Tickling the Ivories: A World of Piano

A World of Piano, a series of three solo concerts, celebrated its 13th season at the Arts Trust Building in Northampton, February 23-25, as Alexis Marcelo (Friday), Kris Davis (Saturday) and Rob Schwimmer (Sunday) each gave a stirring lesson in how to construct a solo recital. The series was a collaboration between Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares and the Northampton Center for the Arts.

The piano is at once a string instrument and a percussion instrument, able to play chords and single notes, handle bass chores, utilize counterpoint and alter it’s sound by preparing its innards. The piano’s orchestral-like versatility makes it a uniquely rich device for an unaccompanied performer. A World of Piano takes its name from a 1962 Phineas Newborn album, and these three accomplished musicians afforded us a chance to hear their wildly personal takes on the ever expanding jazz tradition.

Alexis Marcelo spent the second half of the 1990s at UMass, where he was mentored by Dr. Yusef Lateef. In 2001, when I presented Brother Yusef at the UMass Magic Triangle Series on his 80th birthday, he insisted on having Marcelo in the band (alongside Von Freeman, and former students Tim Dahl and Kamal Sabir.) While still a youngster, the late, great multi-instrumentalist brought Marcelo to Europe to perform with his ensemble and featured him on multiple recordings. He has also formed a strong association with percussionist, and long-time Lateef collaborator Adam Rudolph, with whom he tours and records. Marcelo began his concert with the gospel tune “Let Us Break Bread Together”, which set the tone for a soulful and uplifting evening of music. The rest of the recital included an Afro-Peruvian melody, George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun”, and a number of distinctive Marcelo originals which were highly percussive, rhythmically provocative, and full of pleasing melody. His anxiously awaited recording debut as a leader, a solo outing on the well-respected Swiss label, Intakt, was delayed by his work in Anthony Davis’ celebrated opera, “X”, which recently concluded a two-month run at the Metropolitan Opera.

Kris Davis treated a full house of listeners to a daring and bracing concert that featured a healthy dose of improvisation and a clear demonstration of her prowess at the keyboard. Her use of metal objects on some of the piano strings expanded her sound palette, transforming the piano into a dampened, buzzing kalimba-like instrument. Her repertoire ranged from references to 20th century classical music to Monk’s “Evidence”. Davis’ profile has risen precipitously in recent years, due to her expanding discography, her respected record label and her work at the Berklee School of Music. She has 25 recordings as a leader, and has contributed to dozens more by folks like Ingrid Laubrock, Eric Revis and Tom Rainey. Her latest with the cooperative ensemble Diatom Ribbons, was recorded live at The Village Vanguard with Terri Lyne Carrington, Val Jeanty, Julian Lage and Trevor Dunn. That record was released on Pyroclastic, a label she founded in 2016 that has produced over 30 albums by some of the most forward looking jazz artists of the day. She is the Associate Program Director of the Berklee Institute For Jazz and Gender Justice, and with fellow pianist Angelica Sanchez, is creating The International Music Creators and Collaborator Workshop, a one-week program for emerging musicians that will host its first season at Bard College in June.

A World of Piano concluded on Sunday afternoon with a riveting performance by Rob Schwimmer, who also appeared in the series in 2008. He arrived in the Valley in time to share Saturday dinner with Kris Davis, with whom he collaborated on Noah Preminger’s 2019 release, Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert. It was fun to watch them geek out and “talk piano”. Schwimmer, who possesses one of the quickest wits I’ve been around, played theremin on Preminger’s recording and is an acknowledged master of the instrument. Unfortunately, he did not play it in Northampton. Schwimmer has a most intriguing resume. Although not as well-known as his talent would suggest, he has traveled the world with Simon & Garfunkel, and performed with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin, Willie Nelson, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chaka Khan, Laurie Anderson, Bette Midler and Queen Latifah, as well as a long list of jazz luminaries. With Bang On a Can’s Mark Stewart, he leads the hilarious and musically astute duo, The Polygraph Lounge, and has toured extensively with the Mark Morris Dance Company. Full of rhapsodic arpeggios and classical flourishes, Schwimmer provided a varied set that included Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence” and selections from the Great American Songbook. He told me that after hearing Davis’ Saturday concert full of avant adventures, he wanted to gear his performance in a more tonal direction.

