Two’s a Crowd: Dan Weiss and Miles Okazaki at Hawks & Reed

The duo recording just released by drummer Dan Weiss and guitarist Miles Okazaki, has been 20 years in the making. That’s how long these two middle-age masters have been keeping musical company. Their tour in support of a new release, Music for Drums and Guitar, kicked off on Wednesday, December 1 at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield, MA.

Although Weiss, 44, and Okazaki, 46, have performed as a duo, played in each other’s bands and been featured on each other’s recordings since the beginning of their careers, this is the first time they have recorded as a twosome. The rapport they have established since they met at the Manhattan School of Music was readily apparent to 65 lucky listeners swept away for over an hour.

The music unfolded in great spools of sound that carried this listener on a shifting bed of melody and cross-rhythms. They performed two pieces, Okazaki’s “The Memory Palace”, which took up the first part of the show, and Weiss’ “MiddleGame”, which concluded the concert. That’s the same format as their double-LP and single CD that serves as the debut release on their new label, Cygnus Recordings.

Each piece had recurring themes and motifs that morphed constantly, but rooted us and gave us our bearings. Okazaki’s composition had blues and rock elements, but there were hints of Brazilian rhythms and swing woven in, as well as periods of profound indeterminacy. Weiss’s written contribution was built upon a couple of simple melodies that regularly changed tempo and rhythmic feel. I heard allusions to Indian music, which makes sense given his fluency on tabla. All evening, I had the sensation of existing in a constant state of “in-between”, betwixt unnamed grooves, holding multiple musical truths at the same time. It was a nice place to be.

There was intermittent applause, but the only interruption was by Okazaki just past the half-way mark to thank us for being there, introduce themselves and to attribute the compositions. Otherwise, it was all flow.

There was a high degree of anticipation and connectivity between the performers, making this more than just a recital by two very talented musicians. This was an actual band, albeit a very small one. Okazaki wove bass lines into his playing, using his thumb to play the bass strings while playing the melody on the higher strings using his other fingers. He also used pedals to maintain a drone or otherwise add to the sound mix.We didn’t actually miss a double-bass. And Weiss played the drums with melody in mind, creating “tunes” on his toms and lessening the need for a second melody instrument. There were sections that displayed the two’s obvious virtuosity, but in the main, their chops were not the primary attraction; what drew us in was their rapport and the musical logic unfurled over the course of the night.

Weiss and Okazaki are in full creative ascendency. Not surprisingly, they are both associated with Pi Recordings, which produces some of today’s most consequential music. (Saxophonist and composer Anna Webber, who also records for Pi, was in attendance.)

Okazaki leads a great quartet called Trickster, recently recorded the complete works of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar, and is an accomplished educator at the University of Michigan and Princeton. (One of his prized students, trumpeter Davy Lazar, was also in attendance.)

Weiss has a forward leaning 14-piece ensemble that has made two critically acclaimed recordings, while his newest project, Starebaby, blends metallic jazz, prog and post-rock. He has studied tabla with Pandit Samir Chatterjee for 25 years and recorded Indian classical music on both tabla and drumset.

Dan Weiss and Miles Okazaki are serious players and thinkers, poised to create at a high level for decades to come. We’re glad to be in their orbit.

As Serious as Your Life: Avram Fefer Trio at the Shea Theater

Avram Fefer is a low-key dude off the bandstand, but an impassioned musician once on stage. The reed man’s Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares performance at the Shea Theater on Saturday, November 20 provided a jolt of energy that catapulted us from rural Turners Falls, MA to grittier urban environs.

His trio, featuring Adam Lane on bass and Michael Wimberly on drums, gave a spirited 90-minute concert of Fefer originals. When all was said and done, our standing ovation served as a spontaneous thank you for their emptying of the proverbial tank.

Many of the pieces had a rugged nugget of melody that was explored in the best traditions of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler. There was an intensity to the proceedings that conveyed a seriousness of purpose, as well as a higher calling. Fefer is one of those musicians who returns again and again to certain themes, just as some prayers are recited at every service. Four of the compositions we heard are found on Testament, Fefer’s celebrated 2019 Clean Feed release that garnered best of the year honors from NPR, Rolling Stone, Downbeat, and others.

Fefer brought his alto and tenor saxophones and bass clarinet to the Shea. (He also plays soprano and baritone sax, clarinet and flute.) While playing, he sometimes moved around the stage, walking to the back and sides. At one point he even disappeared into the wings. I found the vanishing notes and the swells in volume quite compelling, adding drama to his testimony. Perhaps the movement was an outgrowth of his ongoing Resonant Sculpture Project, a series of solo musical interactions with the large scale works of legendary sculptor Richard Serra, where he moves around and through the pieces.

Adam Lane was a strong presence throughout the evening, taking full advantage of his solo opportunities. He maintained a well-defined melodic stance, full of crowd-pleasing devices. None of the jazz jokes about too many bass solos applied to this concert. It was good to see Lane, who hadn’t been to these parts since a 2016 appearance with the Darius Jones Trio. He’ll be back to the Pioneer Valley on December 10 with William Hooker’s Trio.

