Old and New Friends: New Origin Trio in Easthampton

The circle got stronger and wider on November 3 when the New Origin Trio paid a visit to Easthampton. Bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Harvey Sorgen are long-time friends of mine who have made multiple appearances in western Massachusetts over the years. The French clarinetist Christophe Rocher was unknown to me before Friday. Solidifying connections while making more of them, that’s how things stay healthy in the jazz world.

Whenever Fonda recommends a band for Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares, I listen. His track record is impeccable, and this cross-cultural trio is a real band, with a 10 year history and a 2019 recording. The fact that I didn’t know Rocher, means little; even knowledgeable North America jazz fans have little idea who is doing what outside our borders.

Fonda and Sorgen met Rocher in his hometown of Brest, a port city in Brittany, in northwestern France. Rocher, and his wife, Janick Tilly, have been producing jazz festivals and related events in the region for many years, and Fonda and Sorgen were regular participants. When the three first played together, the sparks flew and the rapport was instant.

After a few days rehearsing at Sorgen’s place in Woodstock, NY, New Origin kicked off an eight city tour at the Blue Room at CitySpace in Easthampton. They played all new material, written by each of the band members, which will be recorded at the conclusion of the tour.

Some of the compositions featured jagged, off-kilter lines that never wavered. Other pieces skirted convention while exuding calm and charm. Most of the evening featured brilliant improvisation from three skilled veterans. Fonda explained to me that the written elements could be introduced by any member at any time. Often, an emphatic bass line would emerge, resulting in a shift in mood or feel, and the others would respond.

Fonda and Sorgen work together regularly. They provided rhythm at Jazz Shares concerts for Karl Berger in 2014 and Marilyn Crispell in 2020. As is typical for a Fonda/Sorgen rhythm section, the energy was high. Both would vocalize their enthusiasm from time to time in the form of yelps, whoops and hollers. During one steaming section, Fonda exhorted Sorgen not to stop swinging; “keep going”, Fonda implored, “don’t stop”.

For his part, Rocher blew every which way through his clarinet, including backwards through the bell of his horn, and sideways through the keyholes of his instrument. It didn’t strike me as a gimmick, but as an attempt to coax new sounds from an instrument invented over 300 years ago. At one otherworldly point, Rocher rubbed the bell of his clarinet on the stage in a circular motion, creating a whirling moan that he augmented by playing another clarinet “conventionally”.

In a review of New Origin’s self-titled disc on Not Two Records, writer John Sharpe referred to “the marvelous interplay between the threesome...Fonda and Sorgen are masters of a restless conversational swing which can take flight in any direction, with nowhere off limits, while Rocher shows himself to be their equal in his unbridled creativity and plentiful technique.” Sharpe nailed it.

Rocher played the typical B-flat clarinet, its smaller cousin, the E-flat clarinet, and the 4.5-foot bass clarinet. The latter, I’ve been told, has the widest range of any wind instrument. Rocher, trained as a computer engineer and in European classical music, is a master networker. He has invited musicians from all over the world to Brest, and he has travelled extensively in the U.S., making special connections through an ongoing project called “The Bridge”, a transatlantic exchange program featuring musicians from Chicago and France. One manifestation of Rocher’s Bridge work is a fantastic 2017 recording he produced and played on called Wrecks, with an ensemble that includes Jeff Parker, Tomeka Reid, Rob Mazurek and Nicole Mitchell among the Chicagoans.

The beauty of improvised music is it circumvents difference by using sound, not words. Instrumentalists who have little in common can communicate through music, if the spirit moves. Age, spoken language and country of origin are not barriers for musicians. Christophe Rocher, Joe Fonda and Harvey Sorgen are bridge builders, making new origins, enlarging circles, taking risks, comfortable not knowing exactly how it will turn out.

Catching Up with the Max Johnson Trio

After spending almost 48 hours with Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba Ensemble, who were in town earlier in the week, we had scant time with Anna Webber (tenor sax/flute), Michael Sarin (drums), and the leader, Max Johnson (bass), who performed on October 26 in Easthampton, MA. While the short visit made for easy logistics, that’s not how I prefer it.

Along with the music itself, of course, the time spent eating, drinking and socializing with musicians, what we often call, “the hang”, is one of the payoffs for doing the work of producing concerts. The opportunity to interact with my musical heroes is both motivation and tonic for me. By organizing public performances, I become a small part of the great historical flow of creative music in North America.