For me, programming these piano concerts is so much fun. Trying to convey a sense of the wide world of jazz piano by finding balance and brilliance each season is a welcome challenge. No matter how many years we do this, we will never run out of great musicians willing to explore new facets of the keyboard universe.

Emerging Masters: Tomeka Reid Quartet and Tomas Fujiwara's 7 Poets Trio in Northampton

A lucky gathering of 110 western Massachusetts listeners got to witness first-hand the maturing of a cohort of highly talented musicians moving into mid-career, as the Tomeka Reid Quartet and Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio shared the stage at the Arts Trust Building in Northampton, MA on February 22. The concert -our first ever double-bill - was part of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares’ 12th season.

Cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Tomas Fujiwara were in each other’s ensemble. Vibraphonist Patricia Brennan was the third member of 7 Poets Trio, while guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Jason Roebke completed Reid’s quartet.

The five musicians in the two ensembles are all in their 40s, and over the past decade have blossomed into important figures in the jazz world. In addition to fellowships, awards and commissions, the five have amassed impressive discographies and garnered critical acclaim. Collectively, they are poised to advance the jazz language for decades to come.

Fujiwara’s trio, which performed first, featured his exquisite originals pulled from his new release, Pith. The drummer knew Brennan from their work together in Michael Formanek’s  Ensemble Kolossus, and Reid from their work in the cellist’s quartet, but Brennan and Reid had never played together before joining the trio, which first came together during Fujiwara’s 2018 Stone residency.

If there was a chamber-like quality to the work, it was a chamber music that included backbeats and agitated swing, as well as delicate, crystalline compositions. On the compact “Swelter”, for instance, a simple, insistent 4/4 cello line provoked a rock beat that evaporated into meter-less abstraction, before returning to the theme. “Solace” had a relaxed, inquisitive melody that loped along on the strength of Reid’s pizzicato bassline, which Brennan mirrored.

There was no soloing in the conventional sense. Brennan, Reid and Fujiwara all played the entire time, with each of them occasionally stepping forward to make a special point. The vibraphone, that most resonant of instruments, filled the space with notes that pulsed and lingered. In concert, it overwhelmed the cello and even the drums at times. All that is corrected on the recording, which allows us to easily hear each instrument.

The Tomeka Reid Quartet has been together since 2015 and has two recordings under their belt. While 7 Poets Trio was touring in support of their recent release, Reid’s group was field testing material generated by a 2021 Chamber Music America commission. After additional stops at Bowdoin College, Brown University, Real Art Ways (Hartford) and the Jazz Gallery (New York), the group will record the pieces we heard.

The pairing of guitarist Mary Halvorson and Reid is an inspired one. Whether playing unison lines or in darting counterpoint, the two MacArthur grant recipients commanded our attention. Having her fellow Chicagoan, Jason Roebke hold down bass chores freed Reid to explore melody and use her prodigious arco technique. I have seen Halvorson perform a dozen times and enjoyed every one of them. But Thursday was a peak experience. Her single notes were crisp and jazzy, and her pedal-induced extensions were used judiciously in service of Reid’s compositions. The Quartet swung from the bottom up and had an easy rapport, which made navigating Reid’s intricate pieces seem effortless.

Patricia Brennan is the most original vibraphonist to emerge in the last half-dozen years, and we have become quite fond of seeing her in the Valley. Thursday was her fourth Jazz Shares appearance in the last 2 ½ years, including a memorable evening at the IMA barn with her own quartet.

Tomas Fujiwara has created a full, thriving career on the strength of his fabulous drumming, formidable writing and band leading talents. Many of his projects, including Triple Double, The Hook Up, Thumbscrew and Illegal Crowns have graced western Mass stages over the years.

