In the program notes to last night's show at the new Roulette on Atlantic Avenue, composer Joel Harrison had this to say:
"For many years I have held up an ideal: to bring under one roof those sounds I most love. This often involves working with seemingly disparate systems of music. If modern composers have taught us anything, it is that nothing is incompatible anymore – all music exists contemporaneously, and each new piece brings us a code to crack."
In this case, the code is: how to get jazz improvisers who don't read music to groove with a classical percussion quartet playing from a score. And, then, on top of all that, how to integrate an Indian drone instrument that can't play western harmony.
The result was Still life – Turning World: a seven movement suite performed for the first time last night by the Talujon Percussion Quartet, along with a full jazz quartet (including Harrison himself on guitar) and a sarode: a kind-of sideways sitar played with furious energy by Anupam Shobhakar. Harrison is nominally a jazz artist, but Still Life truly transcended genre: it had a strong sense of narrative, a clear structure and propulsive momentum. Even though I was way up in the balcony, I found myself bouncing in my seat.
At one point late in the piece, Shobhakar engaged in a lethal duel with drummer/tabla player Dan Weiss: easily one of the best drummers I've seen in a long time. (I last saw Weiss with Rudresh Mahanthappa at the Brooklyn Museum; he also plays with Lee Konitz, Uri Caine and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, among others.)
Roulette was only about half full last night, partly because it was Rosh Hashannah, but also because the crowd seemed limited to jazz aficionados. Which is a shame, because I know a bunch of composers and musicians from at least two other genres who would have completely dug this. Next time.
More pics on the photo page.