#jazzcentral

Chris Bate's Spring Cleaning @ Jazz Central

Performing Terry Riley's "In C"

Cody McKinney - electric bass Casey O'Brien - electric bass Charles Fletcher - electric bass Doan Brian Roessler - string bass Martin Dosh - piano, keys, percussion Cory Healey - drums, percussion Greg Schutte - drums, percussion Chris Bates - string bass

In the cozy confines of Jazz Central Studios (NE Minneapolis), the octet above brought to life a riveting performance of Terry Riley's work "In C". The 1964 piece is open to liberal interpretation (and if you're not familiar follow the link below for a good, quick description of the piece on wikipedia) and is definitely an influential piece on a variety of music to come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_C

I heard strong elements of early, experimental Pink Floyd, Phish, Chemical Brothers as well as modern compositions (i.e. John Adam's 'Short Ride In A Fast Machine') just to name a few of the most obvious influences in this setting. The piece, I believe, ran just under an hour and the obvious commitment to the material and hard work of getting it ready was evident as the musicians seemed to let out a collective breath after being in deep concentration throughout the work. It was wonderfully performed, and it was great to sit back and just let the waves of music wash over you as their various parts mingled with one another in an amazing trance.

In the second set the group (minus Cody McKinney, who was unable to stay after the initial performance, and Doan Brain Roessler) proceeded with a free improvisation that had a chaotic start but yielded into a funky groove that, I think, Charles Fletcher started laying down and the band gravitated to for a while. The band then launched into space and after an amazing array of technical display came right back down to earth as the group was able to as a collective ebb and flow with where the music went. That was followed by another shorter piece with Doan Brian Roessler back into the mix, that was also exciting and well executed. With the manic highs and the lulling, soothing sparseness of the final two free pieces the 2nd set held it's own compared to the first.

It was a pleasure to hear these excellent and flexible musicians come together for these two very special sets of music in the BASSment of Jazz Central Studios!

(Full disclosure: I know a number of the people that participated in the performance)

This blog was written Under The Influence of...Queen- Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl (DVD), Can- Tago Mago (another band that was very possibly inspired by "In C")

Coming to Minneapolis tonight!

 I also want to mention 2 places in the cities that I've recently seen jazz shows that you can almost always get a high quality jazz show (although they could be outside the box).