Jason Roebke’s new quartet recording on Corbett vs. Dempsey features the legendary Chicago reedman Edward Wilkerson, Jr. He has been a student and close associate of Roscoe Mitchell, and an indispensable colleague with some of Chicago’s most inventive musicians, including Mike Reed, Jason Stein, Fred Lonberg-Holm and  Jason Adasiewicz. He’s been recording as a leader since 2003.

Together with Tomeka Reid and Mary Halvorson, these musicians are creating work that is adding real value to the ever evolving jazz lexicon. They’re all hitting their stride at the same time, and I’m glad we get to hear their evolution on a regular basis.

Because of an email misinterpretation of the word “after”, we didn’t get a chance to break bread with the musicians, who were driving to Boston after the show. Without that valuable schmooze time, we didn’t get the full update on all that these five budding masters were up to. But from all indications they are active, in demand and up to great things. We listeners will be reaping the rewards for decades to come.

All By Himself: Roger Clark Miller in Greenfield

One man bands – a single individual making all the sounds emanating from a stage – is a centuries old tradition. The advent of looping technology has updated the practice, but it still involves all the limbs in intense coordination. The guitarist and composer Roger Clark Miller, who became famous in the early 1980s as co-founder of the avant-punk band Mission of Burma, has been experimenting with the concept since pioneering his “maximum electric piano” in 1987.

Miller presented his “Dream Interpretations For Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble” at Hawks & Reed on January 12th as part of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares 12th season. Sitting in his “cockpit” around three lap-steel guitars on stands, along with his 6-string Stratocaster, Miller employed a bevy of foot pedals and stomp boxes to create a dense soundscape of abstract but musical portraits of the composer’s dreams.

The 45 minute set, shared with 55 listeners, was divided into discreet, numbered dream interpretations, which Miller occasionally detailed from the stage. Dreams are often fantastical and episodic, with non-linear leaps that belie conscious scrutiny. That description served as an apt metaphor for the music we heard on Friday. Grooves, set up by a loop, would come and go. Likewise, melodies and patterned sounds would float across the room with a randomness we associate with the unconscious mind. Miller told me he has kept detailed dream journals since 1971. Of course, all dreams are deeply personal, and the fact the music was strictly instrumental meant it was not programmatic in any direct way. Still, the overall effect had the loose trippy logic of a hallucination.

Many of the pieces we heard were recorded and released in 2022 on a well-received album on Cuneiform Records. “The eruptive musical textures Miller creates are evocative of both the manic psychedelic feedback Jimi Hendrix infused into his yearning solos and the transformative discipline that Robert Fripp uses to turn the raucous into the meditative,” Scott McLennan wrote in The Arts Fuse. Three days after his Greenfield concert, Miller was headed back to his hometown studio, Guilford Sound in Vermont, to record a new set of dream interpretations.

Although the original incarnation of Mission of Burma lasted only four years (1979-1983), it's hard to overestimate the impact the band had on American music. The list of groups influenced by the Boston-based ensemble reads like a hall of fame roster of 1980s-90s rock ‘n roll: Pearl Jam, Hüsker Dü, Foo Fighters, Yo La Tango, Fugazi. But Roger Miller’s musical interests have always been wider than the rough-edged music of Mission of Burma. Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, the group he co-founded after Burma, was an experimental band with jazz and 20th century classical musical underpinnings. Subsequent compositions for movie soundtracks and chamber orchestra, his solo work for prepared piano, and his career writing for and accompanying silent films with his Alloy/Anvil Orchestra, reveal a musician with divergent interests and serious ambition. Throughout it all, his humble, self-effacing demeanor runs counter to the rock guitar hero stereotype.

There were a few raised eyebrows when we first announced this concert. On the surface, Miller does not fit the profile of the typical Jazz Shares artist. But raised as a pitcher, I was used to throwing curve balls and keeping batters off balance, and I knew our long-time shareholders were open-minded enough to roll with it. Not getting locked into stylistic straightjackets or limited by the confines of genre keeps us young and flexible. Throughout my presenting career, the emphasis has always been on quality and innovation. By those criteria, hosting Roger Clark Miller was no stretch at all. Seeing a one man band creating meaningful orchestral music alone on stage playing guitars, pressing pedals and turning knobs in real time, was immersive and satisfying.