Time Matters: Orrin Evans Trio in Springfield

A 1995 CD release by the Orrin Evans Trio featuring Matthew Parrish and Byron Landham, and the tour in support of that recording, was 26 years in the making. The pianist Orrin Evans made The Trio (reissued in 2001 as Déjà Vu) with bassist Matthew Parrish and drummer Byron Landham, but the career paths of these three active Philadelphians took them in disparate directions, and gigs never materialized. Incredibly, the Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares concert we heard at the Community Music School of Springfield on October 30th was part of their first ever tour.

Listening to this cohesive trio, one would never have guessed this was their first live go-round. Performing a mix of Evans originals and reconfigured standards, they were highly compatible and in perfect sync as they transfixed 70 intent listeners for over an hour on Saturday. Their Springfield concert was the last of a small tour, so they had some time to reacquaint themselves with the material. (A final show the next day at The Falcon in New York’s Hudson Valley was cancelled due to the sudden passing of Tony Falco, the club’s founder.)

The Robyn Newhouse Hall at the CMSS is the perfect setting for a piano trio: great sound, elegant venue, good sight lines, beautiful piano. And we heard a perfect piano trio, relaxed and ready to stretch out. There were fleet, up tempo burners like “Big Jimmy”, with the band’s bop chops on full display, and the evening’s finale, a poignant reading of Mr. Rogers’ “Good Feeling”, with Evans singing Fred Roger’s life-affirming lyrics. Because the melody was Evans’ own, the song’s identity only slowly dawned on us. Jazz Shares Vice President, Priscilla Page, reported tearing up.

Evans’ wonderful career includes Tarbaby (Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits), The Bad Plus (Reid Anderson and Dave King), his Captain Black Big Band and 28 recordings as a leader for Criss Cross, Posi-Tone, Smoke Sessions and his own Imani label. He exudes surety and style, and his piano playing has an infectious forward motion. I could see his shoulders and head moving with the music, allowing me to hear his ideas with even more clarity. He was dancing sitting down.

In the audience were Amherst College faculty members Darryl Harper and Sonia Clark, decades-long friends of the pianist, he from their Rutgers’ days. Also in the crowd was Fred Goodson and Margot Davis, old friends of Evans from Philly, resulting in a post-concert hang at Dewey’s on Worthington Street filled with the kind of comradery that makes it all worthwhile.

The trio we heard at CMSS is not as high-profile as some of Evans’ other bands. But profile has little to do with musicality, and Matthew Parrish and Byron Landham are living proof that there are great jazz musicians you never heard of in every large city in America. The trio’s long, if discontinuous, shared history was clear from the get-go, not only while swinging their asses off, but during numerous precipitous changes in tempo and mood. They were playing and listening.

Parrish, who teaches bass and leads ensembles at Princeton, took advantage of his ample solo space with articulate dexterity and a storyteller’s arc. His time and the ease with which he negotiated the music’s twists and turns were impeccable, and the sound he got from his instrument was rich and heard easily throughout the hall. (Kudos to sound engineer Steve Moser for a beautiful mix.) Byron Landham is spending the better part of November with organist Pat Bianchi’s Trio, opening for Steely Dan in concerts throughout the northeast, including the Orpheum Theatre in Boston. His drumming was crisp and rife with unexpected fills that propelled the music. Percussionists often use mallets to warm up ballads or provide atmospherics, so it was very exciting to hear Landham use them to make a full-scale solo statement with so much personality and variety.

Thanks to Orrin Evans for introducing us to two fabulous musicians, and for reminding us that friendship, long-term relationships and serious musicianship are the building blocks of a creative community. Those qualities were all front and center in Springfield on Saturday, and we were the lucky recipients.

Playing to Win: Jason Robinson Harmonic Constituent

The mere fact that a team has an all-star at every position does not insure success. Ask the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays, the three major league baseball teams with the most wins this year. Like the rest of us, they are watching the 2021 World Series on television. The same goes for music. Having the biggest names does not always translate to making the most convincing music. But when the best jells, as they did at the Northampton Arts Trust on Friday, October 15, the results can be transcendent.

Saxophonist Jason Robinson, who is a dear friend and a Board member of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares, led a quartet of serious musicians in an evening of his compositions. This Jazz Shares concert, delayed over a year because of COVID-19, celebrated the release of Harmonic Constituent (Playscape, 2020). The four musicians on the recording: Joshua White (piano), Drew Gress (bass), Ches Smith (drums, glockenspiel) and Robinson, assembled at 33 Hawley St. to wow 65 rapt listeners.

The 70-minute set included most of the material on Harmonic Constituent, an album filled with intricate compositions and improvised magic. Robinson made the right call to convene a rehearsal the day before, giving everyone’s muscle memories a chance to refresh, and letting Joshua White catch his breath after travelling from San Diego. The music was composed by Robinson on a trip to the northern coast of his home state of California, inspired by the power of the Pacific Ocean. “Harmonic constituent” refers to the complex interaction between the sun, earth and moon that influence tides at different locations.

The music was a spirit-filled amalgam of knotty, swinging, provocative and melodious sounds that crossed multiple stylistic boundaries, all played with off-the-charts virtuosity.

Joshua White excites me more than any other pianist I can think of (Matt Mitchell, notwithstanding.) His approach is fresh and seemingly without limit, not tied to any “school” or style. “Jug Handle”, Robinson’s dedication to his grandfather, ended with a beautiful solo summation by White. His touch on this gorgeous lullaby was so delicate we all got quiet with him. On “Mountain in Your Mind”, White romped with be-bop intensity. At other points he used parts of his hands to create waves of sound.

