Your favourite circus ride

Tom Vincent came to the Loft last night bringing two offsiders on bass and drums from Holland. Last time I heard Tom was as support for Branford Marsalis at the Sydney Opera House. Nice company! Since then, he’s done a world tour and obviously met a bunch of collaborators in the places he’s visited. An opportunity arose to bring out one pair and this tour is a result. Tom is a quirky, obtuse player. He takes the standards repertoire from the 20s through Ellington and Monk and bop and Coltrane and turns them on their heads with modern, challenging, even extreme reformations. You hear the tune, but it’s contorted, disassembled and reconstructed with the most capricious of substitutions and cross times and melodies. It’s no lazy jaunt in the park, but it’s invigourating and intellectually and artistically challenging. This is not to say there’s not delicious swing or avid bop or soulful balladry. The thing is they are all there, perhaps all in one tune. And often in unexpectedly short tunes that are distillations of essence and of a richly informed but angular harmonic intelligence. It’s a masterful and exhilarating ride if sometimes bumpy. The trio’s name says it all: Morphic Resonance Project.

The band does all this by ear. Tom handed around a l-o-n-g list of tunes (three pages, several columns, very small print) and asked for requests. The whole band responded, no charts, no amplification, sometimes with a little hesitation after a singular lead-in. Naturally I watched Bart Tarenkeen, playing a borrowed bass and master of it. Lovely swings that were so solid and present despite no amplification, walking lines of real interest and solos that sang, sometimes with melody, sometimes freer, sometimes rapid, other times just beautiful, slowly stated melody. Strong, both in unamplified volume (from the right hand and arm that’s the secret of double bass tone) and in statement of the tune. And it was clear he knew these tunes - he dropped into several melody lines during the night. Superb playing. Marc Meeder was similarly swinging and lithe, with several short solos and mostly brushes for smooth swing. They both had to sit back at times to uncover Tom’s very individual interpretations. He toys with time and structure like a solo player would and this can bamboozle a band. But these guys had big ears, picking up to run or walk to the next angular contortion.

What a fabulous display of quirky brilliance! Sometimes loose, often obtuse, but nothing less than exhilarating and an intellectual treat. Like your favourite circus ride but more cerebral.

Tom Vincent (piano) led a trio with visiting Dutch musicians, Bart Tarenkeen (bass) and Marc Meeder (drums) as the Morphic Resonance Project at the Loft.

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart