|
Directions In Music :: 02.07.05 :: Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium :: Santa Cruz, CA
Right before Directions in Music took the stage at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on February 7th, their road manager Bill Winn asked the band for a set list. They laughed at him, which boded well for how the whole evening was going to play out: fun, unscripted, completely unexpected, and pushing the envelope of what instruments can accomplish.
Herbie Hancock by Tasic Dragan |
Directions in Music first emerged as a jazz supergroup in 2002, dedicated to exploring the musical idiom of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The goal was not simply to celebrate their compositions, but to blaze a new trail with time-honored compositions as a starting point. For both legendary pioneers, jazz was about the moment - not what the band rehearsed before they took the stage, but what freely flowed out of them when they took the stage together. This was the spirit in which Directions in Music was born. After a sold out tour that spanned the globe in 2002, the group reassembled this year to stretch the boundaries of improvisation using other influential contemporary composers as inspiration, such as Jaco Pastorius, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Stevie Wonder, and group leader Herbie Hancock.
Waiting for the show to start that night, I thought about what I knew about this band. I knew that each member was a talented, accomplished musician in his or her own right, but that Hancock was the clear driving and artistic force that unified and led this band. Hancock's current favorite weapon of choice is a Fazioli grand piano that measures 10 feet and 2 inches long, but I could also see an impressive synth keyboard and PowerBook sitting on top of the behemoth piano. Once the lights went down, I realized that I actually knew far less than I thought I did, but I was about to learn a lot. Quickly.
The opening song began as a duet with Hancock on the synth and Teri Lyne Carrington on drums. Though the tempo was slow, the intensity was rising exponentially. Carrington played with languorous, deliberate power that gave me shivers of anticipation about what was ahead. Scott Colley added his thick baseline, and suddenly there was a beat that any drum and bass techno fan would appreciate. Yet the ethereal sound coming from Hancock, though heavily and distinctly electronic, was undeniably jazz. If things were a little wonderfully strange with just the three of them playing, once Michael Brecker entered the mix, things got a lot weirder and exponentially more fascinating.
Scott Colley by Gouin Fabrice |
Brecker was playing an EWI – electronic wind instrument. I couldn't stop thinking that it looked like one of the instruments played in the bar where Obi Wan Kenobi meets Han Solo in Star Wars. The tone he was evoking from it definitely felt like it was from a galaxy far, far away. Yet in spite of the modern, electronic, and undeniably "out-there" sound coming from the stage, this was not free jazz. There was a distinct melody running underneath it all, and it was captivating and deliciously confusing at the same time. Then Roy Hargrove picked up his trumpet, and it all came back to Earth. Sort of. He wasn't wailing on the horn but rather playing with a contained fire. The audience's anticipation was building steadily. It seemed evident that there was a lot of power on that stage that was being withheld until just the right moment.
Songs flowed seamlessly together and moved fluidly back and forth from electronic to acoustic, Brecker switching from EWI to sax and Hancock from synth to grand. We began to approach the zenith when the whole band minus Brecker left the stage, and he took an extended solo on the enigmatic and awesome EWI. Imagine that a flute and an electric guitar had a love child. Their offspring would be the EWI. I understand the concept of MIDI and how it can change one man into an orchestra, but I never imagined a sound like this - completely original, stylized, powerful, and coming solely from what looked like a George Lucas movie prop. The rest of the band came back on stage and from my seat I had a clear, unobstructed view of Herbie Hancock shaking his ass as he walked to his throne. When he sat down, all of that sonic power that had been yearning to be set free was released on a riveted audience in an explosion of groove. It was mildly earth moving, especially when the band flowed seamlessly from electric funky beats to disciplined straight-ahead acoustic jazz and then back to funk in the next 16 bars. It was jaw dropping.
Terry Lyne Carrington |
Through the whole roller coaster ride of musical forms that were coming from the stage, the unequivocal glue that held it all together was Terry Lyne Carrington. To describe her as an aggressive drummer is like saying that Mike Tyson has a minor violence problem. She was a commanding, captivating presence behind her kit, playing like a human volcano that erupts authoritative, perfectly placed beats. Carrington grounded the musicians, keeping the whole affair from drifting off into the unrecognizable stratosphere. Her timing and snap were inspired and intuitive. At the end of the night, when Herbie introduced each band member, her round of applause dwarfed even Hancock's. If you take nothing else away from this review, know that you MUST see this woman play. You'll find something that can legitimately be described as "shock and awe."
After the encore ended, and the venue slowly began to clear, I sat dumbfounded, trying to find a way to process all that had transpired that evening. Tim Jackson, the show's producer described it best. "The majority of people at that show probably would've enjoyed it just as much, if not more, if they had come out and played straight ahead versions of the songs Herbie is famous for – 'Watermelon Man,' 'Dolphin Song,' 'Maiden Voyage,' any of those. And he knows that, but he doesn't care. That's not what he is about. He is constantly innovating, experimenting, and stretching the boundaries. That's what makes him a true artist."
He could rest on his laurels and never create anything new for the rest of his life, and he would still be a legend. But that's just not enough for him, and for that music lovers everywhere should be grateful. He embodies the true spirit of jazz, leading this group of phenomenal musicians into uncharted waters and coming up with pure gold.
Robyn Rubinstein
JamBase | Santa Cruz
Go See Live Music!
|
