Students of jazz music are told with earnest gravity that the genre is a marriage of improvisation and conversation, that masters are liberated by their deep technical practice to engage in utterly spontaneous musical discussion with their peers.
Out of the classroom and in the clubs students discover that improvisational expression is often supplanted by rehearsed composition masquerading as spontaneity. Performers are constrained not by skill or potential, but by their attachment to motifs that have been successful in extracting desired audience reactions. Loath to be seen as boring or staid, they become so by revisiting the same territory that has impressed previous listeners.
Sitting for a performance of the Gill Aharon Trio, as I did on a Wednesday at The Lilypad in Cambridge, I was struck by the degree to which the trio delivers on the promise of jazz as truly spontaneous and authentic musical discussion.
Aharon on the piano and Mike Connors on the drums are inexhaustible improvisers, moving through so many tonal, melodic, rhythmic, dynamic, and textural territories that it seems no gesture ever repeats. The spontaneity lags in Jef Charland’s bass performance, which is laden with too many notes that feel, if not rehearsed, then reliant on established ideas. His case is not helped by a muddy bass tone which lacks the punch of clarity while falling a little short of embodied warmth. This may be an issue of the amplification method, or of the instrument itself, because Charland seems to have a nice touch.
Students of jazz also come to realize how often performers are not in conversation with each other, as much as engrossed in themselves and their instruments. As in everyday conversation, it takes courage to listen attentively without planning what to say next. Here again the trio excels, predominantly in the piano and drums, though the bass demonstrates real responsiveness that seems to deepen throughout the set, like a shy individual at a party who finds the company warm and inviting.
Audiences of exceptional jazz are rewarded by an ability to follow the conversation when everyone on stage is speaking in rapid succession, or all at once. Listening to Aharon’s trio, I sensed that they could leave us utterly in the dark, but wanted us to hear what they were saying, and we did.
There’s a lighthearted humor and humility to their performance. They didn’t pretend we weren’t present, nor did they pander to our expectations or exaggerate musical absorption as a means of alienating or impressing us. Laughter broke out in the room when Aharon stopped a misdirection with a simple unassuming, “Whoops!” After a warm chuckle on stage, the musicians launched back into conversation.
The trio is made further accessible by the fact that they play most Wednesdays at The Lilypad, and that the cover charge is $10. One is hard-pressed to find a ticket so affordable now, and free of inflated service fees, complex ticketing procedures, or a demand for personal contact information to be used in future marketing.
Walk up, put ten dollars in the jar, and take a seat. The seats, though, are uncomfortable: low hard wooden benches with no backs. They are topped with thin loose pads which are a thoughtful touch, but do nothing for the coccyx or spine. The regular effort to find a more comfortable way to position myself was a distraction from the music. However, for the dedicated listener—and this trio is worth the commitment—the experience can be helped by arriving early enough to get a seat against the wall, and by bringing a lumbar pillow. (Another note on accessibility: the venue is entered via a short set of stairs, but a wheelchair ramp can be supplied upon request.)
Listeners who return again and again may be treated to extra rewards. The night I attended featured two additional performers, Jesse Gallagher and Peter Barnick.
Jesse Gallagher sat cross-legged on the floor and fed wordless vocalizations through a set of electronic equipment arrayed before him. The presence of a human voice increased the feeling of intimacy and relatability, while the wordless delivery freed listeners from any demand to process linguistic meaning.
Peter Barnick added to the soundscape with percussive as well as tonal implements. These included various drums, whirring tubes, glass jars containing water, and other resonant canisters. Flexible plastic tubes cut to varying lengths and labeled by tone were passed out to audience members (mine was a C#/Db). When spun in the aisles, these generated pitched whirrs with the faintest elated wail in the high end. This too reduced the sense of distance between performers and audience. For a few minutes we were all in on the conversation and it was fun.
The Gill Aharon Trio can be found most Wednesdays at 8:15 p.m. at the Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge.
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