It was a benefit for fire relief, but plenty of fire was dancing onstage.
Nicole McCabe opened with the biggest revelations via her new quartet's fully improvised set. Reputed for incredibly precise technique and blazing speed, McCabe fitted her alto sax to the occasion with introductory meditations of somber thoughtfulness, shaded to emphasize her emotional connection -- a cry of sympathy and comfort. Gradually the electronically enhanced keyboards of Zach Tenorio bubbled into the foreground, connecting easily with the riffs of electric bassist Spencer Zahn (on whose "Statues Live" he and McCabe played in 2023). Max Jaffe's drumkit atmospherics soon turned into a loosely rolling groove, and the four cut loose with everything they were feeling. Tenorio channeled some god of chaos, his hippie mop flying and his black Converse high-tops bouncing on the pedals as he struck half melodic lightning, half percussive noise. Zahn and McCabe somehow discovered riffs to share within the hurricane, McCabe rising and subsiding and rising again to high notes that forced tears out of our eyes. McCabe and Tenorio duetted at the end, with Jaffe as always keeping close watch, his cymbals providing oxygen. The audience, still filling the space, signaled that they knew they had heard something.
Sometimes you get mostly Dan Rosenboom the director of improvisation; sometimes you get a bigger proportion of Dan Rosenboom the composer. This time the trumpeter pulled out a number of sheets from his 30-year songbook, leading a septet of his best allies for maximum color and balance. Please know that six conscriptees who can read and execute these twisty heads & tails are not found on every streetcorner. And each was a champ soloist. Special attention went to the bifurcated brain (under baseball cap) of keyboardist John Escreet, who banged out nasty chordal dissonances yet also took off on inventively pretty flights. Gavin Templeton blasted dynamic hurt on alto and baritone saxes. The distorted strings of Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (violin) and a grimacing Jake Vossler (guitar) sprayed vivid colors over the syncopated new "Oracles." The team of electric bassist Jerry Watts Jr. and drummer Gene Coye seemed to follow Rosenboom's cues effortlessly -- you never saw a musician have any more fun than Coye whipping through such difficult music. And the leader himself, weaving his horn through it all with spontaneous spark, seemed well pleased. As he should have been.
Jaffe returned to the drum stool for the concluding improvisational trio with guitarist Dave Harrington and saxist Patrick Shiroishi. Seated and peering through luxurious curls at his red SG guitar and a rack of knobs, Harrington raised loops of electronic fog, while Shiroishi followed suit on alto sax through his own boxes. The layers grew denser as Jaffe piled into a flurry of fuzzy malletry, and psychedelic visuals writhed on the walls. Ancient souls began to talk back through the electricity; Harrington's loops got freakier and freakier until everybody got scared and they had to make a sudden stop, bringing things back to earth with a funky clean guitar riff and some rumbly drums. Shiroishi got left behind for a couple of minutes, but picked up a riff just in time for a satisfying ending.
All this plus some coin raised for MusiCares and other good causes. Thanks.
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HARRINGTON-SHIROISHI-JAFFE PHOTO BY FUZZY BARK.