February 28, 2013

University of Louisville Winter JazzFest: Amina Figarova Sextet & the Zach Brock-Aaron Goldberg Duo

I got to see a couple nice shows over the weekend. Both were part of the University of Louisville’s 2013 Winter Jazzfest.

*****

The Friday Night show was a performance by the Amina Figarova sextet.

Personnel: Amina Figavora (piano), Bart Platteau (flute), Ernie Hammes (trumpet), Marc Mommaas (tenor sax), Jeroen Vierdag (bass), and Chris Strik (drums).

Figavora Louisville 2Performing songs from Figarova’s latest release Twelve, the sextet kept the music lively with plenty of room for crowd-pleasing solos. However, the highlight of the show had to be the interplay between Figarova’s piano and Vierdag’s bass. Both rhythmically and melodically, listening to the duo’s conversation in the midst of the group play was like watching a pair of fireflies bend light on a starry evening. A hypnotic, dynamic affair.

Another highlight was the third part of Figarova’s “ocean trilogy” of songs from the new release. The trilogy opened with the amicable “Another Side of the Ocean,” then moved into the frenetic “Sneaky Seagulls,” but it was the way the group transitioned into the peaceful drift of “Shut Eyes, Sea Waves” that really clinched things. Also, their rendition of “Morning Pace” caught my ear… a Sunday morning serenity that filled the venue with a gentle warmth.

Speaking of that venue, the Figarova show was held at the Comstock Music Hall on the U of L campus. A horseshoe theater with a moderately expansive breadth and a slim upper deck, it appeared to be near about a full house with an enthusiastic crowd. It kills me when I go to a solid jazz show and witness sparse attendance. That wasn’t the case here. An impressive crowd that warmed my heart to see. Also, nice mix of people. It didn’t look like just another jazz crowd.

Figarova’s sextet is currently touring the USA’s southern states, with tour spurs to Colorado and New York. Visit Figarova’s site to see upcoming dates.

*****

The Sunday afternoon show was a duo performance of violinist Zach Brock and pianist Aaron Goldberg.

The show was held at the University of Louisville’s Bird Recital Hall, a shotgun theater that lent perfectly for the subdued ambiance of an acoustic performance of violin and piano.

Brock-Golberg Louisville 2013They played a mix of tunes from Brock and Goldberg releases, two Joe Henderson tunes (one was “Isotope” from Inner Urge, the other composition I can’t recall), and a charged rendition of Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Dream.”

Highlight of the show was a rendition of the title-track from Brock’s Almost Never Was, which Goldberg contributed to the studio version of, as well.

It was a mix of up-tempo and meditative tunes, with my preference leaning towards the latter of those two, but based on crowd reaction, the majority seemed to prefer the former. That crowd, actually, really got into the performance. Their desire to begin applauding and coaxing the duo on was palpable, as was their hesitation from doing so, not wanting to break the spell that the musicians set over the intimate venue.

Just the perfect kind of show for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Here’s a track from Zach Brock’s last recording Almost Never Was, from which a couple of the concert’s songs originated from…

And here’s a track from Aaron Goldberg’s Home, which they also pulled from for the show…

I link to both their sites above. Neither is in the middle of a tour, per se, but they do have upcoming dates, separately, in New York, and then later, Goldberg heads overseas for a tour while Brock heads West to tour with Phil Markowitz, so definitely check them out if they show up in your neighborhood.

Special thanks to the University of Louisville’s Mike Tracy for his contributions to making this excellent festival happen.


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October 5, 2012

Bill Frisell at the Clifton Center (Louisville, KY; 10/6/12)

Bill Frisell, one of music’s vanguard guitarists, will be in Louisville on Saturday, October 6th 2012.  Performing at the Clifton Center as part of the Afterbeat festival, Frisell will be performing two sets on the Eifler Theater Stage at 6:30pm and 8:30pm.

It’s listed as a solo performance, but considering that it’s a festival of like-minded artists, I wouldn’t be shocked to find a few musicians sit in with him.  However, if it’s just Frisell all by his lonesome for both sets, expect a magical show.

Show Details:

Clifton Center
2117 Payne Street
Louisville, KY 40206
(502) 896-8480
Here’s the page on the Clifton Center website with show details.

