It's a shame that this year's Jazz Show coincided with midterm exams - a lot of people sacrificed a fabulous show in favor of hitting the books. Last night, the Nicholas Payton Quintet and the Aaron Goldberg Trio brought a host of incredibly talented musicians to the Cohen stage, making for a long night of pure, passionate jazz.
The Aaron Goldberg Trio opened the show with a nod to Thelonious Monk, performing his "I Mean You." The band then switched gears to "Taurus," an original composition by Harvard alum Goldberg. Bassist Omer Avital, a native of Tel Aviv, stunned the crowd with his endurance and soloing ability, flying up and down the neck of his bass. From his gentle vibrato to his thick, accented fifths, Avital added credence to Goldberg's claim that he was a "future legend of the bass."
Sitting in on drums was legend Al Foster - Goldberg noted that Foster had played with "everyone who's anyone" in the jazz world. Foster's stunningly gentle intensity also awed the crowd - he sat behind his kit, smiling and sweating in a full suit, while playing blindingly fast, delicate rolls and crashes. All the while, Goldberg held the band together from his piano bench, his fingers brilliantly dancing over the keys. The trio showcased both its talent and the organized structure of its compositions in closing number "Mao's Blues," both an original and another gentle nod to Monk.
The Nicholas Payton Quintet exuded confidence as it took the stage just after nine and jumped into "Nick at Night." Payton brought with him a formidable array of musicians, from his 20-year old bassist to Berklee professor/pianist Anthony Wonsey.
If Goldberg's music exhibited the influence of Monk and his contemporaries, the Nicholas Payton Quintet's performance resonated with the influence of jazz giants Davis and Coltrane - even though Payton himself is heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong. Payton, who was just received a Grammy nomination for his tribute to Armstrong, Dear Louis, left much of the work to his band. Drummer Adonis Rose exhibited a style that contrasted sharply with Foster's: while the speed was there, the delicacy was not. Rose passionately and furiously tore through rolls with a dynamic intensity unmatched by any other player. Tim Warfield's searingly fast soprano saxophone screamed to be heard above the roar of the band, winning him raucous applause.
Payton himself added skilled solos to "The Magic Bag," jumping between octaves while remaining in the same melody. His work meshed well with Warfield's tenor saxophone, and often the two played their instruments in sudden harmony, revealing the underlying order of the band's often-frenetic compositions.
"I don't know what some of you college students are thinking, 'The Magic Bag,' but that's not what it's about," joked Payton in his baritone voice, one of the few times he addressed the crowd.
Though they remained silent for much of the set, Payton and Warfield were the true stars of the show. On Wayne Shorter's "Paraphernelia," Payton's trumpet echoed itself, then mimicked a plucked guitar, an example of Payton's ability to reinterpret the work of his influences. The quintet then performed "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face," a delicate track on which Payton's tender playing exuded the influence of later Satchmo.
If Warfield's patience, timing, and talent weren't enough to make him stand out, he also composed several of the songs the quintet performed, including closing number "One For Shirley." His tenor saxophone mimicked and echoed Payton's trumpet, before the group ended its performance with a few bars of careful cacophony, a nod to the avant-garde of the late '60s. Payton thanked the audience, and his band strutted offstage just as calmly as it has come on.
It's only every few months that Tufts attracts such serious talent to its campus. Next time, put down the books for a few hours.
