The Long, Winding Road: Two Brass Hit Plays Holyoke

The 24th and concluding concert of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares’ 13th season, featuring the cooperative quartet, Two Brass Hit, traveled a circuitous route to completion. The event, originally scheduled for January 16, hit its first speed bump when trumpeter Herb Robertson passed away suddenly on December 10. The concert was the brainchild of drummer Phil Haynes, and was to feature Robertson, fellow trumpeter Thomas Heberer and bassist Ken Filiano. Soon after Haynes enlisted Nate Wooley to replace Robertson, the drummer developed a serious health issue that forced a postponement. Finally, on June 18 at Holyoke Media the concert came to fruition. The spirit of Herb Robertson inspired some of the most impassioned playing of the year, and was the perfect note to end the season.

Subtitled “Herb Robertson Lives”, Two Brass Hit delivered a 70-minute clinic on the art of improvisation. After the show I asked Heberer if some of the material was worked out in advance. There were sections when the two trumpets swirled in harmonious, baroque-like counterpoint, which I was sure was pre-conceived. No, he told me, they were just listening and reacting to each other in real time.

Over his 40 year career, Haynes has a substantial history with the saxophone (Dave Liebman, Vinny Golia, Ellery Eskelin), and with strings (Drew Gress, Jim Yanda, Hank Roberts), but it seems he has developed a special relationship with the trumpet, and those who play it.

It began with trumpeter Paul Smoker (1941-2016), who was a mentor at Coe College in Iowa and the person most responsible for Haynes’ musical development and subsequent career success. Just after graduating in 1982, Haynes joined Smoker’s Trio. His recording debut with the Trio, QB, with Anthony Braxton, was named the #1 recording of 1985 by critic Kevin Whitehead. Young Haynes was soon part of  the composer’s cooperative, Joint Venture, (with Eskelin, Gress and Smoker), and continued to play with Smoker until his passing. He has made it his mission to keep the trumpeter’s legacy alive.

His relationship with Robertson spans 35 years and is also deep. “Herb Robertson revolutionized my approach to improvising,” Haynes wrote to bandmates before the concert. “I can listen back and hear my conceptual approaches before first working with Herbie – in Brooklyn, NY, around 1990 – and then everything I’ve done since.” Like Smoker, Robertson’s impact on the jazz world exceeds his place in the public eye. Here is the effect he had on Nate Wooley.

Wooley was the perfect stand in for Robertson. Although he didn’t employ Robertson’s bag of toys, his risk taking and off-the-chart chops were in keeping with the much missed New Jeresyan. A thought leader (see, Sound American) and a restless musician who has translated the Columbia Icefield into sound and reinterpreted Wynton Marsalis’ early Columbia recordings, Wooley never sounded less than amazing. There are things he does on his instrument that no one else can do, but his point is never to wow for wows sake, but to advance the music. He’ll be in Springfield on November 23 as a special guest with Jon Iragabon’s Quartet.

Thomas Heberer, Wolley’s equally gifted front-line partner, was a great match. They had played together in larger ensembles, but never in this intimate a setting. We remarked over dinner that while two tenor bands are common, two trumpet frontlines are rare, and when they do occur they are usually cutting contests. If you’re listening with eyes open it’s impossible not to compare players of the same instrument, but there was no hint of competition on Wednesday, only an energetic conversation that became deeper as the evening unfolded. At one point I opened my eyes wanting to know who was making a particularly arresting buzzing sound. Neither trumpeter had the instrument to his lips, and it took me a confused minute to realize Heberer was vocalizing. I’ve been beguiled by the German trumpeter since 2006 when he performed at UMass with the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. I was further smitten when I heard him perform alone with a dancer at the Vision Festival some years ago.

Filiano is a fixture. Because he brings so much musicality and good spirit to every band he’s part of, he often gets invited to participate. He’ll be back in January with Vinny Golia’s Trio. In fact, Filiano and Haynes go back 30 years to their time together in the Vinny Golia-Paul Smoker Quartet. Without resorting to strict time keeping, the rhythm team kept the pulse strong and the environment rich. There was ample space for different subsets of the quartet to interact, giving everybody a chance to showcase their considerable talents.

Haynes played his chocolate-brown, custom-made Ayotte drum kit, coaxing rich, beautiful  tones that matched the dark shells. In addition to playing with brushes, sticks and mallets, Haynes struck his instrument with a set of plastic strips in each hand, creating a rumbling cacophony played with a refreshing lack of precision. He was a constant source of creative energy and having fun in the process.

"The straight line is godless and immoral" said the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He believed that straight lines, often found in architecture and rational design, were constricting and devoid of the organic qualities found in nature and the human spirit. The path leading to this first performance by Two Brass Hit was anything but straightforward, and the music we heard in Holyoke overflowed with twists and turns. Maybe because of that the music sounded fully ripe.