Thievery Corporation 3/13/24 Toads Place

 Seems like a decade since I’ve stepped foot in this legendary club. Toad’s fall from grace has relegated them to a purgatory of sophomoric glow light-jello shot- dance parties. Happy to see that Thievery Corporation decided to grace the stage. TC has been a fave of mine since the early oughts and has had a string of excellent global socially conscious riddims. Washington DC based, the groups core are Rob Garza on keys and beats and Eric Hilton on drums and percussion. On this evening, they are joined by guitar ( who also did time with electric sitar), leg hair shaking bass, and another drummer. The musicians formed a formidable backdrop for a parade of singers and rappers. First up was a young lady who looked like Elvira’s niece. She started with the excellent Heaven’s Gonna Burn Your Eyes. Next up was a young Pharrell looking dude, dapper with a derby hat, he had a soulful croon and did The Richest Man in Babylon and Amerimacka. The third singer was an African American woman who had an island vibe and toasted some reggae inflected rhymes. She wasn’t quite Sister Nancy, maybe Sister Nancy’s Sister. The next singer was a dreaded rapper( rapper with dreads?) who spit rhymes and prowled the stage. At one point Hilton took vocal duties for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter ( original vocals were done by David Byrne) and swung a glowing orb over his head and the crowd to a trippy effect. Garza was on an elevated platform and presided over the proceedings like a sage soundsystem wrangler. About two thirds of the way through, stage crew set up chairs on stage and the musicians did an “unplugged” set with the singers parading through. Good crowd for a Wednesday night. Toads tagline is “where the legends play”, it would be nice if they returned to form. Legends do their Jell-O shots and glow lights on the tour bus.

Yale Percussion Group 3/1/24 Sprague Hall

 It’s been a while since attending a YPG show and I’ve forgotten how mesmerizing they can be. The concert was billed as “From Piazolla to Pleiades”. The first tune was Le Grand Tango from the master accordionist and composer Astor Piazolla. The group was 6 varsity percussionists from Yale’s storied program, one white guy and five grad students of Asian descent, one being a tiny female. The Tango had four marimbas and dueling pianos. I sat close as to get a good view of the marimbas, one was decidedly “bass”, the young lady had two to bang on, and the other two had matching configurations except one had a metallic clang while the other had a smooth wooden tone. The runs were fluid and I enjoyed watching the body language of the players. The standard “10 and 2” mallet technique was a constant for all marimbists. The second suite was called Water by the composer AlejandroVinao. The music meandered through three distinct parts: Edge of a Tide, Through the Wild Rain, and All The Rivers. Marimba runs can approximate water sounds, and the crew did an expert job of imparting that to the audience. The head of the program and musical director is Robert Van Sice who regaled the crowd with personal stories of his interactions with John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis. At intermission, the musicians were busy jacking the stage with instruments for set two. For anyone who hasn’t seen this stage, it is large, and after setup, was completely littered with marimbas, drums, congas, bongos, tympani drums, laptops, and ipads. The second set consisted of Pleiades by Xenakis. The director said the piece starts cohesively, then 3 and 3 split for a cacaphonous maelstrom before reuniting for the thunderous ending. That was helpful in navigating this challenging piece. If anyone hasn’t seen six musicians furiously banging away at exotic and obviously costly instrumentation, I urge them to take in a YPG performance, it’s stunning.

