Charles Rumback, Nick Mazzarella, Tomeka Reid, & Jeff Swanson: Uncanned Music Over/Out Series @ Bar DeVille, Nov, 12th, 2013

Nov. 12^th, 2013: The first real cold snap of the fall/winter season in town… and Bar Deville’s heat goes out. The great 2013 Bar DeVille chillout! The musicians – Charles Rumback, Nick Mazzarella, Tomeka Reid, and Jeff Swanson - weathered the conditions with hats, candles, and other assorted extended, extra-musical warming techniques. As in the previous week, before the live music an appropriate vibe was set for the space from the DJ booth on stage. This Tuesday it was Joe Darling, one of the organizers of the series, spinning the swinging, spiritual big band sounds of Detroit Jazz Composers LTD and other relatively under the radar jazz vinyl.

The band’s first piece set the general tone and trajectory: a warm, slow-ish rubato, floating guitar/sax unison melody lines over sparse and abstract modern harmonies, cymbal washes and mallet rolls, and a contemplatively searching 5-6 minutes of composed material before the 1^st solo of the night. I was immediately reminded of some of my very favorite music: Paul Motian Trio/Electric Bebop Band, Chris Cheek, Bill McHenry. It was like being transported to the Village Vanguard for the evening. Most of the music in the first set was written by drummer (and bandleader for the evening) Rumback. His melodies and forms combine more modern techniques with the occasional folksy, almost hymn-like simplicity. And his playing combines staccato attacks with relaxed round flourishes. He’s one of those drummers who creates warm, yet quite ornate and reactive backdrops for soloists to play over in which virtually anything played against them sounds “right.”

Altoist Mazzarella, the only member of the quartet to brave the cool, unheated indoor evening without a hat for warmth, was perhaps the chief interpreter of the tunes’ melodies and forms. Quicksilver in his phrasing and overall approach, his command of the instrument and the language apparently has no weak spots. In the 2^nd tune of the 2^nd set, he really began pushing/straining against the harmony and structure of the tune. Mazzarella’s stretching in and out of the piece’s harmony and form somehow illuminated the tune; as if outlining it with some musical version of creating a photographic negative. Or as placing a deep red next to a deep blue somehow makes both colors pop more through the contrast.

Guitarist Jeff Swanson and cellist Tomeka Reid created a modern, mini string section. Occasionally locking in together to play unison lines, they formed a muscular bond. Reid mainly projected a warm, punchy sound from the cello, occasionally bowing and creating firm ground for the tunes. In one part of a particularly creative and fiery solo, she seemed to throw off a barrage of bowed artificial harmonics combining in the air simultaneously conjuring a sort of small, string/bow-induced electrical storm cutting through and hovering over the tune. Exciting stuff. Swanson stood out on his own composition, not least due to the writing itself. His sense of harmony (consonant and dissonant) and pensively mindful right hand picking technique on the same tune was another highlight of the set.

At times, the group would ride the cusp between playing the form and playing free. But there was always some anchor disallowing such a disengagement: time/pulse, harmony, etc…  You could feel the strain but there was never a complete break away. And as Bob Avakian or Sunsara Taylor might say, “You cannot break all the chains, except one.” But playing totally free was not the intent here, nor should it have been. The chains in this group’s music do not shackle, but form an unbroken circle.

Here are some excerpts from the night's music: