Anna Webber Nonet at the Iron Horse

It’s exciting to watch the emergence of a major talent, and over the few last years we’ve had a front row seat for Anna Webber’s full flowering as an instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. For this listener, confirmation of her inclusion among the top echelon came on January 22, when she led a nonet in the world premiere of a new book of compositions at Northampton’s venerable Iron Horse.

“it’s easier to imagine the end of the world…”, is the working title for material to be recorded next week, after two performances at The Jazz Gallery in New York. Taken from a quote by philosopher Fredric Jameson (“It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than an end to capitalism”), the half dozen pieces encompassed a variety of styles, expertly played by an all-star band that included: Yuma Uesaka (clarinets), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor and soprano sax), Ryan Easter (trumpet), DoYeon Kim (gayageum), Mary Halvorson (guitar), David Virelles (piano), Chris Tordini (bass), Ches Smith (drums) and Webber (tenor and soprano sax, flute). The nine musicians hail from five countries.

Webber’s first Jazz Shares concert was with her Simple Trio (Matt Mitchell, John Hollenbeck) in 2018. She has since performed with pianist Eric Wubbels (2020), the David Sanford Big Band (2022), the Max Johnson Trio (2023), and her quintet Shimmer Wince (2024). So we’ve had ample opportunity to bear witness to her growth as an artist. Her Nonet represents another leap forward.

Webber co-leads a big band with Angela Morris, so we know she can write for large ensembles. But the music we heard on Thursday was downright compelling: complex without being ponderous, rhythmically rich, with lots of angles and rock n' roll energy. She used chimes, gayageum (Korean zither) and contrabass clarinet to produce unique textures, and each composition had a clarity of purpose and a point of view. The music moved from high octane density to delicate two person exchanges. One driving section, played loud and pan-tonally by all nine members, was directly followed by a whispered trumpet/piano interlude. We exhaled, cleared our minds and marveled at the intensity that just flew by. The pace of the concert, and an ever changing combination of instrumental colors, kept our ears glued to the (very crowded) stage.

A couple of audience members referred to Mary Halvorson, Ingrid Laubrock and Anna Webber as “the trinity”; other bandmembers: Ches Smith, David Virelles, Chris Tordini, also have well-established careers and have played in the area multiple times. But DoYeon Kim, Yuma Uesaka and Ryan Easter were all wowing us for the first time.

DoYeon Kim, is a traditionally trained Korean artist with advanced degrees from both the New England Conservatory of Music and Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute. Mentored by Joe Morris and Mark Dresser, she has brought the gayageum into the world of creative music, demonstrating yet again, jazz’s appetite for innovation and inclusion. Hitting strings with the vigor of Eddie Van Halen, Kim played with abandon as she flicked between blues and Asian scales.

Yuma Uesaka brought three clarinets, including his massive contrabass, situated an octave lower than the bass clarinet. His solo on the contrabass was nimble and vibratious as he filled the 47-year old Iron Horse with deep resonant sounds. He was the glue guy, contributing a reedy complexity to the sound stew. A classmate of UMass professor Jonathan Hulting-Cohen at the University of Michigan, the 35-year old reedist will be back in June with Max Johnson’s Sextet, while talk is under way to bring his cooperative quartet, Tropos, next season.

Ryan Easter was a revelation. He has a gorgeous tone and possesses all the tools we associate with Wooley, Evans, Knuffke and Ho Bynum. He is not only an adventurous trumpeter, but a fleet tongued MC with the band Wrens (Elias Stemeseder, Lester St. Louis, Jason Nazary). He founded the Trap Music Orchestra in 2014, described as “synchronizing the aural lineage of Black diasporic music around the modern library of the trap music branch of hip-hop, in the orchestral style made legendary by greats such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Charles Mingus.” It was nice that Amherst College music professor Darryl Harper and Easter, who met years ago at VCU, had a chance to catch up after the show. 

I can only imagine the logistical and financial challenges Webber faced putting this project together. From writing a Chamber Music America New Works grant, to developing a budget and schedule, the non-musical part of being a bandleader is thankless and its own skill set. Webber seems to excel at that, too, and along with her burgeoning skills as a composer, instrumentalist and leader, we have every confidence the 41-year old Canadian wunderkind will be shining a light deep into the future.

For those who want more, Webber will be back with John Hollenbeck’s GEORGE, March 17 and Max Johnson’s Sextet, June 4.