2025 Big Ears Festival, Day 3: Saturday, March 29

 

By Sarah Grosser

Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith at the Bijou Theatre 

 

 

Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith

Vijay Iyer- keyboards

Wadada Leo Smith- trumpet

The Bijou Theatre is full to the brim once again. The sardines are packed in; ushers find and fill every seat as Vijay rumbles away on some deep low notes on piano. Wadada expresses a breezy slow passage. Finally, after five minutes, most of the distracting noises of cans opening, rustling patrons finding seats, and coughing have died down. Vijay gets some faint ambient electronics going and Wadada lets rip with some sharp shrill stabs. The ambient fuzz adds a constant underlying tension, a bit like the pop and crackle of an unclean vinyl album in motion. It's like a breathing whirr; like the lungs of the piece, there is an air of suspense and focus. The reverberant Fender Rhodes produces sounds similar to that on the 2023 album Love in Exile (Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily).

Wadada's trumpet is distant and lonely, as if crying in a vast open plane. Vijay provides the base through his melody, Wadada infuses it with windy emotion. The chords are relatable and familiar, soulful, and vaguely hopeful. This is a deep and earnest performance.

The floor on the Bijou Theatre balcony is creaky wood and anytime someone leaves, it’s like a herd of elephants. It is difficult, but one must become hardened to it, and attempt to appreciate the ambient music. I want to stab everyone who interrupts it with their noisiness. EVERYONE!

Joyful Noise presents Greg Saunier, Kramer, Shahzad Ismaily, Thor Harris, Wendy Eisenberg, and friends at Pretentious Brewing Company. 

 

Joyful Noise

Wendy Eisenberg- guitar

Greg Saunier- drums

Tall Tall Trees- banjo

Kramer- guitar

Thor Harris- clarinet

Macie Stewart- violin

Shahzad Ismaily- bass synthesizer

Hope Littwin- vocals

“You should be here - Greg [Saunier] is the best drummer at this festival!” – Friends summoned me away from the Bijou Theatre to the Pretentious Brewing jam session featuring a kaleidoscope of colourful, free-spirited musicians. This jam truly lived up to the record label name presenting it, as everyone on stage could be seen euphorically engaging in their array of instruments. Thor’s keyboard was gaffer-taped to a plastic children’s basketball hoop. Someone (probably Shahzad) had placed a shoe on Greg’s snare. The little beer garden was bursting with spectators, even the perimeter of the fence was speckled with people who had climbed up from the other side to watch. At one point, a pair of identical twin brothers appeared, adding to the surreal, Lynchian vibe of the show. Bright, swirling melodies launched rainbows of colour into the overcast sky. In spite of the very name of the brewery, it is all carefree and ironically unpretentious. It’s contagious watching musicians who are clearly enjoying themselves. It’s like a playground up there. At one point Shahzad jumps up, zipping his onesie over his face, holding his Palestine t-shirt in protest. Soon after he is draping socks and other material over Thor’s instruments while he is playing them. Kramer is keeping a glue-like bassline going while Hope occasionally chimes in with her almost spiritual cries. Macie’s violin sets the tone, while Greg flails madly around in his “SUPER ME” crop top, which looks ab-solutely adorable. (Is he the best drummer at the festival? It’s a hard choice between him, Tyshawn, Sanchez, Wollesen, Waits, … how can one possibly choose?) Suddenly out of nowhere, Shahzad starts singing “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. One by one, the spectators start to look at each other and laugh and smile. The jam has accidentally turned into a live remix, never once reaching the word "raining." Everyone just keeps singing in a loop: “Thunder only happens when it’s / thunder only happens when it’s…” The joyful noise continues until it doesn’t anymore, and the band bows and collects itself on the side of the stage for a group photo. Everyone looks so happy to be there.

After the conclusion of the performance Shahzad grabs a mic. “Fleetwood Mac! What the FUCK!” Everyone cheers. He goes on to make an announcement that if people have time and are interested, they should absolutely check out an Indonesian artist named Peni Candra Rini at 7:30. It’s a good thing he mentioned it too, because this performance ended up being an incredibly moving standout. But more on that show to come...

Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera at the Bijou Theatre

 

Sylvie Courvoisier. Photo by Ashli Linkou

Sylvie Courvoisier- piano

Ikue Mori- computer

Wadada Leo Smith- trumpet

Nate Wooley- trumpet

Kenny Wollesen- vibraphone, drums

Drew Gress- double bass

Nasheet Waits- drums

I must have looked like I was having trouble deciding where to sit, as one of the friendly ushers asked me if I needed some help. They asked if I would like to go and sit in the opera boxes next to the stage, as these were open for anyone. I’d never been up in one of those before, so I gleefully accepted the novel suggestion. The sound quality from the opera box was still perfect. Only the vision was slightly obscured due to the speakers. I had to stand up if I wanted to see Ikue Mori and Nasheet Waits, but I had a wonderful, uninterrupted view of Ms. Maestro at her piano.

It's a completely different sound hearing the band without the ambient warmth of Fennesz's guitar but today Ikue Mori is filling in on computer and effects. She is sparkly and shimmery over Sylvie's glittery arpeggios. Wadada's trumpet is shiny while Nate Wooley's is matte. Nate's solo is so squelchy and textured that it's almost percussive, while being totally original. Wadada's solo is the polar opposite: austere, long muted notes, shrill and emotional.

Sylvie – looking ravishing as ever in her new black dress – plucks along the inside of the grand piano, while Kenny Wollesen taps gently on the vibraphone. Ikue's electronics flitter around like electrical glowing insects. Drew Gress and Nasheet Waits keep the soulful groove flowing with its sultry, slinky vibe.

Ikue leads the intro of the next song and the performance is capitulating and beautiful. Perhaps fittingly so, no solo is as engaging as Sylvie's. Her presence at the helm is commanding, but not dominant. She is the one in control, and the piano leads. Kenny has switched to a second drum kit and he and Nasheet battle it out in a thunderous, unfeasibly intense drum duet which comes seemingly out of nowhere, like a random hurricane. Sylvie is enjoying it. It's rather mighty.

Sylvie gives a speech about words recently banned by the US government. She is filled with disgust at the "orange moron" and stands for empathy, compassion, and transparency. The applause that follows is one of the loudest of the festival so far.

Peni Candra Rini at the Point

 

Peni Candra Rini

Rini's voice is absolutely outstanding. It's a crime that she and Arooj Aftab, the Grammy-nominated Pakistani vocalist were performing at the same time. Despite this unfortunate direct competition, the modest church is generously full. Her shadow puppet visuals, sparkling sequin outfit, and delicate traditional dance movements are the perfect accompaniment to her jaw-dropping unamplified vocal performance of traditional Indonesian music with impressive operatic elements. Her vibrato is so controlled and comes directly from her heart. Just like the very slightest variation in her voice, the most delicate hand movements and choreography is executed with an equally controlled finesse.

Two of her Indonesian friends are controlling the puppets and adding additional traditional Asian instruments. She also uses objects as part of her dance- a human heart statue, a piece of firefly-inspired art by a fourteen-year-old. Dr. Andy McGraw and Shahzad Ismaily (again) accompany on traditional Indonesian instruments, and bass/Moog, respectively.

The shadow boxes tell a story from Peni’s childhood, in written English text which is manually rotated to reveal each next chapter. This ensures that no expression is lost in translation through Peni’s more simple spoken English, which she also naturally speaks with a slight accent. It also adds to a style of storytelling which transports the viewer into a familiar cocoon; homey, comfortable, and as enchanting as having storybooks read to you out loud as a child. These words and the shadow puppet imagery that accompany it conjure tangible fantasies, brought to life through Peni’s incredible voice. She sways between more traditionally nasal asian folk singing and a more westernised operatic vocal approach, which makes for an extraordinary range of dynamics. Beyond that, her peaceful compositions range from soft ballads through to more pulsing dance numbers. She never ventures into kitsch territory. At one point Shahzad is resting his head on his bass and just watching up at the silent shadow puppets. It’s such a relaxing space to be in.