After a gig in Philadelphia the night before, the Trio arrived at the beautifully refurbished Blue Room in Easthampton’s old town hall in time for sound check and a quick meal imported from Daily Operation. They left after the show to crash at Webber’s Greenfield headquarters, leaving precious little time to trade stories and catch up on news and jazz scuttlebutt.

But the music was all there, being road tested for a December recording session. After a performance at Firehouse 12 in New Haven the next day, the trio is off to Germany, Austria and Slovenia for eight concerts, before heading back to New York for another live show and the recording. The music should be well lived in by then.

These compositions, much of it recently penned by Johnson, were so new most didn’t yet have titles; Johnson encouraged us to come up with names for them. Many featured intricate heads played in unison by bass and saxophone, some at impossibly fast tempos. As impressive as their technical skills were, it was the melodicism and coherency of the pieces that brought nods and wows from the assembled.

The sophistication of the written music should come as no surprise. Johnson is an accomplished composer, having written dozens of chamber music and vocal pieces in the European classical tradition. He is now enrolled in a PhD program in composition at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is studying with Tyshawn Sorey and others. Johnson is also a first-call bass player in the bluegrass tradition, having performed with artists like David Grisman, Sam Bush, Molly Tuttle, the Travelin' McCourys, Chris Thile, and others. Perhaps the accessibility of his complicated jazz pieces results from his immersion in American roots music.

Johnson’s deep, woody sound on the bass complemented Webber’s strong effort on saxophone and flute. Her phrasing, full of short syncopated bursts and redolent of blues and bebop, infused the evening with jazz essence. On one (unnamed) piece, her precise, masterful use of split tones over the rhythm section’s steady pulse was oh, so musical. Over the last few years we’ve been lucky to see Webber with her Simple Trio (John Hollenbeck and Matt Mitchell), her duo with Eric Wubbels (live streamed from Amherst Media), and as part of David Sanford’s big band. She has always had chops, but she has added a restraint and ebullience that gives added depth to her ideas. Besides her busy touring schedule, the 38-year old Webber is now co-chairing the Jazz Department at the New England Conservatory of Music. She’ll next perform in the Valley on March 17 at the Shea Theater, leading her new ensemble, Shimmer Wince.

What a treat to hear Michael Sarin twice in a month. He was here October 1 with Jeff Lederer’s Septet, but in this stripped down format he really had a chance to shine. He was a whirlwind, changing sticks, picking up rattles and bells, constantly adding color while pushing the ensemble. But as busy as he was, he was never louder than the music demanded, and his shifting rhythmic palette constantly refreshed and reinvigorated the music. It was hard not to focus on him.

I first met Max Johnson during the depth of the pandemic, when Jazz Shares produced a live streamed concert at Amherst Media featuring the James Brandon Lewis Quartet. It was an atypical visit, to say the least. And even though our time together on Thursday was brief, Max Johnson and his trio renewed my faith in the vitality of creative music today. Only 33 years old, the bassist is one of a number of young musicians carving out a life for himself in music. Resourceful, multi-dimensional and right-minded, Johnson has a lot to offer the music world. I hope he continues to include western Massachusetts on his itinerary, and at some point, stay awhile.

Pulling In the Same Direction: Michele Rosewoman & New Yor-Uba Celebrates 40 Years

Ah, to be on a team again. I grew up playing baseball in high school and college, and since those days I’ve missed the camaraderie and bonding that comes from the pursuit of a common goal. The last two days, spent in service to pianist and composer Michele Rosewoman and her New Yor-Uba Ensemble, felt like I was part of a team again.

With the help of a New England Foundation for the Arts grant, Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares hosted Rosewoman’s 11-piece juggernaut on October 23 and 24. On Tuesday, the musicians and our family of music lovers organized a transcendent day of music and scholarship in Holyoke and Springfield. We introduced our visitors to the wonders of western Massachusetts, cooked for the musicians and relied on Jazz Shares members to offer home stays for the band. Sharing meals and roofs brought us together in furtherance of art, culture and community. Sometimes it takes a village to produce a concert.

