“Decisions, decisions” – that’s the usual mantra when it comes to the jigsaw puzzle of possibilities for a jazz weekend in Chicago. If you can fit everything worth hearing into those three nights, you have logistical skills I can only envy.
But once in while, the jazz calendar offers the rare opportunity where you pretty much needn’t make any decisions at all.
That describes the next few days from my perspective: welcome to the Weekend of Destiny. Even without checking the rest of the docket, I’ve already got my schedule dictated by a series of one-off performances I don’t dare miss.
Two of those take place at the Green Mill (Broadway & Lawrence), which breaks from routine to present different bands on Friday and Saturday. Tonight at 9, The Wee Trio makes its Chicago debut, having just released an intriguing half-album (five tunes, 30 minutes) dedicated to compositions by David Bowie, of all people. Then on Saturday at 8, the Mill plays host to the latest version of the Dave Douglas Quintet, which carries enough firepower to light up the north side.
The Wee Trio comprises vibes, bass, and drums, which might suggest tiny textures and a spare sound. But on the new Ashes To Ashes, as on their previous two albums (all on Bionic Records), the band blows those expectations up and out of the water, projecting a big, bright persona. They stay true to the Bowie tunes (including the glam-rock chameleon’s “Battle For Britain” and “1984”). But they find melodic grist for improvisation within them, proving that stripped of their wilder trappings, these remnants of Ziggy’s Stardust actually have plenty of tuneful charm.
And it’s not like the band steers away from a rock esthetic anyway: their very first tune on disc – the opening track of their debut CD – was Kurt Cobain’s “About A Girl.” Like the piano trio The Bad Plus, The Wee Trio is a jazz combo that thinks like a rock band.
Drummer Jared Schonig and bassist Dan Loomis adapt and complicate rock’s rhythms – from four-on-the-floor to straight-eight – while investing them with a fair amount of pure pop power. This foundation liberates front-man vibist James Westfall to hammer hard without abandoning the beat, or tread softly without the band losing steam, or plow a steady groove without falling into a rut.
That gives The Wee Trio a lot of flexibility; it lets them show up larger than you’d expect from such a scaled-down instrumentation – which belies their tongue-in-cheek name – and makes them a perfect fit for the cozy embrace of the Green Mill.
As I mentioned, The Wee Trio hasn’t played Chicago before; the sterling trumpeter Dave Douglas has, but it’s been long enough since he led a quintet here that his appearance may also feel likesomething new.
Douglas’s musical intelligence, and his ear for unsentimental beauty, shine through all his various projects – from a Balkan-inspired quartet with accordion and violin, to his composition-driven large ensembles, to his post-fusion band Keystone. But man for man, it’s hard to beat the compact power and overwhelming artistry conveyed by his acoustic quintet, a format that has produced some of my most memorable listening experiences over the past decade.
Actually “man for man” is a misnomer this time around, since Douglas;s band now features bassist Linda Oh, making her own Chicago debut. Oh’s self-produced album Entry stirred interest, thanks in part to the contributions of trumpeter and current whiz kid Ambrose Akinmusire, as well as her own strutting beat and authoritative sound. (Oh’s strong follow-up disc, Intitial Here, will arrive in May.)
And she’s the rookie in the group. This edition of the band includes saxist Donny McCaslin, the force-of-nature soloist who has frequently collaborated with Douglas (and now records for the trumpeter’s busy Greenleaf label); the versatile and superlative drummer Clarence Penn; and pianist Kenny Werner, whose musical intellect matches Douglas’s own, and whose 1996 book Effortless Mastery has become a bible for on technique and artistic philosophy for two generations of jazz musicians.
It takes nothing away from the band’s other stars to say that Werner’s presence provides the most compelling lure. On his own – either solo or leading a trio – Werner is a merely devastating pianist; larger groups, from quintet to orchestra, also reveal his genius for color and composition. But the prospect of him in a band led by Douglas – whose singular vision includes an ego-free generosity within his own bands – holds tantalizing promise.
Sunday I usually prefer to stay home. This weekend offers no such option.
At the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E. Chicago), at 3 PM, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) continues its MCA residency with a concert entitled “George Lewis and Friends,” honoring the Chicago native whose early work as an AACM trombonist paved the way for a lifelong interest in computer-enhanced composition and avant-garde performance. (He also authored the extraordinarily researched and wonderfully written history of the AACM, A Power Stronger Than Itself, which arrived to ringing reviews in 2009.)
ICE will perform two compositions by Lewis – who spends his days as vice-chair of the music department at Columbia University in NY – as well as works by several musicians who count him as a mentoring influence.
These other performer-composers include two well-known members of New York’s experimental-music community – saxophonist Steve Lehman and drummer Tyshawn Sorey – who have rarely if ever played here; and flutist Nicole Mitchell, a much-loved local presence during her 20 years in Chicago, before she moved to California last summer. (This will be only her second appearance back in Chicago since then, after a family emergency forced her to cancel two concerts here in January.)
Lewis will perform as well, reminding some and schooling others in the fact that, among his other accomplishments, he was a key figure in exponentially increasing the trombone’s range of technique in the 1970s and 80s.
Of course, the schedule has plenty more going on, from pianist Bob Mamet (yep, playwright David’s brother) at the Jazz Showcase, to saxist Chris Greene’s band at Pete Miller’s in Evanston, to Andy’s – where the magnificent pianist Ryan Cohan leads a new venture in the early evenings, and the Nia Quintet led by trumpeter Scott Anderson plays the later sets. I’ll try to squeeze them in if I can.
But for the most part, I already know where I’ll be from tonight through Sunday.
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