This week’s programme comes with a health warning. The Jazz on 3 team has been sampling the recent Vision Festival in New York and has selected three blends of heavy-duty, import-strength music. A band called Pulverize the Sound isn’t likely to pull any punches, but the sheer force of their electro-acoustic music is still startling on the ear. Inside this though is a subtlety brought about by trumpeter Peter Evans’ technical prowess and the ensemble’s elastic approach to rhythm. Your impression of the group may be very different by the end of the set.
Next up is Paradoxical Frog, cutting out some of the decibels but none of the intensity. Led by saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, this trio explores free improvisation through a soundworld that is closer to contemporary classical music, and is joined for this performance by viola player Mat Maneri. The band’s namesake in the natural world shrinks from an unusually long tadpole to a rather ordinary-sized frog, but there’s nothing anticlimactic about this music.
Our headline set comes from Planetary Unknown, David S. Ware’s new group whom we featured in last week’s album roundup, making its live debut at the festival. This is full on, unapologetic stuff, with Ware on top form and this group of veterans – including festival co-founder William Parker – encapsulating what the Vision Festival is all about. To help put all of this in context, New York critic Nate Chinen and poet/Vision alumnus Steve Dalachinsky are my guests throughout the programme. And, as a special treat Steve will read poetry, reflecting on the festival, commissioned by Jazz On 3.
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