Towards the end of the show, the shadow puppets are revealed from behind the screen and they are gold and colourful, like giant autumn leaves. Having only seen them in shadow form and therefore only black, this comes as a bright and magical twist. One puppeteer remains behind the screen while the other controls the coloured puppets in front of the screen. There are layers of animation now, and with Peni the star, dancing and singing out in front, I can feel my waterline beginning to flood. It is without question that the church rises to a standing ovation at the conclusion – a very long one, which clearly takes Peni by pleasant surprise. Later on, via Instagram she posts a photo of her Big Ears “Artist” wristband and writes: “Many thanks for the incessant standing ovation.”

أحمد [Ahmed] at Regas Square 

أحمد [Ahmed]

Pat Thomas- piano
Joel Grip- double bass
Antonin Gerbal- drums
Seymour Wright- alto saxophone

 

Having already played the night before to raving reviews the [Ahmed] Quartet returned to Regas Square for another frenzied round of their signature endurance-jazz. Talk about exhilarating. One of the most polarising acts in the jazz world today, this is the band all the elitists seem to love-to-hate. The general noisiness of the whole project is an acquired taste, as is Seymour Wright’s sax tone.

The [Ahmed] sound wall is dense and meditative. The speed at which the musicians play is a test of physical stamina, so too for the audience to listen to it. It’s totally extreme, and utterly relentless in the best possible way. As Homer Simpson once said: “Nobody snuggles with Max Power, you strap yourself in and feel the G’s!”

Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it changes in variation on drums are seamlessly woven in amongst chaotic bass and piano, while the honky sax creates a sound reminiscent of an alarm going off, repeatedly. At some points it feels closer to noise music than jazz music, and that’s truly a compliment to the innovation of the project. How often can one say that they have come across something in jazz which is *this* original? The closest musical comparison I can think of would possibly be the band Swans, whereby after a while, one begins to hear new sounds amidst the intensity, and the density. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Earlier in the day, via a chance meeting at Starbucks, Joel Grip showed me his calloused, bruised hands, totally wrecked from thrashing the ever-loving shit out of his double bass at breakneck pace. Developing a thick skin has always been a necessity in jazz, this only proved it to also be physically true.

To put the speed into perspective, and to paraphrase Edward George’s liner notes from their 2024 album Wood Blues: “I think [Ahmed] can be said to rate as highly as Atomic on the Bassie Swing Metric […] almost breaking our measuring equipment.”

I have been told that the performance culminated in a full-house standing ovation, which I (criminally) missed seeing. The only thing that could possibly drag one away from the unstoppable quartet would be a personal invitation from Sylvie Courvoisier to join her on a walk downtown to see…

Jenny Scheinman's All Species Parade at the Bijou Theatre 

 

Jenny Scheinman's All Species Parade

Jenny Scheinman- violin
Bill Frisell- guitar

Julian Lage- guitar

Nels Cline- guitar
Carmen Staaf- piano
Tony Scherr- bass

Kenny Wollesen- drums
Julianna Cressman- dance 

 

Jenny smiles as she sways her violin in her floaty, floral pantsuit. There’s not a spare seat in the theatre and there’s a line outside to get in. She is joined onstage on what can only be described as a frickin' powerhouse of a guitar trio: BIll Frisell, Julian Lage, and Nels Cline – so much character and individuality between the three. It’s a gift to be able to watch each trade a solo one after the other, really showcasing the diversity of the instrument: Julian with his understated, brilliant virtuosity, Bill with his familiar, sensitive master’s voice, and Nels with his almost punkish, effect-driven punches. But it feels almost rude to single out anyone from this obviously legendary lineup. Julianna Cressman also captivated with her contemporary dance, slinking and folding her body aesthetically around to the music in a white, earthy modern outfit.

From wafting swing ballads through to more upbeat blues, Jenny’s alluring violin-led tunes were an excellently curated collection, providing just the right party atmosphere for one of the final sets of the day.
 

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Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4