Allos Musica Brings the World to Hampshire College

Between the shruti box, the harmonium, the accordion and circular breathing through the clarinet, James Falzone’s Allos Musica Ensemble had the drone down. Their concert, produced by Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares, filled Hampshire College’s Music Recital Hall with deep resonance on Thursday, April 14. On the shruti box travel case was the sticker “Drone Not Drones.” I liked that.

The shruti box, a small, bellowed drone instrument, is usually played with hands Falzone explained to Jason Robinson’s Amherst College students the next day, but since he needs both to play the clarinet, he conceived and commissioned someone to fashion a bike lock and foot pedal into a system that allows him to play it with his foot.

The 75-minute concert, attended by about 50, was super sonorous, filled with material from the Ensemble’s brand new recording, Gnossienne. The quartet performed three of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne, a series of traditional dance melodies from Brittany (far-west France, where Celtic influence is strong), music from the Balkans, West Africa and the Middle East, and originals by Falzone. The music, like Falzone’s lovely composition, "A Shadow for Thomas Merton", is clearly derived from specific musical traditions that have been mixed into a wonderfully complex casserole of distinct yet fully blended sound.

The extraordinary percussionist Tim Mulvenna, whose ‘kit’ included djembe, talking drum, (West Africa), bodhrán (Ireland), riq (Middle East), bendir (North Africa), bells and cymbals, approaches these traditional drums his own way. He has rigged snares on his bendir and he plays the instruments unconventionally.

All evening I marveled at the pianistic dexterity of his fingers, and other unconventional ways Mulvenna made contact with his drums. Once you have the tradition under your fingers, you are free to serve the demands of the music in creative ways.

Ronnie Malley, who grew up playing the considerable store of percussion instruments in his home before moving to electric guitar and finally the oud, shared his belief that all music instruction should begin with rhythm. I love this idea; it’s true there can be no great music without rhythmic surety. Malley’s performance on oud and vocals had a deep and melodious charisma about it.

Accordionist Jeremiah McLane lives in Sutton, Vermont, the only member of the band not from Chicago. His New England roots extend into extensive study of Celtic and French music (where he met Falzone) and of course the accordion itself. McLane told stories of dealing by Skype with a master Italian craftsman who was making an instrument for him, without benefit of a shared language.

When the conversation turned to Myron Floren, the legendary accordionist of the Lawrence Welk Show, Mulvenna said that he toured with Floren as a teenager. In his seventies, Floren would dust the youngsters by playing at impossible tempos. The accordion, which McLane reminded us, is a wind instrument, joined naturally in the family of sustained sound.

Falzone exists easily in multiple musical worlds. He visited last year when Jazz Shares produced the Renga Ensemble, his new music clarinet sextet. Allos Musica had a very different sound and effect. Falzone is actively involved with liturgical music, jazz, contemporary classical, pure improvisation and folk music from many places, and works often with artists from other disciplines. He blurs, smudges, uses sfumato to make disparate elements meld into one arresting body of work.

“Allos means ‘otherly’”, Falzone writes in the liner notes, “and the ensemble which bears its name has always been a medium through which I synthesize and amalgamate seemingly disparate musical worlds.”

The band’s deep study of traditional practice, combined with its crazy level of musicianship and erudition, meant that we got to have a true multicultural experience at Hampshire College. Thanks to Marty Ehrlich (a long-time hero of Falzone’s) for making it happen.

Bobby Bradford-Hafez Modirzadeh Quartet Makes History

The spirit of Ornette Coleman and Ed Blackwell was in the air throughout Hafez Modirzadeh and Bobby Bradford’s two-day Amherst residency. Their visit culminated with a Magic Triangle Series concert on Thursday, where tenor saxophonist Modirzadeh, cornetist Bradford, along with bassist Ken Filiano and drummer royal hartigan, transfixed 100 people in Bezanson Recital Hall with a transcendent 80 minute performance. Bradford, the 81-year old Los Angeles-based patriarch, was a dear friend and musical colleague of Ornette and Blackwell. Modirzadeh spent lots of quality time with Ornette, picking his brain and getting valuable feedback from the alto master. hartigan studied extensively with Blackwell at Wesleyan University.

So there was reverence for Ornette’s indomitable spirit and wonder at the elliptical nature of his thinking, and stories about the time he left his horn at an Italian airport with $50,000 dollars stuffed into the bell (returned safely), and the time Ornette followed someone’s smoking sax solo during a cutting contest by playing his horn with his right hand in his pocket.

The concepts of spirit and reverence were omnipresent during the visit, which also included a well-received class visit and concert at Amherst College, sponsored by Professor Jason Robinson.

During the Magic Triangle concert, hartigan, a 1981 UMass graduate, paid tribute to one of his mentors, Fred Tillis, with a touching speech. Dr. Tillis, responsible for much of the flowering of multicultural arts on campus and now 86, came to the stage to greet each musician. hartigan is a master of West African drumming traditions and began his composition, “Wadsworth Falls”, with an Asante rhythm and praise song, with Tillis’ name inserted. I teared up.

