Over the years, I’ve been honored to present solo concerts by some of the world’s most outstanding jazz guitarists, including Marc Ribot, Fred Frith, James ‘Blood’ Ulmer and Elliott Sharp. But the November 20 concert at Holyoke Media featuring Brandon Seabrook now occupies a special place in my pantheon.
The technical display was dazzling, breathtaking even. Moments of astoundment, sometimes grounded in provocation, sometimes bathed in beauty, flowed into one another, as Seabrook danced across his fretboard at impossible speeds. But it wasn’t only the prodigious proficiency that wowed us, as impressive as that was. It was his playful approach and fearless attitude that made the concert so memorable.
Peter Margasak nailed it in 2017 when he wrote of Seabrook’s, “complex, idea-packed instrumentals with wildly shifting time signatures, rapid-fire chord changes, sinister riffing, and characteristically spastic solo explosions”. Wednesday’s 60-minute recital was as exhausting as it was exhilarating.
This was the 13th concert Seabrook has played since his new solo recording, Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic Records) dropped last month. For each of these solo concerts, he told me, he covers the same material in the same order, with lots of room for improvising, of course. In fact, he does the same thing for all his bands: every concert in a particular tour has the identical set list. The better to fully explore the possibilities within each composition, I suppose.
He played material from the new record, which is full of overdubbed guitar and banjo parts. On Wednesday he stuck exclusively to his 1998 Jerry Jones Neptune 12-string guitar. But nothing felt missing. With the help of various pedals and effects, Seabrook coaxed a universe full of sounds and textures from his instrument. Without resorting to loops, he created the illusion of multiple performers.
He told the 30 of us smart enough to show up, that the music he composed and performed was inspired by this particular 12-string guitar. He joked that the next time he was invited he’d just play banjo. (I might just take him up on that.)
Seabrook grew up near Gillette Stadium in Foxbrough, MA, about 20 miles south of Boston. Some of his older musician friends went to UMass, so while still in high school he’d come out to western Mass on weekends to play house parties and other assorted gigs. So even though the last time Seabrook performed in the area was in 2019 with Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple-Double, he has spent time in the Valley and knew his way around. One of those UMass friends, Kevin Delano, made the trip from Attleboro with his wife and son. For Kevin and his cohort, Seabrook is like the sandlot teammate who made it to the pros. He was demonstrably proud and marveled at Seabrook’s intrepid instincts and mind-boggling dexterity.
Seabrook has a well-developed sense of humor. At his insistence, his vocal mic had lots of reverb on it. He mused what it would be like to have that be his voice at home. “No” he bellowed into the microphone, followed by a much meeker “yes”. The titles of his pieces: “Historical Importance of Eccentricity”, “Perverted by Perseverance”, “Gawk Fodder”, “Some Recanted Evening”, reflect his whimsical nature. Here is his piece “Gondola Freak”. When he played it in Holyoke, he dedicated his performance to Jazz Shares Vice President Priscilla Page and yours truly.
Seabrook, now 40, is becoming an essential member of a generation of forward-thinking wunderkinds; he’s already collaborated with many of them. His trio with Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver has produced two fantastic releases on Astral Spirits. His 2023 Pyroclastic release, brutalovechamp, written for octet, “demonstrates Seabrook’s remarkable abilities as a composer and conveys the breadth and imagination of his palette,” writes Stuart Broomer.
Seabrook’s virtuosity as a string player is firmly established, and his composing and bandleading skills are fast catching up. Like half of the artists we present these days, Seabrook now lives in Brooklyn, not so far from us here in western Massachusetts. We look forward to seeing his development up close in the years ahead.
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