Burgeoning Composer in Action: Ingrid Laubrock's Lilith

“During the last decade saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has been steadily expanding her reach as a composer, devising new ways to inspire, organize and situate improvised music”, writes Peter Margasak in the liner notes to Laubrock’s most recent recording, Monochromes. Margasak’s point was beautifully illustrated for 60 intent listeners who filled the Perch at Hawks & Reed on March 14. The 53 year old German tenor and soprano saxophonist brought Lilith, her sextet of promising younger musicians to Greenfield for a set of highly charged originals.

On stage behind Lilith was a dramatic set design for Gorgons, a play produced by Human Agenda Theater that was between weekend performances. Giant paper mache forms were attached to the walls, interspersed with sculpted human figures and enigmatic equations written in chalk. I think the set’s baffling effect improved the sound quality while reinforcing the additive quality that comes with combining different art forms. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if musicians could consistently play in theaters after closing night, before sets were struck?

The music flowed from piece to piece, all unnamed and played without pause, in a suite-like trance lasting about 75 minutes. The compositional frames Laubrock built were sturdy, with open floor plans, allowing the band: Yvonne Rogers (piano), Dave Adewumi (trumpet), Adam Matlock (accordion), Eva Lawitts (bass) and Henry Mermer (drums), plenty of room to stretch their improvising chops, which were considerable.

Some of her pieces featured tricky heads at quick tempos; others unfolded as slowly as dawn, with elegant melodies emerging through an expanse of open time. Laubrock’s burgeoning reputation as a composer has been confirmed in recent years. Her piece, Vogelfrei, was nominated 'one of the best 25 Classical tracks of 2018' by The New York Times. She won the Herb Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Composition 2019, and has received a slew of composing commissions from the BBC Glasgow Symphony Orchestra, Bang on The Can, American Composers Orchestra, Tricentric Foundation, SWR New Jazz Meeting, Wet Ink, and the EOS Orchestra, among other organizations.

Her writing gave form to the improvisations, which were played by individuals or by groups of two or three. The applause after most solos gave the proceedings a jazz feel despite the new music vibe that permeated the evening. Matlock, who studied with Margaux Simmons at Hampshire College, had a particularly mesmerizing unaccompanied solo full of stuttering bursts of air amid pastoral fragments of melody. His work throughout anchored the music, and the unique sonority of his instrument lent the music a folkish, old world feel. Roger’s delicate approach to the piano had a jewel-like quality that was interrupted by a welcome foray of force on her one extended solo. Like all her bandmates, she had a very sophisticated understanding of harmony and rhythm.

Lilith came together last year at the behest of jazzahead!, a large, annual festival and trade fair in Bremen. Germany, who asked Laubrock to put together a new ensemble. She knew trumpeter Dave Adewumi from Jason Moran’s Harlem Hellfighter’s project, and the two horns created a strong front line that sparred playfully and delivered punchy lines in unison. An up and comer, Adewumi was awarded 1st prize in the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition in 2019, and can be found on recordings by Dave Douglas and Remy Le Boeuf.

The rhythm team of Lawitts and Mermer rooted the band, providing both textural depth and a flexible swing feel. Everyone in the ensemble were crack musicians who could read and interpret, adding their personal voice to Laubrock’s complex compositions. By the time they perform, and then record this work at Firehouse 12 in New Haven two days hence, we should have another fully formed statement of consequence from Ingrid Laubrock. 

Tickling the Ivories: A World of Piano

A World of Piano, a series of three solo concerts, celebrated its 13th season at the Arts Trust Building in Northampton, February 23-25, as Alexis Marcelo (Friday), Kris Davis (Saturday) and Rob Schwimmer (Sunday) each gave a stirring lesson in how to construct a solo recital. The series was a collaboration between Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares and the Northampton Center for the Arts.

The piano is at once a string instrument and a percussion instrument, able to play chords and single notes, handle bass chores, utilize counterpoint and alter it’s sound by preparing its innards. The piano’s orchestral-like versatility makes it a uniquely rich device for an unaccompanied performer. A World of Piano takes its name from a 1962 Phineas Newborn album, and these three accomplished musicians afforded us a chance to hear their wildly personal takes on the ever expanding jazz tradition.

