Myra Melford Residency

[Leeway]

Myra Melford Residency at The Stone, NYC. If all goes well, I'll be up there for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows. Some of Myra's great groups performing.

3/26 Thursday (KR)

8 pm

Crush Quartet

Cuong Vu (trumpet) Stomu Takeishi (bass guitar) Kenny Wollesen (drums) Myra Melford (piano)

10 pm

Be Bread Sextet

Cuong Vu (trumpet) Ben Goldberg (clarinets) Brandon Ross (guitar) Stomu Takeishi (bass guitar) Matt Wilson (drums) Myra Melford (piano)

3/27 Friday (EP)

8 and 10 pm

Same River Twice

Dave Douglas (trumpet) Chris Speed (tenor sax, clarinet) Erik Friedlander (cello) Michael Sarin (drums) Myra Melford (piano)

3/28 Saturday (KR)

8 and 10 pm

Snowy Egret

Ron Miles (cornet) Liberty Ellman (guitar) Stomu Takeishi (bass guitar) Ted Poor (drums) Myra Melford (piano)

[Chuck Nessa]

Great looking program. Hope to catch her with Trio M at Constellation in April.

[colinmce]

Holy crap. Enjoy!

[Steve Reynolds]

Brother in law birthday party ruined next Sunday night for me. Duo with Ehrlich is the vaunted Alive in the House trio.

Would love to be there Friday or Saturday night but I don't see it happening as I'm away and not back until late Thursday with a long day at work on Friday

[Leeway]

Yes, it's an incredible array of talent, enough to shake me out of my doldrums and get me on the road again.

[mjzee]

Article on Melford in today's WSJ: http://www.wsj.com/articles/review-of-snowy-egret-by-myra-melford-unusual-background-unusually-good-1427146956?KEYWORDS=melford

[colinmce]

Great! There is not enough love in the world to go around for Myra and her amazing music.

[relyles]

I may try to take the trip down Saturday.

[Leeway]

A quick update on last night's shows. Had a chance to watch Myra rehearse the band, She takes a lot of care to get her bands ready, but when the show starts, she radiates real joy in the performance. The knottier the music, the more she seems to relish it. You might get a chance to see for yourself, since she is being attended by a French (?!) video company which is filming and taping the shows this week.

Amazing that she is providing such a retrospective of her music. She noted that she toured with Crush Quartet back in 1999-2003, and here they were giving a vibrant performance. The highlight of the evening was the 2nd set, Be Bread Sextet, which filled out and expanded all the implications embedded in Crush. Some fabulous music, and the performances were thoroughly committed.

Tonight two sets from Same River Twice, which seems appropriate. BTW, the Snowy Egret disc is out. I picked up a copy and will have to wait until I get home to give it a proper listen.

[Leeway]

The Stone was packed for both shows last night of Same River Twice. In the scheme of things, this really appeared to be Melford's "classic" ensemble. The compositions, which struck me as having intellectual rigor as well as melodic richness, have stood up remarkably well. Very satisfying sets.

[AllenLowe]

she is very good, but I keep thinking this is a Sam Rivers tribute.

Edited March 28, 2015 by AllenLowe

[Leeway]

Hmm, I didn't think of that, Allen, but if so it's not a bad path to follow.

So I saw the two sets of Snowy Egret last night. The band was tight. One could tell that they have had time to rehearse. But it was a much different group than I saw at the Winter Jazz Fest. For one thing, Ron Miles was on cornet, as an original member of the group. rather than Ben Goldberg on clarinet, who was filling in. This created a totally different sound and feel, almost two different groups. The other big difference was that Tyshawn Sorey was on drums back in January, and Ted Poor was on drums last night. Poor was OK, but that's a deficit that is just not easily made up. Fortunately, Tyshawn is on the CD. Frankly, I preferred the January version of the band, although Miles played extremely well.

Just some overall highly subjective, in some cases blindingly obvious, observations:

>> Melford's ability to craft compositions that really stand-up over time was really on show these last few nights;

>> Her compositions tend to "feed the band" spreading out interesting twists and turns among all the members of the band, creating a true ensemble feel;

>> Maybe the converse of the above two observations is that the bands don't switch into improvisation mode very easily or often. It's about the compositions.

Who did I like in the 3 days and 4 bands? -some surprises maybe

(in order of preference, or first to last)

Trumpet/cornet:

--Ron Miles

--Cuong Vu

--Dave Douglas

Drums:

--Matt Wilson (I'm not a Matt Wilson fan either, but his performance with Be Bread might make me one)

--Michael Sarin (technically superb, but soul?)

--Kenny Wollessen (wielding the biggest brushes I've ever seen, plus they were blue! The drumming equivalent of plaid shirt and striped pants)

Strings:

Tough one. Erik Friedlander can be stunning on that Darth Vader black cello. Liberty Ellman has such talent and facility; he plays with easy virtuosity. Brandon Ross has such beautiful sound. But my pick is a bit off -the -wall, and that is Stomu Takeishi on the bass guitar, mainly because of how he prods and pulls the band with those deep bass notes. Often he was the band's point of interpretation for what Melford was doing on the piano, and they worked very closely during performances.

Ensemble:

Another tough call:

Be Bread - beautiful music and performance, soulful, committed.

Same River Twice - a little more rehearsal might have made a difference. This is a great band.

Snowy Egret -The "January version" would be hard to beat.

Crush Quartet - Any other composer would love to have a quartet like this, but it seemed a bit thin in this arena.

I really admire Melford for presenting these ensembles and compositions in retrospective mode. A very challenging effort, but quite successful I think. I found the music engrossing and enjoyable.

[OliverM]

Just saw her in duo with Ben Goldberg last sunday and left with their new "Dialogue" CD. Others in Europe should definitely check on them because they will be playing a few cities.