A gig like this just floors me and reminds me of the best of jazz, the chops, the intensity and invention, the commitment, the unpretentiousness of it all. Some pretention might be deserved, given the quality of playing, but I've seldom seen it in jazz. Despite the immense harmonic and rhythmic knowledge and huge but ever-developing playing skills. But jazz musicians are always learning, even the greats, so humility is common. So it was with Waveteller, despite a breathtaking gig. This was just a Sunday arvo gig at Smiths, to too few audience, but I for one just chuckled with the devastating playing and interplay and interesting, tangled compositions. This is music written by bassist Michael, played with Casey and Ed. They did 11 tunes in two sets, all originals, some from their first CD and others coming out soonish on another. It had me counting (as in 6-6-6-4 or 6-6-6-6/6-6-6-6-2// or 10/8 as 4-4-1+2). Then the harmonic movements, some lovely bass solos and devastating, razor-sharp polyrhythmics throughout (ah, that's Ed on drums!) and playful and sustained lines of long and longer intervals on piano. Not sure what more to say, really. Checkout Waveteller on Spotify or Bandcamp, but I doubt they will be the same on record. I find live is just something beyond. And this was: a devastating furnace that had me chuckling at the audaciousness of it all. Fabulous.
Waveteller are Michael Mear (bass), Casey Golden (piano) and Ed Rodrigues (drums) and the played one Sunday afternoon at Smiths.
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