Category Archives: Live reviews

Photos | The D.C. Jazz Loft Series at the DC Jazz Festival: Three nights of powerful improv and art

Posted on June 18, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Jamire Williams prepares for ERIMAJ’s performance at the D.C. Jazz Loft Blowout Show on June 15. Elliot Blumberg/CapitalBop

by Giovanni Russonello
Editorial board

The DC Jazz Festival spent the past two weeks drawing some tremendous jazz out of the District’s woodwork, and what a festival it was. From our biased standpoint, the highlight was CapitalBop’s very own, third annual D.C. Jazz Loft Series. It culminated on Saturday night in a jam-packed Blowout Show on H Street, where the great Karriem Riggins and ERIMAJ headlined at a pop-up dance hall and art gallery featuring Jati Lindsay’s inimitable jazz photographs.

The Washington Post has a kind review zeroing in on the statement that our Blowout Show made — by presenting these unbelievable artists, we aimed to show D.C. something about the unbreakable ties between present-day jazz and the parallel innovators in hip-hop, R&B and other popular genres. But hey, from the crowd’s resounding response and the awesome vibe in the place, it seems like you folks didn’t need to be told.

Earlier in the series, we set up a double-exhibition at Union Arts and Manufacturing (Four Days in May and DECON/RECON), in conjunction with a concert by the legendary Peter Brötzmann and Joe McPhee, stalwart improvisers who draw sounds from their saxophones that you’ve never imagined. They shared the bill with D.C.’s own Anthony Pirog. And the day after that, Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host — a band that’s supporting a fabulous and broadly acclaimed debut album, which sounds like a kitchen sink’s worth of alternative music, from death metal to soulful free jazz to punk rock — played amidst a remarkable exhibition at the Fridge.

Some beautiful photos from all those shows are below, taken by the photographers Paul Bothwell and Elliot Blumberg. To keep up with future D.C. Jazz Loft shows like these, subscribe to our email list, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Continue reading →

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Live review | A dancing photographer, in total command of the mic: Buika dazzles at the Howard

Posted on June 14, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Buika performed as part of the DC Jazz Festival’s programming at the Howard Theatre. Courtesy Javi Rojo

by Ken Avis
CapitalBop contributor

If the definition of jazz includes passion, virtuosity, and expression, then Guinean-Spanish vocalist Buika’s impressive tour kickoff at the DC Jazz Festival more than met expectations. At the end of last night’s show, the foyer of the Howard Theatre buzzed with the thrill of an audience transported. Buika’s exhilarating blend of flamenco vocal stylings with Afro-Cuban influences had taken them around the world. (It’s little wonder that she earned inclusion in NPR’s 50 Great Voices list, and collaborated with artists such as Chucho Valdez, Chick Corea, Anoushka Shankar, Seal, Nelly Furtado and Pat Metheny. 

 
Backed only by the elegant and rhythmical accompaniment of Iván “Melón” Lewis on piano and Ramón Porrina on percussion, Buika’s emotional intensity and dynamic range captivated the capacity audience. The simple musical setting provided a perfect foil for that voice. But had she been backed by a full orchestra, frankly, the voice would still have been the unimpeachable focus – soaring and delicate, sweet yet gritty. Continue reading →

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Reflections on the DC Jazz Festival at Millennium Stage: The universal language of jazz

Posted on June 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

The Millenium Stage tends to draw packed crowds for exploratory concerts, as it did last week for Lenny White’s performance. John Cook/CapitalBop

by John Cook
CapitalBop contributor

I chose to spend the first two nights of my condensed voyage through the 2013 DC Jazz Festival at the District’s most cost-effective venue, if you’re looking to expand your musical horizons: The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, which usually features jazz several times a month, part of its wide and eclectic range of nightly programming. It is the city’s only 365-day-a-year free performance series.

One of the Millennium Stage’s major strengths is that it provides a very large platform to a variety of lesser-known artists who, however much they may merit them would rarely have opportunities of that scale.  The size of the usual crowd there is not without some disadvantages; many of the attendees on any given night have probably ended up there somewhat randomly, and aren’t always fully attentive to the particular performance (though that tends to be most problematic for unamplified classical programs). The cavernous and bustling open space of the center’s Grand Foyer can present challenges, too (sonic as well as ambient), but this remains the only place in town that will – or has the financial support to – book many of the artists that play there. The generally strict limitation to a one-hour performance can be a bit irksome, but this seems the nature of the environment. That said, it is an economical way to dramatically widen one’s musical horizons – and some of the performances there are magic.

 

Beka Gochiashvili, Daryl Johns and Lenny White. John Cook/CapitalBop

The Millennium Stage’s opening-night contribution to the DC Jazz Festival on Wednesday presented Lenny White’s New Voices: a straight-ahead acoustic trio featuring some very young talents, in the 17-year-old pianist Beka Gochiashvili, from the Republic of Georgia, and 16-year old bassist Daryl Johns. White’s spry proteges were both very skilled and seemingly well-traveled (Gochiashvili has done already done several concerts with White, including a local appearance at the Howard Theatre last year). The group quickly got comfortable and as the show progressed they opened up and took off. The results demonstrated that ultimately there is no substitute for learning on the bandstand, nor for the communication with the masters of the tradition that becomes available there. With roughly half the compositions his, Gochiashvili proved his ability to write convincing new material that reflected the traditions they explored yet also left room to be given more life through the improvisational exchanges between band members that propelled the performance to a higher level. White was obviously very pleased with being able to play with this band and the joy mutually radiating from the stage touched the audience as well. While most in attendance had come to hear White, they seemed uniformly impressed by his compatriots. Continue reading →

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Live review | Bloodsucker jazz: A quiet legend, a percussion master and a vampire movie

Posted on April 11, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Tatsuya Nakatani, shown in a separate performance, recently accompanied a silent movie with the multi-instrumentalist Edward Wilkerson, Jr. Courtesy ticketfly.com

by Luke Stewart
Editorial board

Edward Wilkerson, Jr. and Tatsuya Nakatani
Freer Gallery
Wednesday, April 3

Adding film or other visuals to improvised music can sometimes be a clever way of drafting a focus point for sounds that might be too meandering and esoteric to stand up on their own. For Edward Wilkerson, Jr. and Tatsuya Nakatani, it works the opposite way. In a performance at the Freer Gallery last week, they offered improvised accompaniment to a plodding, slightly overwrought film, and it made the experience not just bearable, but enthralling.

On Wednesday, April 3, at the Freer’s Meyer Auditorium, the two expert practitioners of avant-garde music performed in support of Sanguivorous (2012), the first silent vampire movie by a Japanese filmmaker (by some accounts, the first Japanese vampire movie at all). Their music was so touching that the film all but morphed into a backdrop for these two gurus of improvised sound. Sanguivorous – Kyuketsu, in Japanese – was written and directed by Naoki Yoshimoto, and clocks in at a deceptively long 56 minutes. The movie wasn’t initially intended to be accompanied by live music, but with the treatment from Nakatani and Wilkerson, it became difficult to imagine it without their playing.

The pair couldn’t have been more complementary of each other. Wilkerson is a saxophonist and a lesser-known legend in the making, who developed in Chicago under the nurturing umbrella of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), where he served as president and participated in several creative ensembles. He’s a master not just of his main instrument, or of the jazz tradition; he is a true multi-instrumentalist, and draws inspiration from many cultures and traditions. He brought his tenor saxophone, Bb and alto clarinet, didgeridoo, and a table full of assorted percussion instruments – complete with bells and whistles, literally. In the question-and-answer session after the performance, he exhibited his instrumental arsenal and explained: “In different cultures, musicians use different instruments to represent different parts of the body.” Continue reading →

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Live review | Janel Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash: ‘Ahhh-vant garde’ revelations

Posted on March 28, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Janel Leppin, far right, leads Ensemble Volcanic Ash at Bohemian Caverns on Sunday. Courtesy Brad Linde

by Luke Stewart
Editorial board

Janel Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash
Bohemian Caverns
Sunday, March 24

Sunday evenings at Bohemian Caverns can often seem like a prayer meeting. Bobby Hill – director of Transparent Productions, the organization that has presented avant-garde music at the club on various Sundays since 2011 – graces the stage much like a deacon delivering church news, warming up the congregation for the sermon. The dark, subterranean air shimmers with anticipation. On Sunday, the tension was particularly heightened for Janel Leppin. This was the first time the Washington Women in Jazz Festival has collaborated with Transparent Productions. And it was the first time Leppin, an experimental cellist and one-half of the duo Janel & Anthony, has led a group at Bohemian Caverns. Transparent’s series there has brought some of the most cerebral and soulful artists, who simultaneously strive to push musical boundaries. Leppin fits directly within that framework of bold originality.

