5TH ANNUAL VISION FESTIVAL
Sunday, May 28

Into their 5th year, the Vision Festival is one of the best showcases for avant-garde music in North America. The line-up of the eleven-day festival is so rich in talent and diversity that choosing a night to attend was difficult, but Sunday evening's roster was too irresistible to pass up.

The night began on a high note with the duo of Myra Melford and Marty Ehrlich. This show really opened up my ears to these artists whose music has always struck me as (appealingly) cerebral. On this night swing was front row center, and it's not always so when performers play without bass and drums. Particularly on tenor, Ehrlich locked into Melford's rocking rhythms and never let go, and the pianist accented his every move with apt trills. Both players were intensely listening to each other and watching for cues, but both maintained a relaxed exuberance, obviously enjoying each others company greatly.

Ehrlich explored a more atmospheric sound on the bass clarinet, exploiting the instrument's full range, and used the straight clarinet for more adventurous out-sounds. Speaking of out, halfway through the set the duo was joined by Joseph Jarman, a frequent collaborator of Melford's. The crowd went wild! During one piece, Melford's playing caused her to sway from one end of the piano to the other; both saxophonists picked up on it, incorporating that rhythm into their playing, even after Melford dropped out. The concision and fun of this set made it the standout of the night.

The pairing of Mathew Shipp with DJ Spooky, while not as scintillating as a Shipp trio performance or as beat savvy as a DJ Spooky recording, was an interesting break from patented jazz formats even in as adventurous a setting as the Vision Festival. DJ Spooky used turntables, samplers, a laptop computer, sound processors and a stand up bass to produce a startling array of effects to both compliment and contrast with Shipp's staccato pianistics. When working together (DJ Spooky laying down an old school 808 beat under Shipp's Epistrophy vamp) or clashing (Spooky playing musique concrete-type buzzes and bleeps against Shipp's powerful chords), it often gelled. If at other times it seemed as if they weren't listening to each other, it was worth it to hear Monk, Busta Rhymes (Woo Ha!) and Henry VIII (Greensleeves) all played in one set...at a jazz festival, no less.

William Parker and the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra were awesome. A band consisting of five saxophones, three trombones, three trumpets plus keyboards, drums and the leader's bass a mix of young and old musicians presented the premier of a new extended composition entitled Kaleidoscope. It was an interesting piece that combined composition, arrangement and improvisation into a seamless whole. Whether soloing or playing as a section, the composition afforded each musician great freedom, however each player's tasteful performance provided unity to the piece as a whole.

Kaleidoscope was distinguished by a huge, swelling pulse whose flow was commanded by Parker whose bass remained authoritative even during the most chaotic peaks. Although every musician shone, solo highlights were provided by Roy Campbell whose control of the lower register of the trumpet resulted in some unbelievable, almost electronic sounding blurbs, and Alex Lodico who ably demonstrated why the trombone is so at home in free jazz setting. Keep an eye out for their new CD, "The Mayor of Punkville."

The night ended on a ferocious note with the music of James Blood Ulmer's Music Revelation Ensemble featuring David Murray. From the get go, the band cooked up a loud, hard groove and never let up, to the delight of the audience. Even the first song, Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman, was treated to a burning rendition, and the familiarity of the tune provided a good insight into the band's modus operandi. The bass and drums set up a boiling polyrhythmic base for Ulmer's strummed chords and acidic leads, whipping Murray into frenzied solo after solo. It was hard to tell who enjoyed Murray's solos more: the ecstatic crowd or Ulmer himself who cheered him on four times during one song.

The packed house, who stayed well past one o'clock to watch Ulmer's set bodes well for the future of this festival, and the continuing success of jazz and avant-garde music in general. Although this style of music always has a forum in small clubs, it was great to see it happening on such a large scale, and the large number of young people in the audience (and on stage!) is also a very promising sign.

Bill Furlonger