Why wait? Reincarnate now. Motoko Honda again exercised that artistic option with her Simple Excesses quartet, returning from her now established Oakland home base to remind us that this is one pianist-composer who never stands still.
The courtyard of the Hammer Museum was suited to a rebirth -- open to the sky, with the stage framed by two living bamboo hedges reminiscent of the Nile reeds where Moses launched his journey.
Although Honda has been playing mostly acoustic lately, her new Nord Stage 3 electronic keyboard proved adaptable to both the lilting beauty of her opening piece (one of her earliest compositions, sounding as if she were stroking a Steinway) and to the more layered expressions we expect from this texturally motivated musician.
Honda didn't completely submerge her aggressive attack and sophisticated harmonic aesthetic; she just sublimated them into cleaner essences and subtle suggestions of dissonance, making her music sound less like a statement and more like an invitation. She brought us visions of youthful optimism, playful quirkiness and a quiet walk in the snowy mountains, and the longer "Umba" told a dramatic story that masterfully united several contrasts of mood, mode and tempo. Despite touches of melancholy, Honda ended on a hopeful note like a church organ recessional.
Honda's quartet mates hung easily through the many changes, bassist Miles Wick and drummer Jordan Glenn providing flexible but steady support. Most of the non-Honda improvisation came from former L.A. saxist-flutist Cory Wright, who tuned in to the melodic flow with well balanced commentary, at times drifting like a sailboat over the pianist's sustain-laden chordal currents.
The audience of young lovers and experienced culture seekers hardly moved a muscle for an hour and a half. Apparently we can still concentrate when the occasion demands it.
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PHOTOS BY FUZZY BORG.