Jazz Fest 2016, Day 8: Ron reviews Helen Sung, Ben Monder, and Matthew Halsall and The Gondwana Orchestra

The intimacy of Hatch Hall was perfectly suited to the highly
personal set Helen Sung played Friday night. Between tunes, she told the
audience about her musical journey, starting with her upbringing in Texas with
a strict Russian piano teacher who told her classical music was the only music
worth listening to and playing. Once she discovered jazz, her studies continued
at the Thelonious Monk Institute in Boston.

Her classical background was apparent in her flawless
technique, but so was her ability to swing and deal with the intricacy of a
Monk tune. She played a medley of them, starting with “Eronel,”
moving on to “Light Blue,” and ending with “In Walked Bud.” If you think of
yourself as a jazz aficionado but you only recognized “In Walked Bud,” that
gives you a sense of how unpredictable Sung’s song
choices were. She also performed “Armando’s Rhumba” by Chick Corea, “Equipoise” by Stanley Cowell, and her own
heart-felt tune “Hope Springs Eternally.”

Helen Sung plays with
her quartet on Saturday night, 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., at Montage Music
Hall.

Over at the Little Theatre, Ben Monder sat
with an electric guitar balanced over his knee in the manner of a classical guitarist,
and played a series of original tunes all of which involved finger-picked
chords, up and down the fret-board, with the occasional melody breaking
through. But these were not the chords you learned at guitar lessons. They
were a unique variety that hovered on the edge of harmony and dissonance, often
slipping over both sides.

Not everyone appreciated Monder’s
chord-centered style and a significant portion of the crowd left as the show
progressed. Those who stayed until the end witnessed a sharp left turn on the
last tune, which was filled with electronic distortion and a palette of echoes
and other effects.

My last stop was Christ Church where Matthew Halsall and The Gondwana Orchestra played a wonderful set. Halsall’s group features a fairly typical line-up — piano,
saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums — until you get to the harp. It was the first
harp I’ve seen at the festival in 15 years, and Rachael Gladwin
played the first (beautiful) harp solos I’ve heard there.

Halsall, a fine trumpeter, is from
Manchester, England, but his music came from all directions. Some of the tunes
evoked Eastern Indian music and one composition was referred to as a Japanese
ballad. Curiously Halsall and the equally talented
Jordan Smart, the saxophonist, never played together; it was always one or the
other. Taz Modi, the pianist, was superb, as were the
bassist and drummer. Christ Church is a tough room for a large band, but this
group’s sound was perfectly balanced.

On the last night of
the festival, I’ll start at Kilbourn Hall with the
Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience. Then I’ll head over to Hatch Hall to hear
pianist Brian Dickinson, and I’ll conclude the festival with hometown pianist
Laura Dubin at Xerox Auditorium.