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Live From New York
Big Bands: Wayne Horvitz, Satoko Fujii, Steve Lehman, Kenny Werner & Andrew D'Angelo
Martin Longley
Martin Longley also writes for the BBC Music website, Jazzwise and The Wire magazines, plus the NYC Jazz Record and Coventry Telegraph newspapers.As the evening progressed, Sasha Brown's guitar rose up into serrated dominance, having begun as a barely audible comping instrument. Drummer Dan Weiss became increasingly responsive, followed by dominant (once again, this was of an extremely positive nature), reacting, then driving, hitting sharp, juddering accents, brutal tattoos and forming running allegiances with whoever was soloing. Trombonist Jacob Garchik had filled in for Brian Drye during the first set, but was caught so much in thrall that he stayed on once the latter had arrived, subject to D'Angelo's quips.
Speaking of sets, D'Angelo didn't cease his playing for long. The second set began half an hour early, and the venue's executive director Saadia Salahuddeen had to interrupt the proceedings to inform the leader that the second set's potential audience was waiting in line outside the entrance, eventually destined to experience the night's third set. D'Angelo joshed that she used to tell him to stop playing in 1987, so times hadn't changed much. After another fleeting pause, the big band just continued blowing, repeating a couple of numbers which were given an even lustier treatment. As D'Angelo observed, this evening was imbued with the urgency and informality of the old loft days. He was undoubtedly correct. This gig will surely go down in history as one of 2010's front runners. Absolutely everything was here.
