Fill My Eyes With That Double Vision

I went back for a second dose of Vision action on Sunday, the 24th. Unfortunately, apparently Vision Festival starts too early for me because again I missed the first act, the T.E.C.K. string quartet, which is a shame because it would have been nice for some timbral variety to hear a string group at the festival.

I arrived as Hamid Drake was setting up with his group NOW, featuring Sabir Mateen on reeds, Paolo Angeli in from Italy on prepared guitar, and Patricia Nicholson on dance. I was quite excited about this one as I have really enjoyed the Drake/Angeli duo album Uotha, and although I haven't seen Sabir Mateen live on many occasions, I enjoy his playing when I have heard him on the past.

The set started out with Drake on frame drum and Mateen on clarinet, with Angeli playing his incredible guitar. If you aren't familiar with Mr. Angeli, his sardinian prepared guitar is quite a creation. Culled from a CD description of his:

"Sardinian guitar, which is sized between a conventional guitar and a double bass, and is tuned lower than a standard guitar. Paolo Angeli has taken this folk instrument and has completely re-tooled it: There is a large mechanical claw stuck onto the side of the body of the instrument, which he uses to pluck counter melodies, piano-like hammers, operated by foot pedals strike the strings and lastly, many extra strings as well as 13 pickups and microphones have been added to further extend the variety of what his instrument can do."

Go to his website and check out some pictures, it's quite an impressive creation.

Anyway, back to the set: my brief synopsis is that it simmered but never boiled over. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the ecstatic jazz set can sometimes tend towards predictable peaks, but it was a bit surprising given some of the band members tendencies towards that style of incendiary playing. Both Drake and Mateen were incredibly restrained, and there were some really fascinating textures that came out of the combination of reeds and Angeli's guitar. He really makes some un-guitaristic sounds, and utilizes some pedals in addition to his unique instrument. To be perfectly honest, I prefer the more aggressive playing from the Drake/ANgeli duo on Uotha to what I heard in concert, but it was still an enjoyable set.

Next up was the Thomas Buckner Trio with Thomas Buckner on vocals, Jerome Bourdellon on flute, and Roscoe Mitchell on his usual arsenal of reeds. I was not familiar with Buckner so I didn't know what to expect, but what we got was a mostly quiet (sometimes at a whisper level) deep listening set that I had a hard time sinking my teeth into. Personally, I would rather listen to music like this on headphones where some of the sonic subtleties can pop out a bit more, and the concert setting combined with my own mental fatigue at this point of the weekend didn't let me really focus the way I would have liked on the music. Similar to the previous set, it was interesting seeing someone like Roscoe Mitchell play with such restraint, since I'm so used to seeing him unleash torrents of musical ideas. It was akin to beholding the grandeur of the Hoover Dam while wondering how it manages to hold back all that water without springing a leak. Only a few leaks sprung out from Roscoe during the set, but otherwise he showed his deep discipline and commitment to the group aesthetic.

The third act of my musical evening was the Daniel Levin Quartet, with Mr. Levin on cello, Nate Wooley on trumpet, Joe Morris on bass and Matt Moran on vibes. I had never seen any of these players live, but I've heard Wooley, Morris, and Moran on record before, so I was interested to see what they had in store. They started out with some composed music that all went through Mr. Levin in terms of dialog. Throughout the set, they switched between composition, solos, and full band improvisations. I tended to enjoy the composed sections more, and I really enjoyed the sound of the group. As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for vibraphones, and the combination with bass, cello, and trumpet produced a great tonal pallet. My biggest complaint about this set was the sound - Mr. Levin was way too low in the mix, considering his status as band leader and since so much of the music obviously hinged on his musical cues.

The final act was akin to a heavy weight title bout, featuring Kidd Jordan on tenor saxophone, Dave Burrell on piano, William Parker on bas, and Louis Moholo on drums, under the banner Louis Moholo and Friends. Their set consisted of two long improvisations, and Kidd Jordan really came across as the band leader here, making some gestures to the other musicians to direct the sound on several occasions. Like the good folks at D:O, I found Burrell and Moholo a little low in the mix, especially Moholo from my seat.

Their set was short, about 45 minutes, and all of it was on the intense end of the free spectrum. Burrell was dazzling and attentive at the piano, engaging the band visually and musically, really adding a lot to the dialog. Kidd Jordan was fantastic as he almost always his when I see him, as I've always loved his use of the upper registers of his horn. A couple of times I would have liked to hear him take a step back so I could hear what Burrell might do in the driver's seat, but overall it was an incredibly balanced group in terms of participation.

That's all I've got to say about that. Overall, my Vision Fest highlights were Matthew Shipp's solo set, Fred Anderson Trio, and the Moholo and Friends set. Here's to hoping next year's even better. I apologize for the lack of visual documentation, but I left the old camera in Chicago. It's probably for the best, since my patented out of focus shots don't add that much to the experience.

While I was at the fest, I picked up a collection of William Parker essays entitled "Who Owns Music?" as well as Volume II of Arcana, a compilation of essays by creative musicians compiled by John Zorn. More on those as I dig in.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, there's been some good discussion going on over at DJA's Secret Society blog. It's been productive for me to be challenged and engaged in regards to some of my own thoughts, so go ahead and jump into the fray if you've got something to say.  Pat Donaher weighs in on the Zorn issue in regards to a recent David Hajdu article as well.