Jazz Fest 2014, Day 4: Ron reviews Vijay Iyer Trio, Kari Ikonen Trio, and Julian Lage and Nels Cline

Vijay Iyer was clearly relishing his homecoming during his trio’s
concert Monday night. It had been a decade since his last XRIJF performance at
Max of Eastman Place, and after winning just about every award there is to win
in the jazz world, the former Fairport resident was elevated to Kilbourn
Hall. His joy clearly came through midway in the set when he asked the audience
to “give it up for my entire family” in attendance.

My
favorite pieces were Iyer’s ballads, but that may be
due to the difficulty of hearing the piano clearly over energetic drumming in
the acoustic environment of Kilbourn Hall. The same
qualities that make it perfect for an acoustic string quartet make it a
challenge for a full-tilt jazz trio.

“Desiring,”
which Iyer said he wrote for his wife, featured a
beautiful, haunting melody and a great bass solo by Stephan Crump. Another
unnamed piece not only had an excellent solo by drummer Marcus Gilmore, it took
several turns including one in the direction of blues and another toward gospel
music.

As
for Iyer’s solos, he was in full command. He has
brilliant technique but he’s not afraid of simplicity. In fact, he uses the
full range of piano projection, from so subtle you can hardly hear him to full
ringing tone.

Jazz Fest 2014: Kari Ikonen Trio

Finland’s Kari Ikonen
Trio — with Ikonen on piano; Ara Yaralyan, bass; and Markku Ounaskari, drums — played a high-energy set at the Lutheran
Church. Ikonen has an ingenious way of turning the
piano into a cross between a clavichord and a synthesizer by placing an object
on the strings inside the piano. He used it sparingly but effectively to play
repeated choruses on several tunes. The highlight of the set for me was the
group’s handling of Ikonen’s composition “Azure,” which
nicely evoked the Mediterranean Sea.

My
last show of the night was another strong one: guitarists Julian Lage and Nels
Cline at the Little Theatre. Cline,
who plays with Wilco, used an electric guitar while Lage preferred an acoustic. They are both such virtuosos
that sometimes it seemed that their fingers were in a constant series of races
to the end of the fretboard. (Cline alluded to this
when he introduced the first song, “Racy,” which was about something else.) But
when they latched on to a great tune, the interplay was sublime. One of those
great tunes was “Rosemary,” though Cline, who did all the talking, didn’t say
who wrote it. The set ended with a two-song suite (also unidentified) that was
superb from start to finish.

Tuesday
evening, I’ll begin at Kilbourn Hall with one of the
greatest drummers in jazz, Louis Hayes.
Then I’ll head over to the Lutheran Church to catch Jacob Young with Trygve Seim
and Marcin Wasilewski Trio. I’ll end the night
with one of my favorite singers, Tessa Souter, and her special guest, trumpeter Lew Soloff,
at Montage.

Vijay Iyer will perform solo at Hatch Recital Hall on Tuesday, June 24, 5:45 and 7:45 p.m.

This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2014.