Worth the Wait: The Michael Musillami Trio +3 at the Shea Theater

Third time’s a charm. After two false starts, Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares finally got to present the Michael Musillami Trio +3. The six musicians: Michael Musillami (guitar), Jason Robinson (tenor sax), Thomas Heberer (trumpet), Caleb Curtis (alto sax), Joe Fonda (bass) and George Schuller (drums), smoked a 70-minute set at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls on Saturday, March 5.

“It had been almost 2 years to the day since this band had played on stage together,” Musillami wrote in a note of thanks. “I know that the cats were a bit uncertain because of the complexity of the music and the lack of time performing at a very high level. Well, once a few minutes in, it was like old times. It felt natural, yet there was an awareness that these are uncharted waters. We made music!!”

This ensemble, minus Curtis, had embarked on a European tour in mid-March, 2020, just as COVID was beginning to rear its head. Shaking off rust and reviving muscle memory for complicated music after two years away is not easy, and lay listeners tend to take for granted the amount of talent and dedication it takes to pull it off. But nobody on stage was sweating; the heat emanating from the bandstand, however, was intense.

In the main, the music – all written by Musillami – was driving, full of blues feeling and punchy riffs. But Musillami included enough open sections and unaccompanied solos to cleanse the palate. These solo interludes, about five minutes each, were creative tour de forces, while providing respite from the density of the full ensemble.

The well-oiled rhythm section, featuring old friends Joe Fonda and George Schuller, has been together for over 20 years, and through the decades Musillami has invited various horn players, such as Thomas Chapin, Marty Ehrlich and Dave Ballou, to join the Trio. Robinson and Heberer have been the +2 for a few years now while Curtis was making his public debut with the group. “Welcome to the team,” I overheard Musillami tell the 36-year old alto saxophonist at The Rendezvous after the concert.

When firing on all cylinders the sextet produced a welcome wall of sound and I joked that the guitarist might want to finally make a big band record. Schuller reminded me that Musillami does in fact write large ensemble charts as part of his day job as Director of Jazz Studies at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. The arrangements were elaborate but clean and uncluttered.

Musillami played in organ trios in the early 1980s alongside Richard “Groove” Holmes and Bobby Buster. His comping behind Robinson’s blustery tenor solo was deeply swinging, worthy of Grant Green or Thornel Schwartz. Other highlights included my first live experience hearing a straight alto, the same instrument Rashaan Roland Kirk called a stritch. Curtis played a newly acquired, 85-year old horn that had a woody, soprano-like quality with notes of boysenberry and cinnamon.

One tune ended dramatically by featuring the three horns playing some knotty counterpoint and stretched harmonies that felt like a chorale off the rails. At one point, Heberer’s unaccompanied solo included a thin buzzing sound. I’m used to hearing folks like Nate Wooley, Steph Richards, Peter Evans and Taylor Ho Bynum extend the range of trumpet. But Heberer’s horn was by his side! Was he employing some looped electronics? Was someone else making the sound? It slowly dawned on me that Heberer was vocalizing, making “trumpet” sounds with his lips.

Musillami’s compositions, all written within the last five years or so, had plenty of hooks to hang your hat on, with infectious melodies and well-established grooves. But things were constantly shifting, with someone often blowing freely on top of it all. The combination of driving rhythms and abstract sound made for a crowd pleasing evening of high quality music.

Without much fanfare, Michael Musillami has put together a substantial career in music. In addition to his role as an educator and band leader, the guitarist runs Playscape Recordings, which since the turn of the century has released 75 titles by artists like Mario Pavone, George Schuller, Peter Madsen, Thomas Chapin and himself. And he is invested in the continued health of the music as manifest by his status as a shareholder in Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares.

Styles Collide: Mostly Other People Do the Killing in Springfield

Although they perform in business suits, Mostly Other People Do the Killing are a subversive ensemble, upending expectations with an impish attitude. Led by bassist and composer Moppa Elliott, MOPDtK is a 19-year old band that includes Ron Stabinsky, piano and Kevin Shea, drums. They entertained 40 people on Saturday, February 19 at Newhouse Hall at the Community Music School of Springfield, as Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares began the second half of their 10th season.

The band, which began in 2003 with trumpeter Peter Evans and saxophonist Jon Irabagon alongside Shea and Elliott, takes the whole of jazz history, puts it through a blender and spits out a mélange. Reminiscent of John Zorn’s jump-cut collages, these modernists add humor and mischievousness while pin-balling from style to style. Despite the change in personnel and instrumentation in 2017, MOPDtK has not deviated from their method. In fact, with Stabinsky and Shea playing Nord electronic keyboard and Nord drum synthesizer, they have added a space-age vaudeville vibe to the proceedings. Stabinsky told me they call it the “revenge of the Nords”.

But their tongue-in-cheek character did not distract from the musicality and inventiveness of the trio. Playing pieces from their brand-new recording, Disasters, Vol. 1, they moved from open, atonal sections to deep swing, from a shmaltzy dirge to classical concision, all within minutes. The effect could make you dizzy, and there were times I wished they would have settled into a groove for longer than they did, but then we’d be listening to a different band. The new record, on Elliott’s own Hot Cup Records, details various disasters that have befallen Pennsylvanian cities. Disasters, Vol. 1, continues Elliott’s tradition of naming all his tunes after places in the Keystone State. (He was born in Scranton.) On Saturday, he gave us thumbnail histories of those tragedies, which ranged from floods and fires to mine and nuclear accidents. “Centralia”, for instance, which is now largely a ghost-town, has had an active underground coal mine fire burning since 1962. Elliott’s tune, a feature for the supremely talented Ron Stabinsky, had a barrelhouse early rock feel.