This performance marked only one more chapter in the unfolding body of work we have come to expect from Leppin, one of the hardest working creative musicians in D.C. Her compositional and technical prowess have been tested and proven through years of collaboration and study with masters. In addition to her critically acclaimed duo with Anthony Pirog, she has toured with Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, collaborated extensively with Baltimore pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, and studied Indian and Persian classical music with leading practitioners of those traditions. (Full disclosure: She has also performed on occasion with Laughing Man, a rock band of which I am a member.) She is also a member of Stylus, a record-player ensemble. All of her influences and experiences add up to make her one of the most unique young cellists in music today.

Her Ensemble Volcanic Ash, which debuted on Sunday, is a quintet featuring bassoonist Amy Fraser, saxophonist Sarah Hughes, harpist Jacqueline Pollauf, and vocalist/pianist Lisa Sokolov. Leppin led as a cellist and vocalist, and also brought an array of electronic pedals and a Califone portable record player. The group’s name came from an experience when she was on tour in Europe: When the Icelandic volcano erupted in 2010, infamously grounding more than 100,000 airline flights, Janel was one of those caught in the disruption. Rather than catastrophic explosions and molten lava, the major issue associated with the eruption was the ash. “I was fascinated that the world was forced to stand still for an indefinite amount of time,” she said in an interview. “This beautiful, ethereal substance, tiny shards of volcanic glass, was creating total chaos in our modern world, which seems to dominate and control nature in every way conceivable.” Continue reading →

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Live review | Reflections on a dream: ‘Holding It Down’ offers a portrait of war’s ravages

Posted on March 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Mike Ladd, shown performing at Harlem Stage last September, presented “Holding It Down” in D.C. last week. Courtesy Marc Millman

by Luke Stewart
Editorial board

Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd’s “Holding It Down”
Atlas Performing Arts Center
Friday, March 8

As the United States enters its 10th year at war in Iraq, and approaches its 12th in Afghanistan, the effects of war have never been more cloaked. In the early years, the wars and their progress were at the center of news pundits’ talking points. American casualties were updated alongside the terrorist threat level. But as the media’s focus has shifted toward the economy, immigration and other domestic issues, one of the most significant conflicts in American history is quickly being forgotten. Our collective amnesia is due to a number of factors. For one, the nature of modern conflict has changed dramatically. Military personnel management has evolved to the point where some soldiers are stationed in large, office-like buildings in major cities, going to war as if it were a normal office job: punching in, rather than getting a rude awakening by mortar fire; eating lunch at Starbucks, instead of a quick MRE scarf; driving home in a Jetta, not back to base in a Humvee. While roughly 66,000 U.S. troops are still deployed in Afghanistan, approximately 8.5 percent of Air Force pilots control unmanned aerial vehicles, popularly known as drones – and many of those pilots are deployed right here at home.

The public conversation in the media may have been quieted, but there are few here in the United States who do not have some sort of connection to the war. Many family members, co-workers, and friends have served stints overseas. The effects are certainly felt in the economy. But unlike during certain previous wars, the national cultural reaction has seemingly fallen silent. While we have experienced large protest actions, our biggest activist movement – Occupy – was not against war, but against corporate greed. Much of today’s “protest music,” if there is any, confronts domestic injustice. The “Machine Gun” of the new millennium has yet to emerge.

Also, at this time, the country’s community of creative musicians has never been further from the veterans community. In the past it was almost a rite of passage for a developing musician to spend some time in the military. Many legendary innovators participated in military bands, where they honed their craft and forged collaborative friendships. Today, the war’s veterans and the musicians’ community have largely been on opposite sides of society. Continue reading →

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Photos | William Hooker offers a textural pronouncement at Bohemian Caverns

Posted on January 29, 2013 by | 3 Comments


William Hooker played a set on Sunday that sorted and commingled its textures: corpulent, digital, reproduced, swollen and flaringly percussive. Paul Bothwell/CapitalBop

by Giovanni Russonello
Editorial board

Aside from music, hardly any form of artistic expression is both performative — tied to the passage of time — and free from visual considerations. Musicians, unlike dancers, or actors, or so-called performance artists, make their art right in front of you with little care about what they look like doing it. It’s an irony, and an opportunity at another type of observation.

