Home » Jazz Articles » Live From Philadelphia » June 2012: Gunshow

2

June 2012: Gunshow

By

View read count
Gunshow

Chris' Jazz Café

Philadelphia, PA

June 20, 2012

Gunshow, a band which has been performing somewhat regularly in the Philadelphia area for a few years, with a repertoire comprised largely of original compositions, performed two sets at Chris' Jazz Café in Center City, Philadelphia.

The band's draw in the Philadelphia area can be attributed to the fact that each of its members is a busy sideman within the city's jazz community. The quartet consists of guitarist Tim Wendel, alto saxophonist Mike Cemprola, bassist Leon Boykins, and drummer Matt Scarano. Boykins and Scarano have also played together as members of tenor saxophonist Ben Schachter's Trio, releasing the album Omnibus (Ben-Jam) in 2008. Cemprola currently holds the alto saxophone chair in Norman David's Eleventet, and also performs with the Philadelphia-based Exuberance. Wendel is mainly a busy freelancer, but performs as a member of Hypercube while leading some gigs with his own trio. Pianist Matt Mitchell began his career in Philadelphia but has developed a growing presence on the New York jazz scene, and joined the group here as a special guest for the entire performance.

A large portion of the material throughout the evening was original, much of which could be attributed to Wendel and Cemprola. The band has a unique way of presenting its music, layering Cemprola's intricate melodic lines over Wendel's shifting harmonies. The interplay between Cemprola and Wendel seemed inspired from the beginning of the set. Within each improvisation, the cohesion between Scarano and Boykins became more and more clear, providing an effortless yet precise framework within which the musicians could work.

Mitchell stood out especially on "Bye-Ya," a Thelonious Monk composition which the group played in 7/4 time. Mitchell took an extended solo in which he developed knotty, angular lines before resolving unexpectedly, ending with a dissonant chord voicing. He seemed to favor a somewhat Lennie Tristano-inspired approach of utilizing the lower octaves of the piano, usually reserved for comping or ignored altogether by traditional jazz pianists. It seems as though Monk's music has become especially popular amongst modern jazz musicians (especially pianists) in the last few years, but Mitchell approached the music with a fresh sound that did not lean too heavily on the composer's influence. He favored originality over imitation without sacrificing substance in the process.

The conclusion to the band's summer bookings for Philadelphia, though it was the third night in a row that the band had performed together, this is not typical for the city. The members of this band are simply too busy to play together regularly, one of the difficulties of being in-demand sidemen.

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Jazz article: Bruce Hornsby and yMusic at the Merriam Theater
Jazz article: Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Sirius Juju and Unspeakable Garbage at Jerry's on Front
Jazz article: Aaron Goldberg Trio at @exuberance
Live From Philadelphia
Aaron Goldberg Trio at @exuberance

Popular

Read Take Five with Pianist Irving Flores
Read Jazz em Agosto 2025
Read Bob Schlesinger at Dazzle
Read SFJAZZ Spring Concerts
Read Sunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
Read Vivian Buczek at Ladies' Jazz Festival

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.