June 22 I went to the annual Eric Dolphy tribute concert at Yoshi’s in Oakland, California. This year pianist Vijay Iyer led the band, which also included Rudresh Mahanthappa (not an easy name to type), alto sax, Ben Goldberg, clarinet and bass clarinet, E.W. Wainwright, drums, and David Euell (sp?), double bass.
These people are all super musicians, and I hope to see them all again lots of times. I was intrigued to see Mahanthappa was going to be featured, since our correspondent Mark Ladenson had noted a kinship with Dolphy in his playing. Lades can refresh our memories about the context of this, perhaps. At first I didn’t hear this. After a few tunes I started to notice a similarity in SOUND, a sharpness that reminded me of E.D. Then during "Peggy’s Blue Skylight" I started to hear some stylistic likenesses in the note values, the urgency, and the brashness of some of the note choices. Iyer was fine as master of ceremonies. He announced each tune clearly, for which I was glad. Here’s what they did:
"Hat and Beard." Wainwright really got into the spirit of the piece. They played it noisier than Dolphy did on "Out to Lunch." Behind the piano solo, the reeds, in unison, played material from the melody, but with the note values stretched out.
"Fire Waltz," transcribed by Mahanthappa, who sounded authoritative on this and throughout the program.
"Bee Vamp," transcribed by Mahanthappa. This was wild. Both reeds solo’d continuously. Wainwright thundered like Elvin Jones.
"Peggy’s Blue Skylight." Here Mahanthappa began to sound like Dolphy to me, in a solo full of urgent 16th and faster notes.
An unaccompanied piece on clarinet by Goldberg, which to me had some of the flavor of solo Steve Lacy things I’ve heard. It was lovely and peaceful, and reminiscent of bird songs. It evolved into a fairly explicit statement of - what? Some familiar tune, but I couldn’t name it. If you were there, can you help on this?
"Impressions." Mahanthappa and Wainwright did a long duo introduction in which they proved, if proof was needed, that music that partakes of the high energy esthetic certainly needn’t be boring or self-indulgent (whatever Wynton Marsalis says). Musicians as good as these can play with apparent abandon, yet they’re hard at work filling it with melodic and rhythmic content.
"Straight Up and Down."
Andrew Hill’s "Refuge."
"Serene." Goldberg laid out on the first statement of the melody, leaving it to Iyer’s right hand and Mahanthappa, which sounded like two horns in close unison. Iyer was Monk-ish, even throwing in stride left hand like Monk sometimes did. Wainwright was nutty with brushes.
"G.W."
"Tenderly," done by Mahanthappa alone, I thought in the spirit of Dolphy’s "God Bless the Child." He kept taking bits of the melody and doing wild things with them.
"Teenie’s Blues."
I had a wonderful time.