Ches Smith is another all-star with extremely catholic tastes. He has experience in rock-inspired projects like Mr. Bungle and Mark Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, has worked with revolutionaries like Terry Riley, John Zorn and Wadada Leo Smith, and has led recordings like The Bell (ECM, 2016), an exquisite chamber-like work featuring Craig Taborn and Mat Maneri, and Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic, 2021), a ground-breaking mix of jazz and Haitian drum traditions. His playing on Saturday precisely framed each of the compositions and gave shape to the solos and I was impressed he left dinner early to work on some of the tricky sections. His accents on glockenspiel made the music pop, much like a few drops of bitters add complexity to a drink.

Bassist Drew Gress has played on all of Robinson’s various-sized Janus Ensembles over the last decade. On more than one occasion I’ve heard Jason remark what a comfort it is to have Gress behind him. Despite seven releases as a leader, (I’m especially fond of Spin & Drift and The Irrational Numbers), Gress has made his living as a sideman with Steve Lehman, Angelica Sanchez, John Hollenbeck, John Abercrombie and dozens of others. The concert was performed without sound reinforcement and Gress’ bass provided all the heft we needed. His resonant tone and his understanding of the composer’s aims were right on. He served as spotter for the evening’s musical gymnastics.

As trying as the last 18 months have been, Robinson has accomplished a lot. Along with finishing a three-year stint as Chair of the Amherst College Music Department, he released three different recordings, all of them outstanding. In addition to Harmonic Constituent, 2020 also brought us The Urgency of Now, a largely improvised set featuring Bruno Råberg and Bob Weiner, and Two Hours Early, Ten Minutes Late: Duo Music of Ken Aldcroft, featuring guitarist Eric Hofbauer. He is one of the few scholars who is also a monster musician. (Our mutual friend Michael Dessen is another.) Robinson played tenor saxophone almost exclusively and masterfully explored the instrument’s sonic possibilities, from roar to whisper, shrieks to cat purrs. After repeated listens to Harmonic Constituent, I’ve grown to love the writing as much as the playing. Each composition is individually crafted to evoke a particular mood, while referencing some part of the massive jazz legacy Robinson clearly cherishes.

The best teams are guided by a manager who has a plan, is clearly in command and gives his charges room to be themselves and to influence the outcome. Jason Robinson has hit a home run, turning this collection of all-stars into a winning aggregation.

Newcomers Welcome: Steph Richards Debuts in the Valley

After more than 30 years of producing creative music, it’s rare for me to host a concert where I’ve never met any of the performers. But that’s what happened on Tuesday, Oct. 12th when Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares gathered again at the Institute for the Musical Arts in Goshen.

Trumpeter Steph Richards led her band Supersense: James Carney, piano, Brandon Lopez, bass and Max Jaffe, drums, in a 60-minute immersion into a very personal sound world. I had poor answers to pre-concert questions about the music. I had never seen any of them perform and knew them only by name and reputation. What an opportunity then, for me to expand my musical universe.

Although there were long-standing connections between individual band members, this foursome had never worked together. In a music that emphasizes improvisation, that’s not as daunting a prospect as it seems. It also helps to have four nimble musical thinkers with chops. I suspect that as the tour continued on to Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Ottawa, the band grew into an even deeper understanding of Richard’s vision.

Richards is one of the rising stars of the trumpet with a big vision for what is possible. For this concert, she collaborated with flavor and fragrance artist Sean Raspert, who created scratch and sniff cards that corresponded to the compositions. Richards also screened abstract video by Vipal Monga that played above the heads of the quartet during the first part of the performance.

Beyond engagement with our other senses, the musicians wove a tapestry of sound around loose themes provided by Richards. Despite Lopez’ muscular pulse, the band leisurely explored nuggets of melody with an open-ended mindset. Richards’ tone was gorgeous and full-bodied, with flecks of bravado and vulnerability in equal measure.

Carney seemed to hold back, only occasionally asserting himself within the group. His shining moments came during a couple of passages when he had the stage to himself. I heard shades of Jarrett and Debussy in his approach, and the understated beauty of his solos served as a wonderful respite to the evening’s general busyness. Over a meal, Carney regaled us with stories of an afternoon spent with Wayne Shorter in 1999 when he won the Thelonious Monk Institute Competition in composition, as well as tales from his career as a high-end piano technician.

I’d been hearing about Brandon Lopez for a number of years. He’s a New Yorker, barely in his mid-30s, who was nurtured by William and Patricia Parker and grew up in the Arts for Art family. I love this line from his bio: “His music has been praised as ‘brutal’ (Chicago Reader) and ‘relentless’ (The New York Times).” He playing wasrelentless, emphatic and physical, as well as quite musical. Small of stature, Lopez’ kinetic approach to the bass reminded my wife, Priscilla Page, of Joe Fonda, an apt comparison.

Max Jaffe, a member of vocalist Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones and a collaborator with Jessica Pavone and Peter Evans, received his Masters from CalArts last year. Richards and Carney also have degrees from this venerated hotbed of innovation. They laughed about the irony that the school’s two most important benefactors are Walt Disney and Herb Alpert. Jaffe is a strong player with just the right amount of off-beat to make things interesting. He has devoted a lot of his recent energy into combining drumming with various digital technologies. Hopefully we’ll get to hear that side of his talent soon.

I’m so thankful I got to meet and share the music of Steph Richards, James Carney, Brandon Lopez and Max Jaffe, four creative souls who I now know. Connecting the dots, making the connections, expanding the known universe through music and love, that’s what motivates me. “Peace and rhythm,” as my friends Andujar and DJ Bongohead put it. I feel grateful every day that I am in a position to facilitate rich exchanges of music and fellowship between artists and my friends and neighbors.