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Piano virtuoso Joshua White assembled a quintet of like-minded Southern California improvisers for an explosive and expansive evening of works by jazz icons Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman to a packed and enthusiastic audience in The Back Room at 98 Bottles Saturday night.
San Diego jazz fans are extremely fortunate for the opportunity to witness the meteoric development of White, who internationally acclaimed bassist Mark Dresser referred to as a "singular talent."
What makes this so?
One factor, shared with me by Rob Thorsen, is the pianist's attitude of fearlessness. White is always eager to stretch the boundaries of musical conventions. Another is his remarkable ability to listen and absorb the contributions of musicians who have preceded him. A final important attribute is his ability to seamlessly travel from highly lyrical playing to very harmonically dense explorations--often within the same solo. What is amazing about White is that he can use materials that would sound jarring in the hands of others--and make them swing. There is always an element of the blues in his improvisations, and he can visit areas as widely divergent as stride piano, be-bop, and free improvisation without ever sounding self-conscious about it.
Beginning with the seldom heard Ornette Coleman ballad, "Beauty Is A Rare Thing," trombonist Michael Dessen and alto saxophonist Gavin Templeton loosely joined together to state the plaintive theme, while White built waves of rumbling dissonant chords beneath. Drummer Dan Schnelle intensified the drama with well-timed explosive accents with soft mallets while bassist Dave Robaire pedaled and strummed double-stops. Seamlessly, the band segued into the joyous, quasi-Latin theme "Una Muy Bonita," another Coleman classic. Templeton opened up with a wild statement that cross-referenced ideas of both Coleman and 60's legend Eric Dolphy, rocking back and forth while he worked toward a frenzy. Dessen brought the dynamics, tempo and intensity down to a whisper to explore the inner logics and possibilities-- then White waxed rhapsodic before leading the group into Coleman's "Peace," another weirdly contemplative theme. Robaire focused on choice, resonant tones before the tune transformed into a hard, wicked blues that White shifted from ecstatic streams of melody to confrontational clusters and splayed harmonies.
Dessen dipped deep into the gutbucket for an inspired plunger-mute essay that found him chortling obscene sound effects and transmuting blues clichés into fresh observations simply by displacing the accents away from the expected. Templeton began his solo with very dry curlicues in the manner of a Steve Lacy while White's solo built to a climax that fostered the emergence of "Enfant," an ebullient "free-hop" head that led directly to an astonishing Schnelle drum solo, in which one could hear the melody clearly all the way through.
White changed things up with his final selection of the first set, a rollicking Jamaican folk-song, "Doctor Bud." It was amazing how well their adaptation of this piece fit with the spirit and letter of the Coleman and Monk material.
Speaking of Monk, the second set began with "Evidence," with White's arrangement moving the melody into considerably darker territory. Dessen soloed first, alternating between an extremely pliant legato and razor-sharp punctuations while Templeton began with swooning ideas that layered into a caterwauling stretch of extremes that dropped a few jaws in the process.
Coleman's "Face Of The Bass," followed, and naturally, Robaire got a full feature on this, which he explored in detail with a solo full of deliberate tones, key-shifting sequences, hammer-ons and pull-offs. After a rhythmically charged visitation of Monk's "Ugly Beauty," White introduced the band and they exploded with an uncanny representation of Coleman's "Blues Connotation," which featured each member of the group knocking it out of the park.
Early candidate for top-ten concerts of the year.
Photo by Ian Tordella
Piano virtuoso Joshua White assembled a quintet of like-minded Southern California improvisers for an explosive and expansive evening of works by jazz icons Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman to a packed and enthusiastic audience in The Back Room at 98 Bottles Saturday night.
San Diego jazz fans are extremely fortunate for the opportunity to witness the meteoric development of White, who internationally acclaimed bassist Mark Dresser referred to as a "singular talent."
What makes this so?
One factor, shared with me by Rob Thorsen, is the pianist's attitude of fearlessness. White is always eager to stretch the boundaries of musical conventions. Another is his remarkable ability to listen and absorb the contributions of musicians who have preceded him. A final important attribute is his ability to seamlessly travel from highly lyrical playing to very harmonically dense explorations--often within the same solo. What is amazing about White is that he can use materials that would sound jarring in the hands of others--and make them swing. There is always an element of the blues in his improvisations, and he can visit areas as widely divergent as stride piano, be-bop, and free improvisation without ever sounding self-conscious about it.
Beginning with the seldom heard Ornette Coleman ballad, "Beauty Is A Rare Thing," trombonist Michael Dessen and alto saxophonist Gavin Templeton loosely joined together to state the plaintive theme, while White built waves of rumbling dissonant chords beneath. Drummer Dan Schnelle intensified the drama with well-timed explosive accents with soft mallets while bassist Dave Robaire pedaled and strummed double-stops. Seamlessly, the band segued into the joyous, quasi-Latin theme "Una Muy Bonita," another Coleman classic. Templeton opened up with a wild statement that cross-referenced ideas of both Coleman and 60's legend Eric Dolphy, rocking back and forth while he worked toward a frenzy. Dessen brought the dynamics, tempo and intensity down to a whisper to explore the inner logics and possibilities-- then White waxed rhapsodic before leading the group into Coleman's "Peace," another weirdly contemplative theme. Robaire focused on choice, resonant tones before the tune transformed into a hard, wicked blues that White shifted from ecstatic streams of melody to confrontational clusters and splayed harmonies.
Dessen dipped deep into the gutbucket for an inspired plunger-mute essay that found him chortling obscene sound effects and transmuting blues clichés into fresh observations simply by displacing the accents away from the expected. Templeton began his solo with very dry curlicues in the manner of a Steve Lacy while White's solo built to a climax that fostered the emergence of "Enfant," an ebullient "free-hop" head that led directly to an astonishing Schnelle drum solo, in which one could hear the melody clearly all the way through.
White changed things up with his final selection of the first set, a rollicking Jamaican folk-song, "Doctor Bud." It was amazing how well their adaptation of this piece fit with the spirit and letter of the Coleman and Monk material.
Speaking of Monk, the second set began with "Evidence," with White's arrangement moving the melody into considerably darker territory. Dessen soloed first, alternating between an extremely pliant legato and razor-sharp punctuations while Templeton began with swooning ideas that layered into a caterwauling stretch of extremes that dropped a few jaws in the process.
Coleman's "Face Of The Bass," followed, and naturally, Robaire got a full feature on this, which he explored in detail with a solo full of deliberate tones, key-shifting sequences, hammer-ons and pull-offs. After a rhythmically charged visitation of Monk's "Ugly Beauty," White introduced the band and they exploded with an uncanny representation of Coleman's "Blues Connotation," which featured each member of the group knocking it out of the park.
Early candidate for top-ten concerts of the year.
Photo by Ian Tordella