Drummer Michael Wimberly has been teaching at Bennington College for a decade, following in the footsteps of the late percussion master, Milford Graves. He also has extensive credits composing and creating sound design for dance (Urban Bush Women, Alvin Ailey, Philadanco) and theater (National Black Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem). His playing was forceful and direct: no brush work, no pitter pattering, just powerful declarative statements that gave the music a ritualistic, non-western flavor. He was super helpful carrying and setting up the drums, which of course endeared him to the concert’s producers.

Fefer has led a wonderfully eclectic career. He is part of Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar Arkestra and Adam Rudolph’s Organic Orchestra, and has worked with The Last Poets, David Murray, Bobby Few and Butch Morris. On stage and off, Fefer talked about his transformative interactions with Ornette Coleman, his theater experience with Ivo Van Hove and Melvin Van Peebles, his time in Boston as a student at Harvard, Berklee and the New England Conservatory, and his early jazz encounters in western Massachusetts with Steve McCraven, Archie Shepp and Tom McClung. He delivered all of it with an off-handed coolness that contrasted with the ferocity of his playing. In the words of writer/photographer Valerie Wilmer, it is inspiring to be in the presence of musicians who take their work “as serious as your life.”

Making History with the Bill Lowe Septet

There are plenty of important jazz musicians who have scant discographies as leaders, artists who have made lasting contributions to the form without a spotlight and with little fanfare. Bass trombonist and tubaist Bill Lowe is one of them.

Lowe stepped out of his role as valued sideman and revered teacher to lead a septet at the Community Music School of Springfield on Wednesday, November 10 as Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares’ 10th season rolled along.

Lowe, who has lived in the Boston area since the 1990s, was joined by fellow Bostonians Kevin Harris (piano), Luther Gray (drums) and Naledi Masilo (voice), along with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Hafez Modirzadeh (tenor saxophone) and Ken Filiano (bass). The ensemble, known as Signifyin’ Natives, gave a spirited, 90-minute performance of eclectic compositions filled with lustrous solos and interesting arrangements.

The program began with “Simone” by Frank Foster and also included two pieces by Bill Barron, both important saxophonists who greatly influenced Lowe as a young musician. Lowe in turn has impacted generations of artists both on the bandstand and as an educator at Wesleyan, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Williams and MIT. The idea of passing down knowledge seemed important to Lowe, who explained from the stage his thinking about his predecessors, his band name and the state of race relations in the U.S.

The evening began with an extended drum solo by Gray, an unusual opening gambit, but one that served as an invocation and a reminder of the central role rhythm plays in African-derived music. When the rest of the band entered, it sounded full, magisterial even. Gray’s solo turned out to be one of the longest of the evening as most of the solos that followed were limited to one or two choruses.

I’d met the West Coast saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh in 2016 when he co-led a UMass Magic Triangle Series concert with the legendary trumpeter Bobby Bradford. Modirzadeh was mentored by Lowe as a graduate student at Wesleyan University and there was good reason why Lowe insisted on flying him across the country for this tour. His inclusion of Middle-Eastern scales and his use of both a toy horn and a home-made double reed instrument (a trombone bell and a bassoon reed) gave a tart and unexpected flavor to the music.

Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, another former student of Lowe’s who helped organize this tour, has enlisted Lowe in many of his mid-sized ensembles over the years, including a 2012 Sextet concert in Jazz Shares’ inaugural season. Using a variety of mutes, Ho Bynum gave us a full account of his stylistic range, using overt blues and swing elements to make his characteristic smears and blurts even more provocative. He’ll be back in the Pioneer Valley in June with Illegal Crowns (Mary Halvorson, Benoit Delbecq, Tomas Fujiwara).

This was everybody’s first chance to hear Naledi Masilo sing. The South African vocalist has a powerful voice and an improviser’s spirit. A 2021 graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Masillo is poised to make her mark on the theater world, playing a leading role in Dreaming Zenzile, a play by Somi Kakoma, based on the life of Miriam Makeba. The play makes its Off-Broadway premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop in the spring. In Springfield she nailed fleet unison lines with Ho Bynum, scatted with assurance when it was her time to shine, and recited words from Jean Toomer’s classic “Cane” with an actor’s edge. Don’t be surprised if many more people know her soon.

Every time I hear Ken Filiano perform, I think there can’t possibly be a better bass player in the world. His arco playing is especially breathtaking. He has so much technique, such a creative and collaborative mind set, and such an impish spirit that he raises every bandstand he’s on. He obviously loves to play, and his openness to engaging with others means he works a lot.

Luther Gray held it down all night. He didn’t hardly solo after his opening salvo, but he steered and shaped the music in direct and subtle ways. Gray has been one of Boston’s most accomplished drummers for years. (Read Jon Garelick’s 2014 portrait of him in the Boston Globe.) Boston has always had lots of great musicians in its midst, and that number continues to increase. Maybe that can be the impetus to create an East-West Massachusetts railroad.

Bill Lowe has had a remarkable career, performing with Dizzy Gillespie, Eartha Kitt and Clark Terry, as well as Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and Cecil Taylor. He has performed and written music for the theater, (including the late Ed Bullins), organized concerts and has had an extensive teaching career. But the whole of Bill Lowe’s discography as a leader includes two co-led recordings with pianist Andy Jaffee and saxophonist Phillipe Crettien. That is about to change. The ensemble will end their tour at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, and record there the next day. If the results mirror the moving concert they provided listeners in Springfield, the jazz world will have an auspicious, and long overdue debut.