19th November 2009

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This season of Solos and Duos came to a truly epic conclusion tonight, as Tyshawn Sorey packed two hours and fifteen minutes full of solo percussion, piano, and trombone improvisations that were both humorous and mind-blowing. The previous two performances, both fantastic in their own rights, lasted a healthy seventy minutes, in comparison. One can easily imagine how a solo performance this long could get tiresome, but anyone at Bezanson tonight should have no doubt that Sorey, so full of talent and creativity, would have had no problem continuing further.

He began the set with a piece on the piano, sparse and disonant, contrasting the higher and lower registers of the instrument. Sorey seemed to utilize a motif of one specific chord, which he would strike, sustain, and then suddenly choke, only to repeat it a moment later. This motif was something to which he would return after moving into areas of greater action, made so much more intense by their usual absence. During the less busy moments of the piece, the hall was so quiet you could hear your neighbor’s stomach cooing, but when he became more urgent, a story started developing through the piano; the sounds became more and more kinetic, and the lows started actively pursuing the highs. It seemed as though a dramatic chase was occuring, in which the final outcome was not clear, but the nimble highs had quite a time escaping from the predatory lows.

Next, Sorey went to the drums, which he played standing up, having set them up in an interesting fashion, placing a bass drum face-up on a table. I’ve heard that he’ll often set up his drums differently, just to see how it comes out. The man seems to be known primarily as a drummer, and he’s truly an explosive one. Throughout this first set of percussion, he kept one cymbal ringing frequently, creating an image of industrial steam rising from beneath the street, but also perhaps natural gases emitting from a subterranean volcano.

Next, he went to the trombone. As he played different growlings, elephant farts, and out-phasing tones, he walked over to the drums, and began playing into the snare-drum. It created the same effect as windows shaking in their frames during heavy thunder.

He then returned to the piano, playing a much busier and fuller set, displaying more technical virtuosity than the previous set, but the same heavy use of disonance, creating certain effects of resonance which effected not only the sounds of the instrument, but also the movement of Sorey himself, who could be seen swaying in a circular fashion throughout the piece.

After that set, he returned to the drums, this time taking a more experimental approach to things, placing cymbals on top of the drums, ringing them softly, creating low gong-like effects, and scraping his sticks across the edge of other cymbals, creating a sort of muffled scream, and the more subdued moments were punctuated by cannon blasts from the bass drum. At one moment, he placed a cymbal upside down on a tom, and began playing it with a mallet, creating a swirling, windy tone, which soon turned to a fierce snow storm, as he began playing the china cymbal louder and louder, until he would silence it, in order to ring a few soft bells.

At this point, Sorey took a drink of water … I thought. But once he picked up the trombone, and liquid came splashing out of it, I realized I’d kind of been had. His backwash came spraying out of every orifice of the horn, which gurgled and percolated throughout much of the set, eventually drying out enough to leave just the occasional pop or crackle, giving it a warm tone, similar to an old record. It gave the audience a good laugh, but I wonder how the owner of the borrowed trombone felt about it. I’m sure he had a good sense of humor.

Finally, Sorey closed out the night with a thunderous performance on the drums, utilizing all the techniques he had shown throughout the night. The performance started at 8:00 p.m., and ended just past 10:10, and though some with lesser constitutions had left earlier on, those remaining delivered Sorey a much-deserved standing ovation.

Tyshawn Sorey’s latest album, Koan, can be found on 482 Music.

Tagged: getting into a serious thinghonkers and squeakersi have no idea how the trombone worksis there something funny about the word tromboner to you?