Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Vision Festival 2010: Day 6, June 28, 2010
Vision Festival 2010: Day 6, June 28, 2010
Marilyn Crispell, Joelle Leandre, Roy Campbell, Mat Maneri, Wadada Leo Smith, Gunter "Baby" Sommer, Joe Morris, Mike Reed
Vision Festival
Abrons Arts Center
New York City
June 28, 2010
With only three sets scheduled in the main auditorium, Monday evening at the Vision Festival was low on quantity but more than made up for that in terms of the quality on offer. Some of the few European artists at the Festival were to appear, in two infrequently sighted ensembles. French bassist
Joëlle Léandre
bassb.1951
Gunter Baby Sommer
drumsb.1943
Wadada Leo Smith
trumpetb.1941
Stone Quartet
First convened by Leandre as part of a series at The Stone in December 2006 curated by Bruce Lee Gallanter and Manny Lunch of Downtown Music Gallery, the Stone Quartet is rarely encountered anywhere, let alone New York City. Their initial performance, released as The Stone Quartet (DMG/ARC, 2008), gives a fairly accurate idea of what to expect: measured free improvisation, with all combinations explored without grandstanding. So it transpired this evening too, everyone's ego subsumed to the needs of the music. Extended technique was put at the service of the group approach. Even Leandre's theatrical side was held in check, though her animation was plain to see with an amazing array of expressions flitting across her face in response to the group interjections.
To begin
Mat Maneri
violab.1969
Marilyn Crispell
pianob.1947
Roy Campbell
trumpet1952 - 2014
Each member of the quartet transcended both their instruments and any preordained roles. It was a four way conversation between equals which each dipped into and dropped out of as the moment demanded, but with a cohesiveness which undermined any thought of randomness. Listening of the highest order was necessary to make this music work. At one point, Crispell sat carefully choosing when to re-enter, her hands poised above the keyboard for minutes before she thought better of it. The group operated across a wide dynamic range, meaning acapella spots emerged organically and then vanished just as quickly, as when Leandre's bass reverie was suddenly engulfed by the other three.
Highlights abounded, including a wonderful Maneri viola spot, constructed from sliding microtonal bowing, and a marvelous duet between the pianist and the bassist, which became a quickfire trio with Maneri's fleet-fingered skirling, then a foursome with Campbell's high whispering squeals. A sublime fourway discourse closed out the first section, with repeated two note arco phrase from Leandre forming a backbone against which Crispell fired runs and arpeggios, Campbell's muted trumpet stutters, topped by Maneri's sweeping legato. Overall it was a bracing start to the evening: a cerebral quartet music, almost austere at times in its purity.
Wadada Leo Smith/Gunter "Baby" Sommer—Touch the Earth II
AACM trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's last appearance at the Vision Festival in 2008 with his Golden Quintet was outstanding, and resulted in one half of the excellent Spiritual Dimensions (Cuneiform, 2009). Consequently his duet with German percussionist Gunter "Baby" Sommer was one of the most anticipated sets of this year's Festival. Their shared history goes a long way back. Together with departed German bassist
Peter Kowald
bass, acoustic1944 - 2002
Since Kowald's death, they decided to carry on collaborating together as a duo, but always leaving a space for the departed bassist. Perhaps that explains one of the reasons this pairing works so well: the use both make of silence, contrasting long pauses with exuberant tempests of sound. Evidence of their rapport can readily be found on their only release to date: Wisdom in Time (Intakt, 2007). However there is a further significant ingredient to their success, that goes beyond the musical, which is the visual element added by Sommer's theatricality, well in evidence this evening. While the German is not quite at the
Han Bennink
drumsb.1942
An explosive drum attack from Sommer matched by a brief vocal shout from Smith broke the anticipatory hush, which was then allowed to prevail again before the drummer essayed a more open soundscape of gongs and cymbals into which Smith interjected his annunciatory blues drenched trumpet. Sommer switched to brushes which he not only swept over his kit but swooshed through the air, creating phantom percussive components. Against this rolling cadence, the trumpeter engraved sustained tones. Like Sommer, he was very precise and deliberate in what he did, yet simultaneously inspired and even impetuous.