The music was frenetic at times, with a mad-cap quality achieved by speeding up and slowing down the tempo, or having one of the musicians playing at cross-purpose. Often that person was Shea, a masterfully busy drummer who played with precision and a rock mentality. While piano and bass were playing music right out of a top-hat waving, 1930s musical, the drums were bashing away at twice the tempo and twice the volume. Other times Stabinsky would seem to be soloing on a different tune, only to finally tip-toe towards the established groove. The electronics greatly expanded their sound palate, creating moments of cartoon comedy or otherworldly universes.

Elliott played the straight man, often maintaining the pulse and dictating the changes in direction. The bassist, now in his mid-40s, presents as a conventional, law-abiding musician. But there is something audacious in his unceremonious mash-up of jazz history. In 2014 he created a firestorm of controversy when MOPDtK released, Blue, recreating Miles Davis’ iconic Kind of Blue with a level of faithfulness that fooled experts and lay listeners alike. The liner notes include a reprint of Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”, where the fictitious Menard immerses himself so thoroughly in Cervantes’ work as to be able to actually “re-create” it, line for line. The band takes its name from a quote from the inventor Leon Theremin, who after spending years in a Soviet gulag, excused Stalin’s behavior, saying “mostly other people did the killing”. Elliott’s wry humor and irreverent attitude is further reflected in early MOPDtK album covers that parody important records like Ornette Coleman’s This is Our Music and Roy Haynes’ Out of the Afternoon. It’s all part of his rebellious, punk-inspired impulse to “kill yr idols”.

But it’s clear that his post-modern sensibilities are rooted in his love and mastery of the jazz tradition. Throughout the 70-minute set, we heard snippets of ragtime, swing, rock, “lounge”, bop and the Afro-future. The band’s total command of so many jazz dialects can only come from musicians who have studied seriously, practiced diligently and revere the tradition. Elliott told me he is about 30 discs shy of owning all 300 records featuring veteran bassist Sam Jones.

Through the Darkness Lightly: William Hooker Trio in Greenfield

Drummer William Hooker certainly has more energy than your average 75-year old. Hooker made the trip from New York City to Greenfield, Massachusetts and back again in a single day. In between, he and his Trio pinned back the ears of 55 listeners with a recital of high intensity music that lasted for over an hour.

The December 10th concert at Hawks & Reed, which served as an unveiling of Hooker’s new release, Big Moon, was the 9th Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares production since September. There are 8 more concerts are on tap through June. The wall of sound produced by Hans Tammens on guitar, Adam Lane on bass and Hooker, might have unnerved some, but this listener was able to get inside the eye of the maelstrom to revel in the undulating cacophony.

The evening began with the musicians making their way on stage as Hooker produced a spiritualized hum. Soon enough, the trio was firing on all cylinders, fortissimo and then some. After about 15 minutes with no let up, Hooker and Lane left the stage. Tammens unleashed a 10-minute solo that started with some warped, Fahey-inspired folk sounds, but soon picked up energy. Lane followed with his unaccompanied tour de force that included some advanced bow techniques. Hooker took the last solo turn, starting his portion playing sticks on stairs and intoning a poem before ascending to his drum throne. The band returned en masse for the final section, picking up the ferocity where they left off. It was an exhausting and exhilarating evening of music.

Fred, the sound and lighting technician at Hawks & Reed was also feeling the music and took creative license with the visuals. Hooker’s solo, for instance, began with the entire stage in the dark. The effect gave the music a heightened sense of drama. Elsewhere during the show, the lights would dim, then return and move, highlighting the large, red abstract paintings behind the musicians. I felt like I was at a rock show. Hooker told me afterwards he dug the effort.

Lane was making a return engagement to western Mass, having anchored the Avram Fefer Trio at the Shea Theater a month ago. On Friday, Lane went full bore, running his fingers up and down the fingerboard in a successful attempt to match the power and volume of his bandmates. The speed with which he churned out notes was felt, if not precisely heard. But the exercise had the desired effect: creating a palpable energy that was visceral and spontaneous.

Tammens has spent a lifetime developing his richly processed, specially prepared instrument he calls Endangered Guitar, and indeed I have never heard anything quite like it. His rapid strumming and his doctored instrument produced shards of melody in a torrent of sound. I felt inundated, but it had a paradoxically calming effect, like the cascading tumult of a waterfall. Tammens was a late replacement for violinist Charlie Burnham. It is hard to imagine how the concert would have unfolded with different instrumentation, but I’m glad to have had the opportunity to hear an original voice on guitar.

William Hooker has played with a number of creative guitarists, including Nels Cline, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, so I’m sure he was happy to have Tammens in the band. Hooker plays with force and spirit, and his thwacks on the kit brought me to attention. Hooker loves to play alongside silent films and has lots of experience in multi-media settings, so he has a natural affinity for narrative structure. His trio performance in Greenfield unfolded as a story of untamed impulses, full of catharsis and new possibility. That’s no mean feat for a musician of any age, let alone one with lots of laurels to rest on.