Keep On Keepin' On: Anders Nilsson's Hesa Gun in Holyoke

How many bands are there in the jazz firmament committed to creating new work on a high level? I’m guessing hundreds, if not thousands, around the world. When you couple the limited number of paying gigs with a capitalist system that sucks resources to create a few “stars”, one gains a new appreciation for the fortitude it takes to make significant art in late-stage Amerika. 

I thought about that stacked deck as we hosted Anders Nilsson’s quartet, Hesa Gun (pronounced “goon”), on April 11 at Holyoke Media. The group: Sam Kulik (trombone), Dave Ambrosio (bass), Vinnie Sperrazza (drums) and Nilsson (guitar), all in their 40s and 50s, are piecing it together and continuing to make beautiful, thought-provoking music. With Brooklyn rents what they are, not to mention the obligations of adulthood (including raising children), devoting the time necessary to make meaningful music requires both talent and perseverance.

Sperrazza told shareholder Ron Freshley that the band had four, 4-hour rehearsals in advance of Saturday’s concert. That represents a big (unpaid) investment in getting it right. And get it right they did. The 90-minute set flew by, with the quartet navigating Nilsson’s inventive compositions like they were their own.

It was big of Nilsson to allow Sperrazza to have the first spotlight, with the drummer tossing off understated drum fills on the slowly evolving “Synopsis”. That was followed by “Let’s Have a Dance Party”, where the drummer laid down a funky backbeat in support of Nilsson, who danced over the fretboard with ease, while Kulik supplied a growling gutbucket groove. Nilsson listens to a lot of Brazilian music at home, which inspired, “Laugh or Cry”, based on a 19th century song form called “choro”. Nilsson’s original borrowed the choro rhythm, while he colored the melody with modern notes and harmonies. The strong writing throughout the concert was matched by virtuosic playing and spirited delivery.

Anders Nilsson has a light touch as a band leader. He didn’t hog solo space or dominate the proceedings and was low-key while guiding the band through his intricate compositions. Born in Eslöv, Sweden, a town of about 20,000 people in the southern part of the country, Nilsson came to New York in 2000 and never left. His close relationship with Barbès, the Brooklyn club that hosts jazz and music from around the world, has shaped his current interests. I met him in 2014 when he performed in Greenfield with the Fay Victor Ensemble. He is extremely facile on guitar, and I’m guessing he has long blown past 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Yet despite his considerable chops, honed in rock, metal, and jazz settings, Nilsson never played louder or played more notes than necessary. There was no guitar-hero grandstanding.

Sperrazza hails from Utica, NY, the same city that gave the jazz world JR Monterose and Jimmy Wormworth. From his undergraduate days at William Patterson University, where he was mentored by pianist James Williams, to his current work with Ember (Caleb Curtis, Noah Garabedian), Hank Roberts and the Mark Morris Dance Group, a through line for the drummer has been teaching and writing. His Substack Chronicles is filled with insights about jazz and the people who make it, and he has the first two chapters of a book on the evolution of jazz drumming written. Sperrazza is from the talkers, a charismatic guy who loves music and the people who make it; he was fun to talk to. His stage presence had similar energy, and his playing, puckish and inventive, was always in service to the compositions. Peak Inn, his first recording as a leader, was released in 2008 and features pianist Jacob Sacks and Dave Ambrosio.

Ambrosio led a quintet called Civil Disobedience at the Iron Horse the day after his work with Hesa Gun. That project showcases jazz composers from the late 1960s Blue Note Era, and featured Donny McCaslin, Jason Palmer, Bruce Barth and Rudy Royston. They’ll be at Joe’s Pub on June 11. He is conversant with Afro-Cuban batá drumming, and co-leads Grupo Los Santos, a band that incorporates tap dancing, flamenco, jazz, Brazilian and Cuban music, so Ambrosio is comfortable in a variety of settings. He nailed his bass lines with aplomb, subtle yet self-assured.

I got to know Sam Kulik through his father, Stephen Kulik, who represented the 1st Franklin District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1993-2019. Steve was a jazz lover, a big WMUA fan and a supporter of live music. When he passed in 2022, he asked people to donate to Jazz Shares in his memory, and Suzanne Kulik remains an active Jazz Shares member. Suzanne also got to see her son in action last year when Sam played with Moppa Elliot’s quintet, Advancing on a Wild Pitch. The trombonist sounded fantastic in the context of Nilsson’s open compositions, freely employing a range of sounds and techniques. We had the added bonus of spending time with Sam’s partner, Emily and their daughter, Eo.

“Thank you for the priceless chance to dive into music and share it with this community, very organic and sincerely felt,” Nilsson wrote after the concert. “An audience that embraced over an hour and a half of music they’ve never heard, played by people they are just meeting!”

That’s why we do what we do.