When I first contacted Modirzadeh at his Bay-area home about bringing a band to Amherst, he said he wanted to invite Bobby Bradford. I was thrilled because: 1) of his historical importance to the music; 2) he has never been to our area; 3) he has strong ties to two of my local heroes, Terry Jenoure and Marty Ehrlich; 4) his reputation for having enriched his Los Angeles jazz community for so long; 5) he can really play.

Over the two days, Modirzadeh displayed heartfelt deference, born not only out of health and energy concerns, but by the sheer thrill of spending an extended period of time with a respected elder. He peppered Bradford with lots of questions about Ornette among other subjects, and understood the significance of the occasion enough to professionally record both concerts.

Dennis Steiner’s Archive Project also preserved Thursday’s concert for posterity.

At a dinner in their honor at the home I share with Priscilla Page, we had the opportunity to introduce the musicians to members of our music-loving community. Jenoure and Ehrlich got to catch up with their old friend (there’s now a photo of the three of them floating somewhere on the internet), while they reminisced about the extraordinary series of John Carter records they made together in the 1980s. When scheduling a Thursday band rehearsal at UMass or Amherst proved daunting, my home became the woodshed. I loved seeing how the music comes together.

Ping Chong, the great theater artist, who along with Talvin Wilks, is in residence with the UMass Theater Department preparing their new work, “Collidescope 2.0”, is a friend of Hafez and a long-time colleague of his sister, Leila. We all met up at the Hangar on Thursday after the performance and the theater rehearsal for one more celebration.

As the A-Team’s ‘Hannibal’ Smith used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” It’s not often that one’s expectations, fueled by months of anticipation and preparation, are fully realized. Yes, the music was sublime, but being close to the spirit that informs the music, that exceeded my wildest dreams. Another peak experience.

Andrew Drury’s Content Provider Rocks the Parlor Room

The last two concerts I have produced: the UMass Magic Triangle Jazz Series event on February 25 and Thursday’s (March 17) Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares concert at Northampton’s Parlor Room were led by drummers. That, in and of itself, is not a big deal in today’s jazz world (see John Hollenbeck, Tomas Fujiwara, Mike Reed, Terri Lynn Carrington, Bobby Previte, Allison Miller, etc.) But some striking differences and similarities between the two bandleaders made me realize there is more than one way to succeed in music.

Where Matt Wilson appeared precise and polished, Andrew Drury looked a little disheveled, like he had just rolled out of bed. On more than one occasion, Drury began pieces by rummaging around his pile of miscellaneous percussion. Was he looking for something or had the “music” begun?

Where Matt Wilson had us laughing and fully engaged with his in-between banter, Drury confessed that he was having difficulty transitioning from intense music-making to the English language. Where Wilson mostly worked inside established forms, Drury took a more expansive tact, employing more different textures and extended techniques. Where Wilson brought a basic jazz aesthetic to the music, Drury had a rock feel to his playing.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much they had in common. Both are master drummers, of course, working with tremendous musicians. Both are totally versed and in love with the music’s history. Both are accomplished and dedicated jazz educators (check out Wilson’s “kids” CD, WeBop: A Family Jazz Party. Drury spent six months teaching music to members of the Oneida nation and is spending the next few months in public schools in Brownsville and East New York.) Both expressed gratitude for the audiences’ engaged listening.

“We all had a ball,” Drury wrote in an email. “So much appreciate your good spirit and how it manifests itself in a great series, great audience, great dinner, great hanging out before and after the gig… and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to push the music and the group a bit further toward our next steps (most immediately performances in DC and NYC in about 10 days.) Very encouraging!”

Drury’s Content Provider, featuring tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and alto saxophonist Briggan Krauss, treated 65 intrepid listeners to two ample sets of music. Without guitarist Brandon Seabrook, who is on the recent recording but could not make the Jazz Shares gig, the saxophonists had room to move and showcase their considerable skills.

Although the music moved from in-the-pocket funk and African-derived unison passages to basic sound science, it always seemed to retain its shape, purpose and point of view. With eyes closed, it was impossible to determine who/what was creating the undulating electronic sounds (it was Laubrock). I discovered that what sounded like guitar was being produced by Krauss. When I looked, there was Briggan strumming his saxophone keys. (He happens to be an accomplished guitarist.) The vocalized flute passages were actually Drury blowing into the side hole of his floor tom.

My almost grown sons, who had ventured to check out the music, laughed with incredulity. Whatever they ultimately thought of the music, I was glad they saw people claiming the space to express themselves outside of accepted conventions. Periodic murmurs and chuckles from the rest of the crowd confirmed their reactions.

That Andrew Drury, Ingrid Laubrock and Briggan Krauss are virtuoso musicians in complete control of their instruments made their sound production techniques more than novelty. They made music that moved and provoked us, and made us glad we were there.