JAZZ FEST 2013, Day 1: Ron reviews Christian McBride, Thiefs, Patricia Barber, Trondheim Jazz Orchestra

Hearing all of the Scandinavian groups at the Lutheran
Church over the years, I’ve often been curious about their distant,
thrice-removed perception of jazz. After all, they are not only more than half
a century away from the golden age of jazz, they’re also a continent and
culture away.

Friday night Norway’s Trondheim Jazz Orchestra answered my question better than any other
Scandinavian group has before. For an entire hour, with hardly a pause, the
group painted a surreal aural image of American jazz from the 1920’s to the
1950’s. It was as if someone fell asleep in a European movie and dreamed of
jazz.

The eight men wore zoot suits and
fedoras; the one women had a flower-patterned dress
and her hair up as if she had just stepped out of a Billie Holiday album cover.
They played brilliantly but never played it straight.

The woman sang mostly abstract vocalese — incomprehensible things that just evoked jazz. Toward the end she sang an
absurd amalgamation of just about every jazz classic (lyrics like: what’s new,
tenderly, some day my prince will come, I remember April…) gorgeously, with no
hint of irony.

There were two odd characters in white who
did not play instruments but performed a weird purification ritual, reaching
into chalices to wash their faces with what turned out to be white powder.
There were many other theatrics. The musicians went out into the audience and
at one point everyone just died. But they got up, one by one, swinging hard.

The good news is, you can catch
Trondheim Jazz Orchestra at Xerox Auditorium Saturday night.

Earlier in the evening, I was impressed by Christian McBride’s Inside Straight at Kilbourn Hall. The tunes, mostly originals by McBride and
his group members, were all strong. And the arrangements were beautifully
fleshed out with plenty of room to improvise.

Every member of the group was a virtuoso player. Alto and
soprano saxophonist Steve Nelson was especially creative on every solo he took.
(He’ll also be back Saturday in a duo with Bruce Barth at Max of
Eastman Place.)

In his solos McBride demonstrated why he is just about the
most in-demand bassist in jazz. And even when he is not soloing he is an
unusually commanding player. He was also pretty hilarious when he explained why
he did not make it to Rochester for last year’s show.

Speaking of virtuosos, the three men in Thiefs, which performed at Xerox
Auditorium, were ridiculously talented. The drummer, for instance, was also an
excellent singer. And he didn’t even need his drum set to create convincing
beat-box percussion.

Thiefs’ saxophonist had an array
of electronic devices in front of him that could turn his sax into just about
anything. He could play chords, he could create a drone and solo over it, and
he could make his sax into an organ.

I ended the night with Patricia
Barber at Max of Eastman Place. Barber is a quirky singer given to odd hand
gestures, contorted facial expressions, and occasional vocal outbursts. Her
first utterance, during her group’s opening instrumental, was, “Shit!”

Her quirkiness seemed to be about making the experience of
playing music real. This was no routine. Her group (guitarist, bassist, and
drummer) paid close attention to Barber because they
weren’t sure where she would be going. The guitarist, GiladHekselman, was especially good, with beautiful tone
and wonderful solo flights.

Barber is an excellent pianist who plays with real emotion.
She is also a strong singer of originals and covers like the standard “The
Thrill Is Gone” (not the B.B. King tune). She has always been good at taking a pop
tune and bringing new life to it. I remember years ago she actually made me
appreciate a Sonny & Cher song. Friday night she did a great
rendition of Smokey Robinson’s “Being With You,” which, I hasten to add, was
always a great song.

Saturday night I’ll be checking out Bruce Barth and
Steve Nelson at Max of Eastman Place. I’m curious about what Matt Herskowitz will have up his sleeve at Hatch Hall when he
combines classical music and jazz. And after he just about blew the roof off
last time he was at the Montage, I can’t wait to hear Terell
Stafford there tomorrow night.

This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2013.