With his short cropped white hair, walrus moustache and expressive features, the German was already a charismatic presence, a quality only exacerbated by his playing antics. At one point he beat his kit with a shaker in one hand and what looked like a broom head in the other. He kept time in crisp bursts, occasionally with vocal shouts, which prompted the American to add some tongue clicks to his trumpet line, generating a reciprocal structure. After rising to strike a prayer bowl, the drummer moved away from his kit entirely, adding a spatial dimension to the show, with a gong which he struck and aired across the stage around the unperturbed, immobile but intensely focused American. Though undeniably entertaining, the sonic output of Sommer's capers was never less than integral to the performance.
While well versed in each other's idioms, their responses still avoided the obvious. So when Smith suddenly erupted with a raucous blast, Sommer's reaction was to stop, the ensuing silence allowing the trumpeter's fizzing overtones to reverberate. Then after that fleeting cessation he unleashed his own complementary onslaught, establishing a tremendous loping rhythm over which Smith burned with majestic fanfares. But again displaying a penchant for the unexpected, the brassman changed tack to gurgle, splutter and wheeze. Typical of all Smith's oeuvre, there was that compositional sensibility even in an extemporized context which distinguishes the great improvisors from the merely good. The audience agreed with a standing ovation after the first installment.
To much laughter, Sommer began the second piece by smiting his kit with the towel he had been using to mop his brow. In sympathy the trumpeter beat time on the floor with a mute. After a long interval the drummer launched a cantering tattoo against which Smith pitched distant muted trumpet, illustrative of the impressive use of volume as an expressive device by this duo. Sommer again augmented the musical with the visual (why are so many of the most visual performers European/non American?) by employing long red plastic tubes as drumsticks, later to be replaced by bright orange gourd-like shakers.
During a lull, the German inserted a whistle in his mouth and then blew a full on rhythmic barrage above the meter demarcated by the orange shakers, over which the trumpeter waxed incandescent, until they stopped as abruptly as their set started. It was a consummate end and elicited another standing ovation. Even with air conditioning in the hall it felt hot and Smith was clearly soaked in perspiration. Both men had put a lot into it and the only shame was that they weren't able to play for longer than 35 minutes. Nonetheless it was another of the festival's high points.
Azares
In the intimate setting of downstairs theater, Azares played between sets in the main stage. Leader Jean Carla Rodea has assembled an intriguing cast:
Joe Morris
bass, acousticb.1955
Gerald Cleaver
drumsb.1963
One worried for the vocalist's vocal chords as she screamed and rasped, her expressiveness matched with overblown screeches from special guest Mexican saxophonist Remi Alvarez. Highlights were a flowing solo of chiming single notes by the guitarist, and a fantastic tenor saxophone duet between Badenhorst and Alvarez, skronking away over pounding forward momentum, something Cleaver excels at (witness also his slow burning fuse in the trio with
Lotte Anker
saxophoneb.1958
Craig Taborn
pianob.1970
Eventually the intensity crested and we were into a more dreamy terrain in which Morris banjo plucks resonated between drifting tenor and bass clarinet and gently rumbling mallets on drums. Cleaver also threw in electronic sounds which blended so completely with the instruments that it took a while to realize where they were coming from. In a complete change of pace their succinct second number was a lyrical melodic line embellished and harmonized by voice, sax, arco bass, and guitar, like a cooling shower after the midday sun. Overall their set was a splendid and unanticipated pleasure.
Mike Reed's People, Places & Things
For the last set of the night, drummer/composer 
Mike Reed
drumsb.1974
Reed proved a busy active drummer, stoking the high velocity exchanges. During the introduction to Ward's "VS # 1," titled for Velvet Session at
Fred Anderson
saxophone1929 - 2010
Jason Roebke
bass
Jimmy Lyons
saxophone, alto1933 - 1986
To come on Tuesday was the final night of the Vision Festival at the Abrons Arts Center. It promised to be something of a celebration of drummer
Rashied Ali
drums1935 - 2009
Charles Gayle
saxophone1939 - 2023
William Parker
bassb.1952
Photo Credit
All Photos: John Sharpe
Prologue | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
Tags
Vision Festival
Live Reviews
John Sharpe
United States
Joelle Leandre
Gunter "Baby" Sommer
Wadada Leo Smith
Mat Maneri
Marilyn Crispell
Roy Campbell
Peter Kowald
Han Bennink
Joe Morris
Gerald Cleaver
Lotte Anker
Craig Taborn
Mike Reed
Fred Anderson
Jason Roebke
Jimmy Lyons
Rashied Ali
Charles Gayle
William Parker
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