a Blues For Allah anchored set into Minglewood Blues. These guys revel in the segueway, at one point playing a rousing Beatles' Hey Bulldog that moved from some Allman's keyboard workout. Closed with the mighty Terrapin. At the risk of wearing my old fogey status on my sleeve, I do remember The Duo which was Benevento-Russo  in the early aughts at the birth of jam. At a ski lodge in Great Barrington, I sat on Marco's speaker with a handful of jam disciples watching these two develop their chops. They've come a long way baby.
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Dead Horses w/ Honeysuckle 3/5/19 Cafe 9

Note to promoters and concert venues, the way the show is billed should reflect the order of the evening's acts. This is the second time this year where I went to a show and missed the headliner because they went on first. Dead Horses is an Americana folk duo from Wisconsin. I only caught the tail end of their set, because they went on first.
Honeysuckle is a MA-based string band trio. Big fella on banjo and acoustic guitar, another guy on mandolin, and a young woman on acoustic guitar and lead vocals. The girl looked nerdy and unassuming, but when she sang a full throated alto like Norah Jones came out. Songs were mostly sad and folkie, but the band had a wry sense of humor. One song was about how the banjo player "loves his phone", another was about a "canary resuscitator". This band would be a pleasant acquisition to any folk festival lineup.

Deerhunter w/ Mary Lattimore 2/23/19 College St. Music Hall

LA-based harpist Lattimore is an in-demand or maybe indie-indemand harp player who has backed many rock bands. Mary also has quite a pedigree of soundtrack scores. Coming from the baroque freak folk Philly scene with bands like Espers and collaborations with Meg Baird, Mary has put the harp front and center. Unfortunately missed her brief set on this evening.
Deerhunter is an indie-psych-pop outfit from Atlanta. Led by enigmatic frontman Bradford Cox, DH has been struggling to be heard since the mid-aughts. The band was Cox on vocals/guitar, keys/sax, drums, bass, and lead guitar. The drummer had a metal edge, which gave an arena sound. The band reminded me of Spoon, Grizzly Bear, and Animal Collective. Pop nuggets often devolved into loud psych workouts. Many tunes were pulled from their recent release "Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?". Ended the show with their "hit", "He Would Have Laughed", which culminated in a frenzied light show noise-out that was great. Cox had this odd button on his mic which transformed his voice into a devilly rasp. At the encore, Cox came out to thank New Haven and Yale for gracing the world the most recent Supreme Court Justice Schlitz Kavanaugh. Using the devil rasp and a loop pedal, Cox chanted "I Went To Yale" and "I Like Beer" (Kavanaugh tag lines for the un-initiated) into a beelzebub MAGA rally, chilling.

Lily and Madeleine 2/18/19 Cafe 9

L and M are sisters from Indianapolis who now reside in hipster Mecca Brooklyn. The group was a quartet with the sisters on keys, guitar and vocals joined by a young woman on cello and lead guitar, and a female drummer. The songs were lush angsty pop for the most part, but veered into psych and even some disco at times. The cello was electric but the sound was decidedly cellish, which shaded the intensely personal lyrics. L and M said their forthcoming release was produced by the Nashville duo that worked on the Grammy nominated Kacey Musgraves album. I don't have to confess that pop music is not my thing ( I thought Cardi B was a rum drink with Red Bull!), but an interesting interview with the psilocybin chomping pop country crossover star Musgraves  made me open to the genre. L and M's vocals were the center point of their sound, most tunes started with one or the other solo then moved to beautiful harmony vocals. While listening, I was struck by the obvious genetic homologous nature of these two sibling singers. The sisters just came off a stint at CBS this Morning and you get a sense that they are bound for larger things.

Bill Frisell Solo Fairfield Theater Company 2/15/19

Thanks to a friend for gifting a pair of tickets to see jazz guitar master Frisell. Unbelievably, this is my first encounter with FTC. An intimate seated venue with excellent views was a perfect place to see Bill. The Frisell catalog is long and varied, Spotify him and you are just as likely to get a skronk workout with the likes of Wadada Leo Smith and Andrew Cyrille or a dreamy jazz cover of the surf nugget Pipeline. Frisell came of age in the 80s-90s Downtown Scene with luminaries like John Zorn and The Lounge Lizards. Bill looks like a nerdy, shy, grandpa armed with a simple electric guitar, some effects and loop pedals, and an unexplained cache of beanie baby moose. A true musical omnivore, the show unfolded like Frisell's Great American Songbook Armoire. I mean this in the sense that the songs are pulled from a drawer, laid on the bed, stretched, teased, sped up, slowed down, and presented in a Frisellian new context. Setlist included: Moon River, Ruby My Dear, Come On In My Kitchen (I think), Lush Life, My Funny Valentine. An excellent version of the Bond theme, You Only Live Twice made great use of the loop pedal. Half the fun of this show was trying to figure out the tune, Bill's shyness prevented him from speaking a word the whole evening. Ended the set with What The World Needs Now and encored with the Shenandoah-Somewhere Over The Rainbow medley.

Steve Gunn w/ Meg Baird, and Alexander 1/30/19 State House New Haven

Alexander, aka David Shapiro, was positively reviewed in the last blog post. Local musician showed different talents on this evening. Simple acoustic guitar instrumentals morphed into psych-tinged folk. Alexander played some banjo too. One tune was about a friend who moved to California, while another he had the audience envision Kath Bloom (legendary local fractured folkie with whom Alexander plays with) accompanying on recorder. Chatting with him between sets, I was struck by how positive and humble he is.
Meg Baird, from Philly, also played solo acoustic. Her vocal style reminded me of female Brit-folk like Sandy Denny or Linda Thompson. She had this great habit of sliding into notes for added vocal effect. Awesome cover of Neil Young by way of Emmylou Harris "Wrecking Ball". Meg played in the band Espers and Heron Oblivion as well as duetting with harpist Mary Lattimore that exhibits a more experimental and rocking vibe. Meg stayed on stage to play keys and sing backup for Steve.
I love Steve Gunn. He played instrumental music with his pal drummer John Trucsinski when opening for Kim Gordon last year. On this outing, Steve on guitars, James Elkington on guitar and pedal steel, Meg, drums and bass. Steve sang some fractured melodies mostly off his excellent new release, The Unseen In Between. Vagabond, New Moon, New Familiar were all great. Luciano, the song about a neighbor's cat was a favorite.