In a rare jazz event here, the String Trio of NY played last night. John Lindberg, bass, and James Emery, guitar, have been with this group since its inception 20 years ago. For the first nine years the violinist was Billy Bang, and they've gone through several others including Regina Carter. Currently the violinist is Diane Monroe who was with the Uptown String Quartet, a group that if my understanding is correct, played both classical pieces and jazz classics. Though they didn't improvise, they did swing, sort of like the Kronos Quartet's jazz efforts of a decade ago. Max Roach's daughter, violist, Maxine, is (at least was) a member of the Uptown Quartet. (I recall they got about 30 seconds on one of the Cosby shows years ago).
The String Trio plays mostly music composed by its members though a few more familiar things are mixed in. Last night they did "Peggy's Blue Skylight", "Ruby My Dear", and "Caravan." Unfortunately, expecially on the first two, those pieces weren't developed at anything like the length of their original compositions. There was some string equivalents of the shrieks of outside saxophonists but not too much. I have to assume the music had a wilder character when Bang was the violinist. On one piece all three players tapped a narrow stick against the strings of their instrument (what Greg Turner called a chopstick when we saw bassist Tatsu Aoki use it with Fred Anderson in their set at the Jazz Record Mart the Saturday of ChiJzFst, as I mentioned last week).
Monroe introduced "her favorite piece the group does", Lindberg's "Soaring Wings." A few times a year I seem to have occasion to mention that great mid-60s album by Ponty, Dauner, Humair and a bassist I never recall. This piece didn't quite have the angst of "You've Changed" from that album but I was reminded of it nevertheless.
The attendance certainly underscored why we don't get more jazz here. Because of construction, the parking ramp has only half its normal capacity. There were predictions of severe thunderstorms so I got there early to be sure to get in. I backed into an angle-parking spot and when I was in the theatre thought that wasn't such a good idea because I'd have to cut very sharply to get into the line heading out. Got back to the section I'd parked in and there wasn't a single other car there. Never seen that ramp so empty.
I'd certainly recommend you go to see the String Trio of New York if they come to "a theater near you."