Live Shows 3:

Tony Malaby's Exploding Heart: Jazz Gallery - June 9th 2007

I was "fortunate" enough to catch a very unique group at the Jazz Gallery this June. Tony Malaby, one of today's most sought after contemporary saxophonists, was leading his group at the gallery. His band of choice, from a subjective standpoint, seemed extraordinary. Nasheet Waits (drums) is one of the more sought after drummers on the scene right now, both with mainstream players like Fred Hersch, Mark Turner, Antonio Hart as well as cutting-edge modern players Jason Moran, Ralph Alessi and Hamiet Bluiett. William Parker (bass) has garnered an amount of respect as an avante-garde player that few seem to approach these days, and has been a serious sideman for over 20 years with the likes of Cecil Taylor, Peter Brotzmann, Roscoe Mitchell, and Matthew Shipp. The meeting of these three players promised good results, and although they have been playing together for a while and are even releasing an album, their chemistry on stage this particular night was bewildering. Granted, these players reside on a completely different plane than us 'mortals' in the audience; but then again they are supposed to be entertaining us, am I wrong? I'll give these players the benefit of the doubt and assume that their level of expertise and intuition just superseded my comprehension. But, as a listener, there was little that my mind could latch onto. Malaby seemed to be playing to himself in one corner, while Waits played to himself in the other. Parker, meanwhile, struggled between the two; trying to find a happy medium but ultimately finding himself lost in the mix. While Malaby and Waits demonstrated technical abilities few others could muscle, they failed to demonstrate (at least to the audience) any sort of traditional sense of musical cooperation. And Parker, while living up to his reputation as a true individual, refused to hold any sort of traditional bass-player roll, and thus further cluttered an already confusing soundscape. The band played two songs, both exceeding 30 minutes in length, yet I found little direction in either piece, and although music was being read, the fact that I knew the players were conforming to any sort of arrangement made me even more disappointed as a listener. There is modern jazz, there is contemporary jazz, there is avante garde jazz, there is free jazz and then there is Tony Malaby's Exploding Heart. I have to admit, I haven't reached that last point of musicality.

2/10