Tomeka Reid Quartet w/ Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio 2/25/24 Real Artways

 Afternoon show at RAW started with drummer Tomas Fujiwara and his 7 Poets Trio. The music was pulled from their recent release Pith. The set started with Tomas dedicating the first tune to Marcus Smart. “Does anyone know who Marcus Smart is?” The Sunday afternoon grizzled Jazz intelligentsia was stumped. Did he invent the B-flat baritone clarinet? Did he perform with his Sackbutt trio in some industrial drainage piping? Ex-Celtic I exclaim, which got a drumstick acknowledgement from Tomas. Joined onstage by vibraphonist Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid on cello. The music swung wildly from contemporary classical to straight up jazz workouts. Tomas is a master of restraint using a bevy of brushes, metal and fibrous, giving subtle tones. Reid is also versatile. The jazz cello is welcome to my ears. The ability to go low or high, plucked, scraped or bowed can offer a wide palette to explore. The vibes brought the chaos. The signature quad mallet approach affords the most sound. Two mallets in each hand, with their business ends situated at 10 and 2 brought the sound to the foreground. Brennan’s furious striking caused the plates to jump around in their housing. Fujiwara must be a big hoop fan, as his other group is called the Triple Double.

The second group had Reid and Fujiwara joined by guitarist Mary Halvorson and standup bassist Jason Roebke. The music came from Reid’s forthcoming 3+3 release. Halvorson has been positively reviewed in this blog, her forward thinking runs and squalls  give critical acclaim to any group she inhabits. The interplay between Mary and Tomeka was great. They looked like two teens trying to one-up each other at a sleepover. I’ve dinged Halvorsen for her outdated wardrobe and nerdiness, but years of touring Europe seems to have afforded her an extreme makeover. She looked less like despised 70s babysitter and more like Dutch hepcat that could help you ace your brain surgery final exam. I had a weird angle on Roebke, he had slicked back hair and Clark Kent glasses. He treated the bass as percussion and was a great foil to Reid’s output. The room was full and cramped but it did not dampen an enjoyable afternoon of improvised jazz.

Linda May Han Oh 2/2/24 Sprague Hall Yale

 Its’s all about the bass says MeghanTrainor. Similarly, Yale’s Ellington Jazz Series seems to favor the low end. I have seen titans of bass Ron Carter and Dave Holland for these events, so it’s only fitting to view young lioness LMHO. Malaysian born, Perth raised Oh, came at the bass through classical training. She won a 2023 Grammy for participating on Terri Lynne Carrington’s album New Standards Vol. 1. She is joined onstage by Greg Ward on sax, Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums, Fabian Almazan on piano and effects, and Sara Serpa on voice. The concert was based on her recent release The Glass Hours, a collection of works that focused on “ abstract themes of the fragility of time and life”. Ward blew feverish runs, often in unison with Serpa and Oh on wordless vocals. The titles and explanations were zen-like, Circles, Antiquity, The Glass Hours, The Imperative, Phosphorus, Respite were all expertly delivered. Oh toggled between standup and electric bass with flashes of funk, drone, and modern composition. Whitfield Jr. was lithe and reminded me of Calvin Weston behind the kit. He looked as if he was on the verge of cracking up, like he had a Jerry Seinfeld on the Bluetooth. Almazan seems to be Oh’s partner as one tune was written for their three year old. He reveled in playing the Sprague Steinway which stretches for two city blocks. The addition of Serpa added a unique sound with some poetic passages, her Portuguese accent shining through. Gracious to be included in this historic series, Oh will be on the forefront of jazz for years to come.