It’s a festival, so there’s a whole range of ticket prices depending on which event(s) and day(s) you wish to attend.  The prices seem to fall between $20-$50.  Here’s a page on the Center’s website for more about purchasing tickets.

At the bottom of this post is an embedded map to the site.

*****

While Bill Frisell is most associated with Jazz, his personal path in realizing his creative voice on guitar has caused him to transcend genre classification.  Understandably described as Americana Jazz, his music of the last ten years has steadily focused on his blending of folk, bluegrass, and jazz musics.  The result is an often serene, sometimes hypnotic, sometimes ominous sound that would do equally well as the soundtrack for a Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale or a lazy day on the back porch looking out over the fields.

Here’s a track from his last album (which I review HERE on my other site, Bird is the Worm)…

I’ve seen plenty of Frisell shows, and with a wide variety of personnel.  With his use of effects and looping, Frisell’s solo performances are anything but simple, but he doesn’t go so overboard as to sacrifice the intimacy that results from one musician all alone on stage with their instrument.  Expect a nice mix of original tunes, with a couple traditional covers and an odd one thrown in for good measure.  I’ll never forget the first time I heard him perform “Spoonful of Sugar” from Mary Poppins.  Frisell carries on a long and endearing tradition of jazz artists opening up new possibilities of traditional and older songs.

Here’s a video of a solo Frisell performance. I can’t promise that his show at the Clifton Center will sound anything like, but it does reflect his performance the last time I saw him perform solo several years ago.

Here’s a link to Bill Frisell’s site.

Here’s a link to the Savoy Jazz label site, for more information on Frisell recordings.

Map to Venue:


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September 19, 2012

São Paulo Underground – Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft (Louisville, 9/13/12)

This was dance hall music for the mosh pit crowd.

The was frenetic music with a thrilling groove… music with which to bounce off the walls of a tiny space.

This was celebratory music that wasn’t afraid to fight.

This was the São Paulo Underground.

Held at a nifty space at the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft in downtown Louisville, KY, the trio was set up on a low stage in a corner on the second floor of the museum, set amongst the hanging art and installations.  The lights of Main St. filtered into the room, but were drowned out by the video display of filmed scenes flickering behind the trio, mostly of busy city scenes or serene nature shots… which suited the music, an updated version of 1960s Tropicalia, blended with modern post-rock dynamic introversion, and boosted with a mad scientist mix of laptops, effects, looping, and electronica flourishes.

Your concert personnel:  Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics), Mauricio Takara (cavaquinho, drums, percussion, electronics), and Guilherme Granado (keyboards, loops, samplers, percussion).

They opened the show with Jagoda’s Dream.  It’s the same tune that starts their album Três Cabeças Loucuras, and it acted as a springboard into intense rhythms and jaunty melodies, live, just as it does on the album.

On coronet, Mazurek switched between frantic shrills over the percussive heat and woozy notes over gurgling drums and keyboards.  His choice of moments on when to raise his voice up and when to let the music flutter back down to earth was impeccable.  Mazurek switched to mute on a few occasions, and brought some cool breeze to a night of rhythmic heat.  He gave the flute a twirl a couple times, more for an ambient effect than anything else.

The thing of it is, even as coronet wails and drums explode and keyboard and effects jack up the music’s intensity, there’s an incessant groove that could facilitate some serious dancing from a serious crowd.

Best was the way the trio gelled with their respective voices, running parallel to one another, and then just coming together, where three parallel runners appear as one and it’s difficult to tell where one begins and the others end.  It’s that kind of coming together moments that make for a thrilling show.

Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft

It was fun to watch how the trio bopped along to the music.  Musicians don’t have to look like they’re into their own music for me to enjoy it, but it sure gets noticed when they do.  Speaking of the audience, it was a small but enthusiastic crowd, and it filled the performance area where the show took place.  The audience was a nice mix of old school jazz fans and new generation listeners.  The energy exchanged between musicians and audience was palpable.  There was an unmistakable cycle of enthusiasm churning throughout the hour-and-half that the Underground performed.

Pretty cool near the finale, at a particularly euphoric moment, when the intensity broke to a new peak and the film showed people marching down the street, then zoomed in one marcher who threw a kiss to the onlookers and raised his arms up in the air V for Victory.  It was a wonderful coincidence that couldn’t have been synched up better had it been planned that way.

