Samm Bennett left the US seven years ago to settle in Japan, forming the band Skist, a duo with Haruna Ito, and playing exclusively abroad. After being a mainstay in the Downtown NY scene with his bands Chunk and Third Person with Tom Cora, Samm was a missed element. This concert at a new space in Soho marked his much anticipated return. Location One, a downtown nonprofit gallery that has previously hosted performances of avantgarde and improvisation by the likes Shelley Hirsch and Ikue Mori. This concert introduced the audience to their new expanded space, a much larger room with good acoustics and better technical capability.
The concert was divided into two sets, the first being Bennett solo, and then a trio with Ned Rothenberg and Marc Ribot. Bennett's setup is what he describes as "very old school": a table filled with a mixing board, a couple of drum machines, a CD player, a small low-tech synth, delays and other pedals, and a standard drum kit with an assortment of sticks and unusual brushes. His setup could be compared with Chris Cutler's electrified kit, though Bennett relies more on synth and drum machine to propel his creations. Rothenberg played sax, clarinet and bass clarinet, while Ribot brought an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar and a banjo, along with a variety of pedals.
Bennett's solo set began with his electronic setup, an unusual assortment of devices. Bennett began by developing a drone feedback using a suspended refrigerator vegetable tray to which he applied various small, odd vibrating devices, one of which looked like a small pink squid; at one point he began swinging the tray into the microphone to create a huge bass drum sound. Peering off into space, Bennett slowly introduced trance-like cycles of feedback, then simple oscillating rhythms from his synths, manually punctuating them with dense counterpoints from his mixer. Bringing that into a simple but very unique looping drum pattern he moved to the kit, playing against the rhythms in an intuitive and attentive way. To end the piece he returned back to the electronic set, resolving the piece with a drone similar to the piece's beginning, trailing off to silence.
After a short break the concert resumed as a trio, performing three improvisations with Ned Rothenberg introducing the set.
The first piece developed quickly, Ribot clanging on his guitar while Rothenberg developed extended patterns using his characteristic circular breathing. Bennett provided crashing stacatto counterpoint as the piece evolved, Ribot acting as a virtual synthesizer fluttering with his effect pedals, and then raising up to a series of histrionic explosions. The three played dynamically, clearly listening and reacting to each other, as the piece quickly retracted as Rothenberg took his bass clarinet into a digeridoo space while Ribot squeaked on a green balloon with his hands (!) Bennett then brought the piece back up with propulsive strength, and his concentration seemed incredibly focused and ever alert as he offered rhythms and counter-rhythms, always shifting and changing but maintaining an incredibly strong pulse. As the piece developed, Bennett switched to his electronic set, Rothenberg began playing unusual harmonic overtones and Ribot alternated between skronky guitar and quick banjo strums. I was struck by the unity the players showed, as though they were playing a well known jazz number- this was exemplary improvisation, a joyous, complex and diverse set of ideas that remained coherent and interesting throughout. As I was thinking how tightly they were playing the piece came to a sudden and agreeable end, as though they had just finished repeating the head of some standard and were ready for the next piece.
More abstract than the previous, the second improvisation provided some necessary breathing space. Bennett began with a gurgling, cascading synthetic loop over whichRothenberg played odd, circular harmonics. Ribot took up his acoustic guitar while Bennet swtiched to the kit with a thick brush. Again Bennett brought the piece up with a heavier beat, reminding one of the power and effect a solid rhythm can bring. The piece then devolved into a sonic chamber of sorts as Bennett returned to the electronics while Rothenberg took a set of serialized figures into arpeggios, the piece ending with Ribot playing a very acoustic sounding riff on his electric guitar.
The final piece had Bennett only working with his electronics, building a minimal rhythm over which Ribot developed a twangy groove while Rothenberg popped powerful notes punctuating the rhythm. Here Ribot really took the lead, playing strong figures which made this the most groove-oriented number of night. Between Bennett's electronics and Ribot's riffs a strong pace was established over which the three worked closely, advancing and receding ideas and figures. With a bell-like tone Bennett brought the piece down, a satisfying ending to a night of great improvisation.
Comments and Feedback:
|