There’s something about the musical style of jazz that keeps you on your toes. Around each corner of every pulse lies new, uncharted territory waiting to be discovered. My friend and I stepped into this wonderful world last Thursday evening at a spot in nearby Kingston called The Uptown. The Uptown is sponsoring a nine week series on free-style jazz lasting through December.
Performers Mark Whitecage and Perry Robinson, both veterans of the jazz scene for more than 30 years, took on the clarinet and the saxophone in a way that I have never experienced. They played the instruments with an electronic touch—that is to say; they had electronic boxes manipulating their created sound. Most of this electronic manipulation consisted of varying volumes of echoed musical tones.
The end result of this electronic experiment with such a rooted form of music was mixed.
During their first set, Whitecage and Robinson seemed to have difficulty understanding how the electronic echo and effects would change the way their music was presented. As a consequence, the first three quarters of their first song was definitely not that inspiring.
But the audience was soon in for a surprise. With less than a minute left in their first song, titled “Naughty Highway,” the two performers managed to find a perfect mix of electronic and natural acoustical elements to produce a wonderful, mind-bendingly excellent sound. Their efforts in mixing the two elements did indeed prove ultimately successful.
The following songs were most definitely superior to the original, but also suffered some of the same inherent flaws of the first. The echo present in many of the songs seemed to detract from the rhythm and improvisation the performers were attempting to provide. There were hints of a middle-eastern influence in their music as well, providing a comforting “other-worldly” sense to the tunes.
Overall, it was a fabulous and entertaining concert, definitely deserving of some fine praise. I would highly recommend other people check out this location for the remainder of the series. For more information, please feel free to e-mail me at john@alum.rpi.edu. Cheers, and go and get out to enjoy that jazz!
