Random Notes

It's been kind of strange trying to come back down to earth after last week's Trio M show. Everyday life looks and feels a bit bland after something that memorable. That and it's been just a hellacious teaching week, as every week is.

How I wish I could have coaxed a few more students to come to the show. One first year student, Zoe, three undergrad English Majors, Randi and Shelby and Derek (who videotaped it), and three grad students, Michael and Sarah and Stephanie. They always seem interested when I'm describing it and urging them on, but I guess it's like a lot of the time....they're not really listening. The master class was beyond belief. They talked for an hour and a half about what they listen for, how they improvise. We had to cut them off...they might *still* be talking if we hadn't stopped them.

I've been listening a lot to Matt Wilson's "Scenic Route," and trying to imagine Terrel Stafford's off-center embouchure, which Matt described at the Master Class. It's such a straight-ahead album that it's also kinda hard to picture the drummer as the same guy who was feeling his way into infinity and beyond, in the trio. Like I've said in an earlier post, it's a road album, and while I suppose you could listen to Trio M on your car stereo as you're tooling down the freeway, I just don't see it as the kind of music you drink Pabst to.

There's Pabst all over "Scenic Route." Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Milwaukee's Finest, and Goebel's (from Detroit), Red White and Blue . . . I remember a time in my younger days when Rolling Rock would be in that series, but it has long since graduated into hipper categories.

Next up, Marcus Shelby, on March 7.

These pics were taken this morning at the RJA Master Class. Marty Ehrlich, Mark Dresser, Myra Melford, Matt Wilson. They put on a fantastic show last night. Scroll down for a slideshow of the concert and reception.

RJA's Latest Missive

Greetings from the Redwood Jazz Alliance. We hope you're planning on joining us for pianist Myra Melford, multi-reedist Marty Ehrlich, bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Matt Wilson this Saturday, January 26 at 8 p.m in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. If you don't yet have your tickets, they can still be purchased at our website (http://redwoodjazzalliance.org/tickets.htm), at People's Records, the Metro and the Works in Arcata and Eureka or at the door the night of the show. Tickets are $15 general admission and $10 for students and seniors.

Bob Doran of the North Coast Journal did a very nice interview with Myra, only part of which made it into the Journal. The entire interview can be read at the Journal's blog: http://tinyurl.com/2esxlz

The RJA's Eric Neel also had the opportunity to talk recently with Myra. Their wide-ranging and revealing conversation is on our website:

http://tinyurl.com/yvxnsx

Don't forget about the free workshop that Melford, Ehrlich, Dresser and Wilson are presenting Sunday at 11 a.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

We'll see you Saturday night!

The Redwood Jazz Alliance

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To be added or removed from our list, just send us an e-mail at rja@redwoodjazzalliance.org.

The Redwood Jazz Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz performance and education by visiting artists in Humboldt County. For more information about us, please visit our web site at www.redwoodjazzalliance.org

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Bob Doran Interviews Myra Melford

Local music critic/columnist Bob Doran has a really interesting interview in this week's North Coast Journal.

Bob really knows what questions to ask and how to ask them. He gets her to talk rather a lot about her pending visit to Arcata.

It's on the newstands today, and here.

A New Review of "Big Picture" at AllAboutJazz

Big Picture

Trio M | Cryptogramophone (2007)

By Sean Patrick Fitzell

Superficially, the combination of pianist Myra Melford, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Matt Wilson might seem unusual, though the three have previously commingled. Melford and Dresser are known for their work in freer contexts or exploring extended compositional forms, while Wilson—by no means a neo-traditionalist—has forged a reputation playing more established forms and grooves. After years of musing about a trio, the three convened for a gig and were so pleased with the results that they played more, ultimately heading to a studio to record Big Picture.

Each musician contributes compositions but, with the exception of the ambitious, suite-like title track penned by Melford, the pieces were written for other groups, rearranged and reinterpreted here. Stripped of the brass and reeds of the original version, the pianist’s “brainFire and bugLight” is spacious, with Wilson, then Dresser, embellishing the spare piano introduction. The intensity builds as they playfully tease the theme, move into open passages and coalesce again. A rolling tom-tom rhythm burbles beneath Dresser’s “For Bradford,” a piece written for his drummer-less trio, showing the malleability of the composition and Wilson’s inventiveness. The drummer’s “Naïve Art” boasts a staggering, bluesy feel that Melford peppers with roadhouse swagger and with Dresser’s arco spiraling, an accelerating ensemble figure hurtles toward the conclusion.

The title track exemplifies Trio M’s modern approach: the improvisations seamlessly segue to composed sections without emphatically stated head-solo-head forms. Wilson’s probing opens the piece and later urges the fleet-fingered Dresser’s thrumming cushion for Melford’s flourishes and percussive key hammering. When the tempo ebbs, her spare notes, amid light drum and cymbal colors, accent a mournfully bowed bass that melts to a whisper.

With a nod to its enduring fertility, Trio M joyfully confounds expectations with the litheness afforded by the piano trio format.

Visit Trio M on the web.

Track listing: brainFire and bugLight; For Bradford; Naïve Art; Big Picture; Modern Pine; Secrets to Tell You; FreeKonomics.

Personnel: Myra Melford: piano; Mark Dresser: bass; Matt Wilson: drums.

Style: Modern Jazz/Free Improvisation | Published: January 11, 2008

Today's "Arcata Eye"

Today's Arcata Eye features the RJA and the upcoming Myra Melford show big time: headlines in section 2. Brother Eric Neel again takes the mic to talk about the organization, the band and the upcoming concert.

You have to buy the newspaper to see it, as they don't put brand new content up on their web site.

Check it out!

Update! You can now access the story on line, here.