This past Sunday at Bohemian Caverns, during the last of three movements to his “Human Form, Cosmic Activity” suite, William Hooker and his five-person group built monuments to texture and volume and chaos and poise. They weren’t paying any attention to the shape their “human forms” might be taking, but the photos below – snapped by the remarkable Paul Bothwell – somehow give a taste of how piercing and walloping the music was.

Hooker, who was performing as part of Transparent Productions’ “Sundays at 7 at the Caverns” avant-garde jazz series, emerged in the 1970s as part of Lower Manhattan’s loft jazz scene. He went on to partner with experimental musicians in both the rock and jazz traditions, from the tenor saxophonist David Murray to the guitarist Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth. Fame has escaped him, but his followers stay devout.

On Sunday, the reason was clear. His music might demand too much for a mass audience, but it gives too much to be taken lightly. After a solo drum set, then a duet with the guitarist Anthony Pirog, Hooker brought in the MOM2 trio: Thomas Stanley on effects and samples, Bobby Hill on turntables, and Luke Stewart (who is also an editor at CapitalBop) on electric bass and pedals. This last set found Hooker, Pirog and the trio locked into a collective improvisation that dilated and spiked and stayed glued even as it found its own sutures. Hooker battered the drums in tight, full-bodied rolls, and kept his eyes alight as he scanned his bandmates. There was a lot inside those eyes — invitation, curiosity, peace, burning coals, wisdom — and every so often he would call out to another improviser with something phonetic, or just simple: “Right!” or “Yes!” or “Ahh!” He was guiding the flow of the improvisation from crest to crest, as surely as a Duke Ellington or a Butch Morris, and by the end of the unbroken half-hour of music you felt like you’d heard at least four modules of Hooker’s thought, logically pieced together. Continue reading →

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Live review | At his first D.C. show, Albare spikes virtuosic guitar playing with a world of influences

Posted on November 29, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The Australian guitarist Albare is in the midst of an East Coast tour. Courtesy Dennys Ilic

by Ken Avis
CapitalBop contributor

Albare
Blues Alley
Monday, Nov. 19

The Melbourne-based guitarist Albare may be a new face on U.S. stages, but he has devoted his life to music, both as a performer and presenter, while living in three continents. His recently released album, Long Way, features a top-shelf band of musicians from all over the contemporary jazz scene, including the Mexican drummer Antonio Sánchez, the American saxophonist George Garzone and the Argentine pianist Leo Genovese.

Born in Morocco and raised in France, Albare (pronounced al-BARE) eventually emigrated to Australia, where he was instrumental in popularizing acid-jazz while in his 20s. Stepping off the stage for a while, he became the artistic director of the Melbourne Jazz Festival, developing it into the country’s premiere jazz event. The festival has an audience of 200,000 today, compared to just 5,000 when Albare first became involved. The success, he said in a recent interview, was built on broadening the musical content and making the event as accessible as possible, with the help of public and private sponsorship. Albare, now 55, also initiated the Australian Jazz Awards program in 2003. Named the Bell Awards in honor of Graeme Bell, one of the continent’s foremost jazz musicians, the awards recognize the strong culture of jazz appreciation and performance that has long been a quiet presence in Australia.

Blues Alley gave Albare a fine welcome on Monday, Nov. 19, at his first-ever D.C. show. A good proportion of the District’s Australian music lovers turned out. They were rewarded by a strong performance of the cross-cultural musical blend created by Albare and his co-writer Evripidis Evripidou. The band consisted of the Venezuelan drummer Pablo Bencid and long-time Melbourne collaborators Phil Turcio on piano and Phil Rex on bass.

He opened with a delicate, fingerpicked solo intro to “October Song,” then the band kicked in with impressive power. Bencid’s polyrhythmic drumming was a revelation, and stayed that way throughout the show, underpinned by imaginative playing from Rex. The mood shifted as things moved into the bowed-bass opening of “Love Again.” At times melancholy and showing classical undertones, the composition provided the canvas for Albare’s fluid and evocative single-note melody, followed by exploratory solo runs.

