Tyshawn Sorey Trio with Sandbox Percussion
Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress
Friday, Nov. 22, 2024

There are many ways to celebrate Max Roach’s centenary, and D.C. has been host to several of these homages. 

On Friday, composer Tyshawn Sorey marshaled the memory of Roach in yet another night to remember, paying tribute to the iconic drummer’s relationship to ensemble and to the ways that there are many layers of relation embedded in the forms of music he wrote.

Part of the Concerts from the Library of Congress series, the Coolidge Auditorium concert featured Sorey’s trio of pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Harish Raghavan playing an opening set, a second set featuring the Sandbox Percussion Ensemble, and a final movement with both groups. As we anticipated the tunes that Sorey would announce from the stage (as these were not relayed via the concert’s program), the drummer announced something else, stating plainly, “He’s still here among us.” This, of course, referred to Roach’s ancestral presence. But it also evoked the material traces of his life that are housed in the Library of Congress’ collection. Audience members were treated to a glimpse of these materials in the display cases outside the auditorium — a deeply meaningful and significant element of the concert series. 

The “still here” resonated in another way. As the music took off, Sorey’s deft appreciation for Roach allowed tribute to manifest within the trio’s extension of his sound. For 30 minutes, the audience was transfixed as the trio moved through the set with no break or interruption. Aaron Diehl kicked things off with a beautiful introduction to Roach’s “Sunday Afternoon.” The theme is discernible, but over the course of 15 minutes, it becomes the platform for a unique, but clearly Sorey- and avant-garde-like, arrangement of the tune. The freedom here is not unlimited, but it is clearly there, respecting the way Roach’s composition is not a rule.

The trio then moved almost suite-like into the next work, a Hasaan Ibn Ali composition entitled “Almost Like Me.” The Ali renaissance has been ongoing for several years now. Thanks in part to Roach, those of us who were not in North Philly in the 60s to witness him directly have gotten to hear glimpses. “Almost Like Me” was part of the sole recording to be released in Ali’s lifetime, The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan, released in 1965 on Atlantic Records. During Friday’s performance, Sorey used the composition as vehicle to truly stretch in a way that was convergent with Raghavan and Diehl’s stretching. It was a true meeting.

The band then closed with Roach’s iconic “It’s Time,” a tune that feels epic. In the hands of Sorey’s trio that work is given thunderous and emphatic interpretation. Here again, no one moved too far beyond each member of the trio’s reach. It was a lovely form of playing together that made the tune one for questioning the limits of individual showmanship. There was no front man. The decision to play these three compositions seamlessly demonstrates that Roach’s works and his approach to the music were collaborative gestures that can play into one another. Roach was one being, with multiple registers of relation.

Roach’s ensemble M’Boom represents another of those layers. So as the trio closed out their interpretation of “It’s Time,” Sandbox Percussion joined them on stage to deliver their own set. Composed of percussionists Ian Rosenbaum, Jonny Allen, Terry Sweeney and Victor Caccese, the quartet opened on vibraphone with a Julius Eastman composition entitled “Joy Boy.” Sandbox brought almost every imaginable percussion instrument with them, and many that we probably would not imagine. What came clearest from their performance was the connective tissue of the ensemble: trust. This was evident as they moved to George Lewis’s solemn “Le témoignage des lumières,” a tune which reflects upon the French contribution to Atlantic slavery. As each member of the ensemble walked across the stage to mine the possibilities of the array of percussive instruments, you could see how Roach’s work with M’Boom informed it all. It was appropriate then that they would subsequently close with Omar Clay and Warren Smith’s “Morning/Midday,” which ended with a lovely conclusion where Sorey’s trio rejoined them on stage. 

As great as these two sets of music were, it was as if it was all moving, however, to Sorey’s “Cogitations.” This 2024 composition was co-commissioned by the Library, along with 92nd Street Y, Wexner Center of the Arts and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. “Cogitations” is Sorey at his most honest, a composer who champions spontaneity. Featuring both of the night’s ensembles, it gave us the most explosive moment of the night. And it allowed us to see that Roach’s legacy as a composer was not merely rhythmic, but spoke to and with the possibilities of all instruments. 

There was a structure. There was a letting go. “Cogitations” demonstrated that one can do both to great effect. “Both spontaneous composition and the formality of structure operate hand in hand with our interpretation of this piece—each interpretation may change from performance to performance,” wrote Sorey in the concert’s program notes.

Throughout the performance, Sandbox members displayed the rhythmic affect just as easily as their melodic prowess shined. There were also moments where Diehl and Raghavan showed their relationship to open improvisation. There was no pretentiousness, which again reflected perhaps Sorey’s guiding hand. A hand which literally directed the proceedings at certain points, but was most often tracing the dynamic messages that emanated from the kit. It was a guide, a direction, that was only pointing to a lodestar, not to determination or finality. After roughly 20 minutes, it was as if we all knew the ending was coming, when there was a silence and pausing that was just as much compositional as any blended note or beat. Instead of rushing to a conclusion, Sorey kind of raised his hand. The four members of Sandbox repeated alternating soft drones to announce each closing measure as the trio played a few themes underneath for the final six minutes. It all made sense. “Cogitations” was spontaneous composition, and this was our audience’s turn. 

Tyshawn Sorey writes that Max Roach’s “influence—both directly and indirectly”—has been with him for his entire career. Among all the things that Max Roach could do, his ability to put together an ensemble could be his most significant practice, for it combines a care for the sound with care for the world. How you put together a band is how you take care of sound. It is also how you take care of the people in the band, how they take care of their families, and how the sound takes care of us. This, at least, is what I walked away from the Coolidge Auditorium thinking about.

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