 Photo by Andrea Canter
Last night, three kindred
spirits, all rooted in Minnesota despite their individually distinct
career paths, turned the Dakota stage into a tablet of collective
composition. Over a year ago, bassist Gordon Johnson invited pianist
Bill Carrothers and drummer Dave King to come into the studio to lay
down a few tracks that Johnson envisioned for his latest "Trios"
project - the third installment of piano trio recordings featuring
multiple groupings. A few hours of spontaneous improvisation later,
Johnson realized that this project alone warranted its own recording.
The end result was Shine Ball under the musical leadership of
Bill Carrothers, released by Fresh Sound/New Talent in late 2005
[click
here for a review of Shine
Ball]. This recording was officially celebrated last night at
the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis, yet the tracks from the recording
could not be reconstructed; as Johnson noted, "We
probably won't be playing any of the tunes from the disc because we
never learned them. They were totally spontaneous! Maybe
something will sound somewhat like something on the disc, but who
knows? That's the jazzy fun of it." Instead, a mostly
attentive audience was treated to an equally, if not even more
compelling session of joint creation in which all manner of musical
possibility was tossed out, pounced upon, and turned inside out, from
familiar phrases of standards, hymns, and even television commercials
to wholly new combinations of sounds ranging from exquisite to
eccentric.
 Photo by Andrea Canter Twin Cities native Bill
Carrothers is perhaps the most virtuosic
under-the-radar-screen pianist and composer on the planet, a star in
Europe and seldom a headliner on this side of the Atlantic despite a
long list of acclaimed recordings as leader and sideman. His
occasional returns "home" (he now lives in Michigan) are always
cause for celebration and a few hot gigs, such as last weekend's
mesmerizing sets with the Jim Rotondi Quartet at the Artists Quarter.
Minneapolis-based drummer Dave King plays anchorman to
the Bad Plus and Happy Apple, the former a rock-star-status nouveau
jazz machine and the latter a rising meteor of the Genny X avant
garde proletariat. Yet with neither of these immensely popular
ensembles does King display the depth and breadth of talent that
propels the music of this trio. And Gordon Johnson,
who returned to the Twin Cities after successful tours with Maynard
Ferguson to serve as everyone's favorite sideman, is only separated
by geography from the upper echelon of contemporary acoustic
bassists.
To fully enjoy the
spontaneity and creativity of this trio, one must suspend expectation
and sit back with ears wide open--open to hearing totally new
structures as well as fragments and themes that we know well, but
which are given new contexts and new life. And the more the listener
allows the music to wend its way through layers of gray matter, the
greater the reward, as a multitude of ideas await the mind's
reconstruction. The first set included a nearly hymnal play on the
"Oscar Meyer Weiner" theme that morphed easily into "What A
Friend We Have in Jesus;" "Three Blind Mice" scurried through
several tone poems; and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" evolved from
sonic signals that initially seemed far removed from blues and boogie.
The heat turned up in the second set, opening with multiple fragments
of Civil War songs, reflecting Carrothers' love of military history
which he has brought into the recording studio on several occasions
(e.g., The Blues and Grays, Armistice 1918, Civil War
Diaries). "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was obtusely
rendered with two-handed trills sliding into "Taps," while King's
fractured press rolls lent a demented military air. Johnson took the
lead on the next effort, a winnowing bassline sounding a funereal
ostinato, King picking up the creative baton with a symphony of
cymbals and rippling his sticks against the sides of a snare that
looked precariously moored to its base, ready to lift off at any
moment. Group unity prevailed and the trio brought this one to a
close with the eerie sensations of plucked piano strings, a cymbal
squeal, and the light grate of hand rubbing wood.
Another drama followed,
Carrothers pounding the keyboard like a boogie-woogie nomad from
Pluto while King swatted drumsticks against skins. From somewhere in the galaxy
Carrothers brought forth phrases from "Someday My Prince Will Come,"
while Johnson tapped out a deep ostinato dirge, time and melody
fragmented in infinite variations; it was all very clever without
becoming precious, accelerating toward a group explosion of free
will, yet never falling over the edge into chaos. Arguably the peak
of the evening, "God Bless America" became a slowly simmering
ballad, with King stroking the snare with a brush so light that it
seemed he was merely pushing air above the surface. The spontaneous
variations in harmony evolved into a dark, minor key bolero, King
swatting his brushes at mere gnats and Johnson's pizzicato
counterpoint challenging the keyboard to a friendly duel. Even that
noisy table in back fell silent as the trio engaged all ears with
this romantic etude, Johnson and Carrothers yielding to King's
climb up the dynamic ladder, which he decisively resolved with a
series of resounding bangs.
 Photo by Andrea Canter A new episode found Gordy
Johnson in a funky groove while Carrothers adjusted the innards of
the piano, finding a twang that fit perfectly with the bassline while
King hauled out his percussion toys, suddenly slashing a cymbal with
that drumstick tucked surreptitiously under his arm. By this point
Carrothers' adjustments enabled the piano to sound like a companion
percussion device. Moving ahead to another invention, Carrothers
further revealed his affinity for hymns in the guise of nursery
rhymes, or is it vice versa? The ensemble propelled this one from
hymn to swing with percussion leading the way with an infectious beat
and Carrothers staging a rumble from "West Side Story."
There is little in the
world of jazz, or more generally in music, that compares to the
opportunity to observe the creative act as it occurs and as three
masters of invention bring disparate concepts logically
together, taking elements that individually may be ordinary to be
rearranged anew and extraordinary, while also finding ways to reveal
what makes each contribution unique and fleeting. One only regrets
that this glorious evening was not recorded and can only linger a
while in human memory.
Bill Carrothers will
appear with the Pat Mallinger Quartet at the Green Mill in Chicago,
April 14-15 (www.greenmilljazz.com).
Although the live performance is not captured on disc, the next best
thing is the Bill Carrothers Trio's new recording, Shine Ball,
available on CD Baby ( www.cdbaby.com)
and from Bridgeboy Music at
www.bridgeboymusic.com
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Thursday, 08 January 2009
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