Two Piano/Viola/Drums Trios back to back

[Steve Reynolds]

September 4th & 5th

Greenwich House on the 4th:

Ches Smith Trio with Craig Taborn & Mat Maneri

Cornelia Street Cafe on the 5th:

Kris Davis Trio with Tyshawn Sorey & Mat Maneri

Should be very exciting shows

[.:.impossible]

Cool

[Steve Reynolds]

I've seen the Ches Smith trio twice - I think they have only played those two times. First time March 2013 and then in January of this year.

The 2013 show was 2 sets @ Cornelia Street Cafe and was probably the best live show I saw last year. The one set show @ Winter Jazz Fest was fine albeit in a poorer room sound wise and did not come close to the heights the trio reached during especially the second set @ Cornelia Street. There were 2 or 3 passages during that second set that were beyond what I thought was possible even from those 3 guys. Taborn was a controlled orchestra on the baby grand, Smith was in power mode and Maneri played unlike his normal self in that he focused on sounds almost bass like and the heavy riffs were almost drone like and as I wrote before, it was almost like a doom metal intensity. Not for the feint of heart, but I remember they seemed stunned at the result and the crowd was nuts. I so wish those sets were recorded and released.

[Steve Reynolds]

One week from tomorrow!!

Dying for live music as the last live show for me was July 25th!!!!

[Steve Reynolds]

One hour from show time

With a friend who has never heard Ches, Mat or Craig

Get Ready to Receive Yourself

[Steve Reynolds]

This time they played two extended compositions by Ches Smith rather than freely improvising as they did the first two times they played together in from if an audience. The first a bit over 30 minutes, the second slightly shorter.

Trying to figure where these melodies come from leaves me wondering as they were seemingly familiar like they should be standards of some sort from some sort of musical idiom that doesn't yet exist.

This is simply music that never existed in any realm before last night unless they rehearsed it. Maybe slightly more subdued during the quieter passages than the free improvisation version, and of course as with most fine compositionally based music from the broad scope of avant-garde/free jazz of these times, the improvising and written elements are so organically integrated with each other that they are one.

Taborn was his masterly self and Smith is a precise dynamic drummer with no wasted histrionics of any sort and they both love this band.

I will venture to say they love it mostly because of the mysterious man who sits between them. With a cap and odd shades, Mat sat looking forward but spun and danced in his chair and rocked back and forth and even once was resting his head on the side of the grand piano. He played these new melodies like he grew up with them. Loved them. Caressed them. Altered them. Deconstructed or even destroyed them.

Gonna be hard to sleep for a bit here despite a longish ride home through unexpected traffic and a nice very late dinner now that I am laying here still taking what I heard from the trio, but even moreso than usual for me, what I heard Mat Maneri play during the hour they were on stage.

And I see him again tonight, this time for two sets / could he possibly be this great again?!?! He usually is but last night may have been a new peak.

I often close my eyes during part or even up to half of a performance but last night, I couldn't stop the hearing or seeing, he was so immersed and connected.

And when he played bass lines and they reached a few post bop groove moments, it was a surreal as it was when the pedal was down, and the room shook with some skronk for the ages.

When the Ship Goes Down

[Leeway]

Wooo, sounds good! Taborn is someone to see in concert, hard to always get what he can do strictly from record. Ches has played with some fo the most demanding/advanced ensembles. And Mat continues to define the viola/violin world in improv.

[Steve Reynolds]

Plus Ches' compositions for this trio last night were very special. Perfect for Maneri & Taborn.

I'm well rested for tonight. I wonder if tonight will be free improvisation.

[Steve Reynolds]

Only complaint was that the first set was as the second set should be.

And as a few years ago, once I thought Craig Taborn was the ultimate pianist to cohabitate in the world of Mat Maneri, it seemed for at least the first set that no pianist melds better with his viola than Kris Davis. John Tilbury's touch with ultimate precision and the patience of the proverbial saint.

Tyshawn did it again, swinging like a motherfucker without swinging one bit.

No charts tonight and Mat didn't know until he got there at 8:15. So if she had brought some music, it would have been played on the spot. I'm now curious if the Ches Smith trio ever rehearsed the music they played on Thursday night.

Last night it was altogether rougher and more astringent and at times a very challenging listen. As to be expected, the quiet moments were very quiet and Davis has some sort if magical ability to make something out of almost nothing.

I will pray (and I do pray) that one day I might come up with some apt words for what Mat played last night - but for now I have none.

I told the guy recording/videoing that in a better more sane world, whatever that machine now has inside it should be worth millions.

And Mat Maneri one day might be able to quit his day job - talk about insanity?!?!?

Let The Horse Go

Edited September 6, 2014 by Steve Reynolds