Despite a few equipment difficulties (Rex’s amplifier cut in and out, and Albare sometimes had a hard time hearing himself in the monitor), the show continued relatively smoothly, continuing to spotlight tunes from Long Way. “Moving On,” “Eagle’s Way” and “You Make Me Smile” are all compositions that reflect the guitarist’s strategy of composing music that spring from moments of personal inspiration. On each song, Albare set out a strong melodic theme, then turned it into a basis for expressive improvisation by all of the band members.

The mood switched again for the final numbers, “Cut to the Chase” and “Funky Girl.” On these pieces, Albare’s background in funk, jazz and rock showed up in both his tone and harmonic sense. The fresh funk feel of the songs gave the band a perfect backdrop to stretch out down the homestretch, leaving the audience sated on its way home.

With the Asian leg of the tour already completed, the band is now playing a handful of shows on the East Coast before continuing on to Europe. The group is only the tip of the iceberg of impressive music in all genres coming from Australia. Artists there are combining a range of styles to present a fresh sound. Just as a guitarist like Tommy Emmanuel is blending country and bluegrass with jazz and collaborating at the highest levels with U.S. musicians such as Frank Vignola, Albare blends his international influences with the aid of a first-class band to provide an engaging sound and satisfying live performance.

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Live review | The Bad Plus dives into new tunes, back catalogue with powerful coordination

Posted on September 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Ethan Iverson, shown in a separate performance, played at the Hamilton on Sunday. Courtesy The Queen’s Hall/flickr

by Daniel Strauss
CapitalBop contributor

The Bad Plus
The Hamilton
Sunday, Sep. 23, 2012

When it comes to jazz, I’m a layperson. Maybe that’s why I’m such a big fan of the Bad Plus, a band that sometimes gets accused of isolating itself from the jazz world that it’s presumed to be a part of.

In any case, the biggest strength of the Bad Plus to me is that they have written some amazing songs; their biggest weakness is that some of their other pieces always end up sounding downright odd. So from my point of view, going to one of their performances is always a gamble. I want them to get into some of their more experimental stuff, but I also want to hear their reliably satisfying tunes.

On Sunday night, the Bad Plus played two sets for a moderately sized audience at the Hamilton, an upscale restaurant and bar near the White House that seems best suited for high-powered lobbyists interested in expensive scotch and whiskey. Much of the music came from their new album, Made Possible, and they threw in some of their best songs from previous albums like And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation (a personal favorite) and Giant. Continue reading →

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Photos | HR-57 settles in for the long haul at spacious new H Street digs

Posted on June 18, 2012 by | 1 Comment

HR-57 celebrated its reopening on Friday with help from a quintet led by Antonio Parker, left. Courtesy Timothy Forbes Photography

by Timothy Forbes
CapitalBop contributor

HR-57′s banner, freshly hung at 1007 H St. NE, feels more like a declaration of promise than a reality. It stands out from neighboring signs that advertise cell phone services and church services, sitting suspended above a facade of bare, unfinished plywood. On Friday night, though, the only marketing that seemed necessary was the powerful and dexterous sound of Antonio Parker’s alto saxophone, which flew out the wide-open windows and into the street. HR-57 had been closed for a few weeks amidst a move from H Street’s 800 block, but it is now very much back in business.

For all the venue’s new qualities, the musicians on stage kept the evening thoroughly grounded in history. Parker, a regular headliner at both of the club’s previous locations, led a quartet that included drummer Keith Killgo, a founding member of the local funk group the Blackbyrds and a mentor of Parker’s. D.C. jazz veterans Cheney Thomas on bass and Darius Scott on piano completed the quartet, with fellow Blackbyrds charter member Allan Barnes joining the group on soprano saxphone for a number of tunes.

Parker’s saxophone delighted, as always, moving deftly through aggressive, straight-ahead jazz as well as softer ballads. Killgo’s seasoned drumming was syncopated with some improvised clapping and un-miced vocal accompaniment to augment Parker’s solos.

The new venue, the almost two-decade-old jazz club’s third incarnation in two years, retains key elements that regulars will find familiar — namely, reasonably priced, reliable soul food, and a BYOB policy. The space itself, however, is more capacious and inviting than the preceding H St. location. The acoustics are a welcome upgrade, with the music filling the club more profoundly than at any of HR-57′s previous sites. Large windows that can be flung wide open provide a strong, welcome connection to the neighborhood and an airy feel to the venue. Now that HR-57 is settled in, it can justifiably call itself a linchpin of the flourishing H St. scene. Continue reading →

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