It was symbolic of the entire show.

 


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September 15, 2012

Show Review: Peter Brötzmann-Jason Adasiewicz Duo

 

Was treated to a nice performance Monday night (9/10/12) in Lexington, KY.  The Peter Brotzman – Jason Adasiewicz Duo came through town and laid down a powerful show.

The pre-show rundown can be read, HERE, on Notes From The Holler.

 

The Embrace Church is a huge space.  The is an old school Southern church.  Dimly lit, high ceilings, wide room, lots of space.  Brotzmann stepped up and immediately filled it with sound.

First song, Brotzmann shot streaks of fire across the hall, sometimes to the effect of drowning out Adasiewicz.  It was near the end of that opening tune, however, that Brotzmann reigned it in a bit and the voices of both were heard on relatively equal terms.

Adasiewicz doesn’t appear to play his instrument so much as engage it in some martial arts competition.  The vibes can take a punch, a statement that Adasiewicz seemed determined to put to the test.  But it wasn’t just fighting words put to sound.  After the opening tune, Adasiewicz began an extended solo that stacked notes atop more notes, a hypnotically beautiful sound, like church bells calling out through a holiday snowfall.

Their stage presence is a lesson in contrast.  Adasiewicz is a whirlwind, arms flying, fists tattooing bars in resonant flurries, stepping back then pouncing yet again.  Brotzmann, on the other hand, hunches forward in a fighter’s crouch, knees bent, shoulders squared, and the chin tucked in.

Brotzman switched it up a bit on the reeds.  Adasiewicz went with two mallets, rolled a few notes, but it was his bowing technique that were consistently the high watermarks of his performance.  Maybe it was just how it differed so dramatically from Brotzmann’s forceful sound, but I’m thinking that even if he’d played all by his lonesome, Adasiewicz’s bowing would’ve been just as delicate and evocative.

I’ve said often how much I enjoy the pairing of vibes and guitar.  Well, coming in a close second is the vibes-clarinet pairing, especially when the clarinet hits the lower registers.  The crowd was treated to that combo during the second to last tune of the evening.

While it’s easy to revel in Brotzmann’s sonic explosions of centrifugal force, it’s also easy to forget how heartbreakingly sublime he can be when he strings notes together as if caressing a baby melody.  He did this to great effect on the performance-closer.

Big crowd, seats filled even up in the balcony.  And very enthusiastic.  When I hear shouts of encouragement from the cheap seats up high, then I know the crowd is into it.

Here’s a little audio from the performance.  It’s not a great recording, but will give you a sense of what was what…

(All rights remain with the artists.  They can do whatever they want with this audio.  It’s theirs.)

It’s the tail-end of their tour, so if you want to catch them, you either need to be headed in the direction of either Chicago or Texas.  Here’s a tour schedule on Adasiewicz’s site.

As always, a big thanks to Ross Compton, who continues to put on some excellent shows in Lexington.


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September 13, 2012

São Paulo Underground in Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington

A quick note of a series of shows I just learned about.  Sorry for the last minute nature of it, but this is music you should rearrange your schedule for.

(Roughly speaking) The São Paulo Underground is a mix of Jazz, Brazilian psychedelia, and post-rock motifs, all channeled through a mix of traditional jazz instruments, Brazilian-region instruments, and modern tech like laptops, sampling, and loops.  Oddly enough, the music is terribly catchy, sometimes danceable, and very very fun.  The seemingly convoluted mix of influences results in some very listenable and very happy music.

They will be playing tonight, April 13th 2012, at:

The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
715 West Main St.
Louisville, KY
(502) 589-0102
(Embedded map just below)

Doors open at 8pm.  Ticket prices range, but none cost more than $10.


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They’ll be in Cincinnati tomorrow night, Sept 14th 2012, at the Contemporary Arts Center.

And then they’ll return to Kentucky on September 22nd 2012, to Lexington for the Boomslang Festival.  I’ll be making another post about that in a few days.

Here’s a link to the Cuneiform Records label site for more tour information.

You can read an album review of their latest album Três Cabeças Loucuras at my other site, Bird is the Worm.

And here’s a track from their recent album…

 

-Cheers


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