At times, some of the best concerts sneak into town with too little notice, and qualify as special treats for those who manage to catch them. Such was the case with the strikingly bold yet graceful trio appearance by saxophonist/clarinetist Ted Nash, guitarist Steve Cardenas, and bassist Ben Allison, who appeared last Tuesday in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s intimate Mary Craig Auditorium.
The event was poorly publicized, unfortunately, resulting in a smaller house than there might have been, but this gifted threesome — articulate players individually and interactively — gave a small but mightily appreciative crowd a fascinating dose of chamberlike jazz reminiscent of such 1950s-era pioneers as Jimmy Giuffre, Lee Konitz, and Lennie Tristano, brought up-to-date.
As an added site-specific bonus, regular SBMA visitor Nash (who has also appeared many times locally in his role in Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra) incorporated inspirational linkages to art currently upstairs in the museum’s intriguing exhibition, Remixed: Entwined Histories & New Forms. In two cases, the musicians spontaneously and gamely improvised pieces inspired by projected artworks sprung on them as surprise impetuses. Here was real-time proof that persuasively concocted abstraction and audio-visual symbiosis are also in their expressive vocabulary.
Much of the concert’s material came from the trio’s fifth and newest album Triological, coming out soon on Sunnyside Records. This model features compositions by the players, whereas past albums focused on tributes to jazz legends deserving greater recognition, including the late, great Carla Bley (in whose band Cardenas played for a time) — Healing Power: The Music of Carla Bley — and the too-obscure and vaguely Monk-ish pianist Herbie Nichols — Tell the Birds I Said Hello.
Together for 13 years now, with periodic activity in the thick of their respective music lives, this trio seems meant to be. They are impressive, alone and together. Nash is innately fluid and tasteful as an improvisor and Cardenas, with his Jim Hall–like focus and economy, errs on the side of taste, with his clean-toned Telecaster sound. Allison does the right things, as the rhythm section factor holding down the bottom, but inserting variations and interactive parts as he goes.
This new batch of trio pieces confirms that the musicians have some fresh ideas as composers, as well as players. A particularly impressive inventiveness came through in music by Allison, whose enigmatic and sleek “See Forever” opened the set, and whose fluid yet angular “Peace Out There” nicely matched the geometric designs of the artwork on the screen. Cardenas’s “Puddle Jumper” related, in musical terms, to the jagged-edged design of his visual pairing on screen. Nash’s “Burnt Toast and Avocado” vaguely echoed the visual energy of Allia Millet’s “Patchwork Gold” image (my personal favorite in the Remixed show), with its layered elements and, as Nash explained, emerging sun-like key shift.
One of the free improv pieces came into being after being presented the image of Tamara Gonzales’s “Pisac Tapestry #3,” a brightly colored neo-primitive abstraction treated with apt sonic squiggling, a detuned guitar, and a percolating bass pulse. A collective grin naturally befell the stage, as Allison noted, after the piece, “See what happens when you put art in front of a musician?”
The show ended on a high, intense yet friendly note, as they navigated the familiar form and new melody of Nash’s “Ida Spawn,” a “contrafact” (with new melody over existing chord changes) of the standard “Stella by Starlight.” They burned, but cleanly, and with surprises in the margins.
Nash, Cardenas, and Allison gave what was undoubtedly a highlight in what is shaping up to be an unusually verdant year of world class jazz in Santa Barbara. This week alone, the calendar pops with a sold-out Granada show by Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane and pianist Emmett Cohen’s show at Campbell Hall on Sunday. Has jazz found its groove in our beach town? One can hope.
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