Alexis Marcelo spent the second half of the 1990s at UMass, where he was mentored by Dr. Yusef Lateef. In 2001, when I presented Brother Yusef at the UMass Magic Triangle Series on his 80th birthday, he insisted on having Marcelo in the band (alongside Von Freeman, and former students Tim Dahl and Kamal Sabir.) While still a youngster, the late, great multi-instrumentalist brought Marcelo to Europe to perform with his ensemble and featured him on multiple recordings. He has also formed a strong association with percussionist, and long-time Lateef collaborator Adam Rudolph, with whom he tours and records. Marcelo began his concert with the gospel tune “Let Us Break Bread Together”, which set the tone for a soulful and uplifting evening of music. The rest of the recital included an Afro-Peruvian melody, George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun”, and a number of distinctive Marcelo originals which were highly percussive, rhythmically provocative, and full of pleasing melody. His anxiously awaited recording debut as a leader, a solo outing on the well-respected Swiss label, Intakt, was delayed by his work in Anthony Davis’ celebrated opera, “X”, which recently concluded a two-month run at the Metropolitan Opera.

Kris Davis treated a full house of listeners to a daring and bracing concert that featured a healthy dose of improvisation and a clear demonstration of her prowess at the keyboard. Her use of metal objects on some of the piano strings expanded her sound palette, transforming the piano into a dampened, buzzing kalimba-like instrument. Her repertoire ranged from references to 20th century classical music to Monk’s “Evidence”. Davis’ profile has risen precipitously in recent years, due to her expanding discography, her respected record label and her work at the Berklee School of Music. She has 25 recordings as a leader, and has contributed to dozens more by folks like Ingrid Laubrock, Eric Revis and Tom Rainey. Her latest with the cooperative ensemble Diatom Ribbons, was recorded live at The Village Vanguard with Terri Lyne Carrington, Val Jeanty, Julian Lage and Trevor Dunn. That record was released on Pyroclastic, a label she founded in 2016 that has produced over 30 albums by some of the most forward looking jazz artists of the day. She is the Associate Program Director of the Berklee Institute For Jazz and Gender Justice, and with fellow pianist Angelica Sanchez, is creating The International Music Creators and Collaborator Workshop, a one-week program for emerging musicians that will host its first season at Bard College in June.

A World of Piano concluded on Sunday afternoon with a riveting performance by Rob Schwimmer, who also appeared in the series in 2008. He arrived in the Valley in time to share Saturday dinner with Kris Davis, with whom he collaborated on Noah Preminger’s 2019 release, Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert. It was fun to watch them geek out and “talk piano”. Schwimmer, who possesses one of the quickest wits I’ve been around, played theremin on Preminger’s recording and is an acknowledged master of the instrument. Unfortunately, he did not play it in Northampton. Schwimmer has a most intriguing resume. Although not as well-known as his talent would suggest, he has traveled the world with Simon & Garfunkel, and performed with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin, Willie Nelson, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chaka Khan, Laurie Anderson, Bette Midler and Queen Latifah, as well as a long list of jazz luminaries. With Bang On a Can’s Mark Stewart, he leads the hilarious and musically astute duo, The Polygraph Lounge, and has toured extensively with the Mark Morris Dance Company. Full of rhapsodic arpeggios and classical flourishes, Schwimmer provided a varied set that included Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence” and selections from the Great American Songbook. He told me that after hearing Davis’ Saturday concert full of avant adventures, he wanted to gear his performance in a more tonal direction.

For me, programming these piano concerts is so much fun. Trying to convey a sense of the wide world of jazz piano by finding balance and brilliance each season is a welcome challenge. No matter how many years we do this, we will never run out of great musicians willing to explore new facets of the keyboard universe.

Emerging Masters: Tomeka Reid Quartet and Tomas Fujiwara's 7 Poets Trio in Northampton

A lucky gathering of 110 western Massachusetts listeners got to witness first-hand the maturing of a cohort of highly talented musicians moving into mid-career, as the Tomeka Reid Quartet and Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio shared the stage at the Arts Trust Building in Northampton, MA on February 22. The concert -our first ever double-bill - was part of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares’ 12th season.

Cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Tomas Fujiwara were in each other’s ensemble. Vibraphonist Patricia Brennan was the third member of 7 Poets Trio, while guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Jason Roebke completed Reid’s quartet.

The five musicians in the two ensembles are all in their 40s, and over the past decade have blossomed into important figures in the jazz world. In addition to fellowships, awards and commissions, the five have amassed impressive discographies and garnered critical acclaim. Collectively, they are poised to advance the jazz language for decades to come.

Fujiwara’s trio, which performed first, featured his exquisite originals pulled from his new release, Pith. The drummer knew Brennan from their work together in Michael Formanek’s  Ensemble Kolossus, and Reid from their work in the cellist’s quartet, but Brennan and Reid had never played together before joining the trio, which first came together during Fujiwara’s 2018 Stone residency.

If there was a chamber-like quality to the work, it was a chamber music that included backbeats and agitated swing, as well as delicate, crystalline compositions. On the compact “Swelter”, for instance, a simple, insistent 4/4 cello line provoked a rock beat that evaporated into meter-less abstraction, before returning to the theme. “Solace” had a relaxed, inquisitive melody that loped along on the strength of Reid’s pizzicato bassline, which Brennan mirrored.

There was no soloing in the conventional sense. Brennan, Reid and Fujiwara all played the entire time, with each of them occasionally stepping forward to make a special point. The vibraphone, that most resonant of instruments, filled the space with notes that pulsed and lingered. In concert, it overwhelmed the cello and even the drums at times. All that is corrected on the recording, which allows us to easily hear each instrument.

The Tomeka Reid Quartet has been together since 2015 and has two recordings under their belt. While 7 Poets Trio was touring in support of their recent release, Reid’s group was field testing material generated by a 2021 Chamber Music America commission. After additional stops at Bowdoin College, Brown University, Real Art Ways (Hartford) and the Jazz Gallery (New York), the group will record the pieces we heard.

The pairing of guitarist Mary Halvorson and Reid is an inspired one. Whether playing unison lines or in darting counterpoint, the two MacArthur grant recipients commanded our attention. Having her fellow Chicagoan, Jason Roebke hold down bass chores freed Reid to explore melody and use her prodigious arco technique. I have seen Halvorson perform a dozen times and enjoyed every one of them. But Thursday was a peak experience. Her single notes were crisp and jazzy, and her pedal-induced extensions were used judiciously in service of Reid’s compositions. The Quartet swung from the bottom up and had an easy rapport, which made navigating Reid’s intricate pieces seem effortless.

Patricia Brennan is the most original vibraphonist to emerge in the last half-dozen years, and we have become quite fond of seeing her in the Valley. Thursday was her fourth Jazz Shares appearance in the last 2 ½ years, including a memorable evening at the IMA barn with her own quartet.

Tomas Fujiwara has created a full, thriving career on the strength of his fabulous drumming, formidable writing and band leading talents. Many of his projects, including Triple Double, The Hook Up, Thumbscrew and Illegal Crowns have graced western Mass stages over the years.

Jason Roebke’s new quartet recording on Corbett vs. Dempsey features the legendary Chicago reedman Edward Wilkerson, Jr. He has been a student and close associate of Roscoe Mitchell, and an indispensable colleague with some of Chicago’s most inventive musicians, including Mike Reed, Jason Stein, Fred Lonberg-Holm and  Jason Adasiewicz. He’s been recording as a leader since 2003.

Together with Tomeka Reid and Mary Halvorson, these musicians are creating work that is adding real value to the ever evolving jazz lexicon. They’re all hitting their stride at the same time, and I’m glad we get to hear their evolution on a regular basis.

Because of an email misinterpretation of the word “after”, we didn’t get a chance to break bread with the musicians, who were driving to Boston after the show. Without that valuable schmooze time, we didn’t get the full update on all that these five budding masters were up to. But from all indications they are active, in demand and up to great things. We listeners will be reaping the rewards for decades to come.