By Ann Treacy
JT Bates rang out 2015 by releasing his solo production Open Relationships at his Monday night series JT’s Jazz Implosion at the Icehouse. Bates plays with almost every musician in town from Alpha Consumer to Erik Koskinen to Free Jazz on Mondays. So there was some question, at least at our table, about what to expect, although having Mankwe Ndosi (culture weaver with stately voice) and Davu Seru (noted improvisational drummer) play before was some indication. The music is more free jazz than Americana.
Bates introduced his set explaining that he had come to this brand of percussion playing with Adam Linz and watching the reaction of his drums to Linz’s vigorous playing. (Linz plays upright bass with great passion.) The drums picked up the vibration and using “instruments” at hand Bates was able to harness the reaction of the sounds to create a new sound that is compelling and imprecise. Those instruments include anything from a wet fingertip squeaking a snare drum to pencil tip drum stick scraping a cymbal – add in some electronics for looping and reverberations and that’s a taste of the music.
In some ways, last night was a chance for ambient music to take center stage – traditional instruments being used to play unconventional musical implements. Bates was alone of the stage but played with his newly recorded music. Earlier in the day, I had listened to the ice floating and crashing on the Mississippi from the bridge above. I had tried (and failed) to explain the cold almost metal sound to a friend but somehow Bates played it in part of his set. Experimental music at its best always seems to happenstance on imitating nature.
But the music wasn’t entirely reactionary or ambient. There were portions of the night where Bates played the drums with a staccato rhythm – no reverb and plenty of repetition without looping. The sound was controlled and caught, short and chopped. Precise. The night was a nice balance of action and reaction. There was the contained abstraction found in noise shows with the patterns and predictability of more traditional jazz. A nice collection.
You can see experimental music on Mondays at the Icehouse, on Thursdays at the Khyber Pass in St Paul and the monthly Tourniquet series at the Kitty Cat Klub.
http://mankwendosi.blogspot.com/
http://totallygrossnationalproduct.com/news/jt-bates-solo-album-open-relationships-coming-121815
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