With the help of scholars Ivor Miller and Priscilla Maria Page, we organized an afternoon presentation at Holyoke Media, a beautiful, well equipped new community space. A combination lecture, interview and musical demonstration, the event focused on the rich history of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and Rosewoman’s innovations bringing that tradition into the jazz world. The program featured Rosewoman, along with singers and percussionists Román Díaz, Rafael Monteagudo, Abraham Rodriguez and Roger Consiglio.

The evening concert at the Community Music School of Springfield was a crowning achievement for Jazz Shares. That it fell on my 69th birthday gave special resonance to the proceedings and confirmed the rightness of my chosen career path.

Playing selections from their two releases: Hallowed and 30 Years-A Musical Celebration of Cuba in America, New Yor-Uba delivered a 90-minute tour de force, bringing together the power of the spiritual realm, the virtuosity of accomplished musicians, and the inspiration of a visionary composer and organizer.

Since New Yor-Uba’s 1983 debut at the Public Theater in New York, Rosewoman’s concept has continued to get tighter, the arrangements more elaborate, and the vision clearer. She originally built the band around the legendary Orlando “Puntilla” Rios, a percussionist and a major holder of Afro-Cuban cultural and religious knowledge. His last public performance with New Yor-Uba was a 2007 Magic Triangle Series concert I produced at UMass. Since that time, the role of linchpin has been carried by Román Díaz, “El Maestro”, who not only anchors the rhythm section, but grounds the ensemble with his extensive understanding of the roots of African music in Cuba. He is perhaps the leading practitioner of Afro-Cuban religious music outside of Cuba.

The core of New Yor-Uba is the percussion section: pianist Michele Rosewoman, bassist Yunior Terry, trap drummer Robby Ameen, and hand drummers Román Díaz, Rafael Monteagudo, Abraham Rodriguez, Roger Consiglio. The interlocking rhythms of the three sacred, two-headed batá drums were integral to the music, as were the vocals of Díaz, Monteagudo, Rodriguez, Consiglio and Rosewoman who sang beautifully in praise of the orishas (the spirits of the Yoruba people of West Africa and the diaspora).

Those percussionists formed the bedrock upon which Rosewoman’s very hip horn arrangements and the individual soloists rested. Those horn players: Alejandro Berti (trumpet), Greg Osby (alto, soprano sax), Stacy Dillard (tenor sax) and Chris Washburne (trombone, tuba), soared over the traditional chants and rhythms offered in honor of the deities.

The musical highlights in Springfield were many. At one point during “The Heart of It (for Chango)”, the band dropped out, leaving the batá drummers spinning endless permutations of perfectly overlapping rhythms. The crowd burst when the band reentered was loud and justly deserved. The concluding selection, “Vamp For Ochun”, an oft recorded Rosewoman original that serves as an unofficial theme song, had a funky angular drive that brought another eruption from the 100 gathered. The horn soloists were all outstanding, especially the legendary Greg Osby and the up-and-coming Stacy Dillard.

All evening the tempos changed, the grooves morphed, and riffs entered and exited with precision. Band members told me how clear and well written Rosewoman’s charts were. So a few rehearsals and two September performances at Dizzy’s Club in New York were all that was needed for the band to gel. After their visit to western Massachusetts, they had multi-day stops at Boston University and the First Congregational Church in Old Lyme, CT. What a wonderful way to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary.

Michele Rosewoman, who turned 70 in March, is a pioneer in the fusion of Latin music and jazz. That tradition, of course, is woven into the very essence of jazz, what Jelly Roll Morton called “the Latin tinge”. In the 1940s, the innovations of Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Mario Bauza, Chico O’Farrill, and others, injected new rhythmic complexity into jazz. Rosewoman’s contribution has been to bring the sacred rhythms and chants of Santaria, an important Cuban religious practice, into the jazz realm.

At the CMSS they performed, “Natural Light (for Obatala)”, where the deep chants, the ancient drums, the snap crackle of hi-hat and snare, the modern horn arrangements, along with Rosewoman’s jazz drenched piano, all combined to produce a true melding of cultures. No wonder she was just honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by M3 (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians) at the Jazz Museum of Harlem.

M3 was founded by vocalists and activists Jen Shu and Sara Serpa as a means to elevate women and non-binary musicians. How appropriate then, to honor Rosewoman, a woman who has created her own thing, who has persevered in sharing her vision of preserving and advancing the rich tradition of Afro-Cuban jazz.