Lonnie Holley & Mourning [A] BLKstar 1/18/24 Whitney Humanities Center at Yale

 Some shows are difficult to describe. The spiritual feelings I experienced while sitting in the audience for this event will not be accurately scribed. I can give you the facts and let your imagination conjure the feelings. Let’s start with the venue, WHC is just one of many hallowed halls attached to Yale. An unassuming entrance on Wall Street led to a beautiful auditorium where a hundred or so patrons were treated to this awesome show. M[A]B is an experimental collective of artists and storytellers formed in Cleveland that are self-proclaimed avant poets  who fuse beat making and classic instrumentation to weave afrofuturist tales. An eight person gender fluid multiracial outfit, trumpet, percussion, bass, drums, trombone, multiple vocalists, and a beatmaster on laptop and electronics laid the framework for Holley to work. Lee Bains, guitarist and former student of Holley, gave an added dimension to M[A]B and lent a stage familiarity that was palpable. I will plagiarize the playbill to describe Holley. “Born in Jim Crow-era Birmingham Alabama in 1950, Lonnie Holley was the seventh of 27 children and at the age of four was taken from his mother and traded for a bottle of whiskey. He fled abusive foster parents, was hit by a car ( and declared brain dead) and was later sent to the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children (essentially a slave camp).” Hardship, struggle, and furious curiosity fuel the art, visual and performance, from this amazing man. The introduction was given by Holley’s friend and promoter Matt Arnett, son of TV comedian Will. Arnett explained that a Holley performance is completely improvised. An index card with notes and phrases guides the proceeding for Holley and the musicians rendering no two performances the same. On this evening, the concepts of time, education, environmental justice, and freedom allowed Holley to riff. The music moved from gospel to hiphop to afrobeat and was completely engaging. Holley enjoyed word play and had fun with Yale which rhymes with jail and sounds like yell. At one point, when riffing on social justice, Holley intoned “nothing I write, can make it right”, I feel that, nothing I write can describe it right. Props to CCAM (Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts and Media) a well-connected student group that arranged the performance.

Ghost-note 1/16/24 New Park Brewing West Hartford

 Ghost-note is a jam-jazz-funk collective helmed by two drummers that also do time in the downtown modern jazz big band Snarky Puppy. Drummer Robert “Sput”  Searight and percussionist Nate Werth were joined by two saxes, keys, guitar, bass, and singer. The octet was tight and it was nice to see a group with emphasis placed on drums. Searight was active and was a delicious smash of   ?uestlove and Art Blakey. The music was loose jams that drew on Tower of Power, James Brown, and Sly Stone. I’ve seen this crew at a Newport Jazz and they seem to have evolved over time. The singer didn’t do much singing but his yelping “Ha” and “Good Gawds” lent some vocal percussion. They keys player offered some spacey passages that made me reminisce of Bernie Worrell of the Mothership. First time at this brewery whose product appears nowhere except at this address. They have a taproom and the concert happened in another space called the “green room”. The saxes played off of each other with one’s sound processed through some synth. The guitar and bass were a solid backbone and could be in front or back of the sound. Great cover of The Isley’s Work To Do.

Paul Simon Tribute 1/12/24 Park City Music Hall Bridgeport

 First time at the revamped Acoustic Cafe now called PCMH. Local bon vivant John Torres put glass garage doors, revamped the stage, bar, and sound system to capitalize on the hipster enclave known as the Black Rock section. Torres’ son fronted this incarnation of Simon homage with two jam packed sets. The setlist took a loose arc of Simon’s storied career. Great versions of Me and Julio, Slip Slidin’ Away, Kodachrome, Cecilia, 50 Ways to Leave Your lover, Hearts and Bones, Mother and Child Reunion, One Trick Pony, and a personal fave The Only Living Boy in NY. Closed the set with a rousing Late In The Evening. Like the Beatles or the Stones, many people seem to have an innate affiliation with the Simon catalog, belting out lyrics to most of the songs. The band was expansive with Torres on vocals/guitar, female singer, organ, guitar, bass, percussion, drums, with occasional horns creating a full sound.  Torres explained that the songs sound simple but are challenging to play, and not just when they move into world music territory. The median age of this band was probably 30, which puts them squarely in diapers when the tail end of this material was even recorded. How then did the project come to be? I imagine sitting around a coffeehouse with one musician saying “you gotta check out Paul Simon, dude is amazing on all fronts”. Second set focused on  the Graceland era of Simon’s success. The Boy in the Bubble, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, I Know What I Know, Graceland, Crazy Love Vol. II were all expertly delivered. There was an excellent deep cut Can’t Run But from the widely under-appreciated Rhythm of The Saints record with some righteous conga work. Closed with a great version You Can Call Me Al. The beauty of this kind of tribute is the wide appeal of the music and the multi-generational allure to view and play it.