6th September 2010

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Joey Baron, Robyn Schulkowsky, & Tyshawn Sorey Trio at the Stone

As hot and sweaty as it got at the Stone Friday night, it would have to be a great performance in order to make it bearable. But not only was it bearable, the 70-minute collaboration between three of the most dynamic percussionists out there flew by. It barely felt like any time had passed when Robyn Schulkowsky softly mentioned to Joey Baron, fellow curator of this month’s calendar at the Stone, that “it’s 11 o’clock,” an hour after the set began, implying that they should probably wrap it up. Baron replied with a “yeah,” followed by an explosion of hits. It was this pairing of gentleness and power that truly made this an engrossing night.

The trio drew upon a wide range of influences and a broad palette of technique to create their tone. From their first number, a soft, swelling, and atmospheric nod to Morton Feldman - I know there’s no sound in a vacuum, but I like to imagine that this would be what one would sound like anyway - to the more “jazzy” moments of trading solos, it would seem this performance should have been hard to grasp for someone uninitiated in the realm of the avant-garde, but the performers really had a hold on the audience, and the textures were so warm throughout most of the set that it would be hard for even the most close-minded individual not to be pulled in.

The moments of sparse notes and solo activity made it possible to easily discern the particularities of each performer. Baron has a tunefulness to his playing that few drummers can emulate. Schulkowsky seemed to easily make notes out of what would usually be just interesting noise. And Sorey, a favorite of mine, has such primal energy, particularly evident during his first solo, which began with a literal war cry - “SAAAHHH!” - and continued with Cage-esque moments harsh power erupting out of silence. When playing all at once, it was a dense, polyrhythmic experience, and at softer moments, so many new sounds were produced. Am I the only one who finds the sound of a stick scraping across the shoulder of a cymbal to be absolutely thrilling? And those floor-tom farts…

A most ordered chaos, full of oscillations and dynamics, well worth the price of admission, and the sweatiness brought on by the decision to abandon air-conditioning in favor of acoustics.

Tagged: tyshawn soreyjoey baronrobyn schulkowskythe stonegetting into a serious thing