From the February 2012 issue of The New York City Jazz Record:
—
The term “groove-oriented” usually describes jazz of a funkier, danceable sort. But it’s not how many would categorize the maddeningly complex music of Vijay Iyer and his trio with bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore. Pulsing rhythm, however, has always played a significant role for Iyer, and at (Le) Poisson Rouge during Winter Jazz Fest (Jan. 7th) he brought the beat like never before, drawing on pieces from the forthcoming ACT release Accelerando. The atmosphere was just right: packed and sweaty crowd, eager for something new. Like a good DJ, Iyer reached back to 1977 with Heatwave’s “The Star of a Story,” shrouding the pretty chords and melody in a fragmented, bass-heavy pattern. “Lude,” with an almost imperceptible segue into “Optimism,” featured Iyer in a more pronounced soloing role, though the mix was too muddy at times to hear it well. “Actions Speak,” another original, closed the set at warp speed and allowed Gilmore time for a seal-the-deal drum solo. Hypnotic deconstructed rhythm was the focus, giving a consistent band sound to a set that ranged from “Hood,” inspired by Detroit’s “minimal techno” pioneer Robert Hood, to “Human Nature,” the Michael Jackson classic from Thriller. The latter, which led off Iyer’s 2010 disc Solo (and was once a concert staple for Miles Davis), got a thorough going-over from the trio, in a limping modified shuffle feel — a beat that seemed to hold together by nearly falling apart. (David R. Adler)
~
Surging and inescapable rhythm is what gives Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures Septet its broadly accessible and riveting sound. This much seemed clear to a late-night Winter Jazz Fest crowd at Zinc Bar (Jan. 6th), where Rudolph played a short but solid set with fellow percussionists James Hurt and Matt Kilmer, guitarist Kenny Wessel, acoustic bass guitarist Jerome Harris, reedist Ralph Jones and cornet/flugelhorn man Graham Haynes. An avant-garde theorist and student of musical traditions from around the world, Rudolph had a wealth of sounds available, and he used them brilliantly: lap-steel guitar from Harris on the opening “Oshogbo”; flute and muted cornet dissonance on the closing burner “Dance Drama”; Hurt’s melodica and Wessel’s ethereal effects at the opening of “Love’s Light,” a bluesy meditation; Jones on “Return of the Magnificent Spirits” making forceful statements on bass clarinet and Chinese hulusi (one of several Eastern wind instruments in Jones’ toolkit). Rudolph, standing behind his conga, tumba, djembe and other gear, drove the band with an effortless kind of polyrhythmic abstraction. The writing was loose but focused, with precise hits and carefully crafted themes — not unlike what we hear from Rudolph’s larger group, the Go:Organic Orchestra (which plays some of the same repertoire). Happily, the energy of this music translates onto disc: Rudolph’s latest releases, Both/And and The Sound of a Dream, are essential. (DA)
Comments are closed.