Gaucimusic series: 8-30-2023 featuring Slow Tiger, Matt Evans/Jonathan Goldberger/Tom Rainey, Stephen Gauci/Michael Gilbert/Kevin Shea, Thomas Herberer/Phil Haynes/Ken Filiano, Chris Libutti/Sandy Ewen/James Paul Nadien

This is likely the first review of a concert I've ever attempted to compose and I truly picked an epic of a show to kick off this new habit. For the past decade, more or less, saxophonist Stephen Gauci has curated a performance series based primarily around many styles of free improvisation. While he remains the one constant fixture of each bill, the series has provided a unique opportunity for musicians of many stripes to meet and collaborate live in an open setting without the necessity of appeasing a bar or entertaining belligerent strangers. There is no holding back from Gauci or any of the innumerable artists that have played this series. 

Each event boasts five full, 30-45 minute sets from five entirely different ensembles. It is a true journey of a way to spend one's evening but the rewards to the ear and soul in making it from 7:00PM to 12:00AM are many. In fact, one of the first concert experiences I had within the first few days of my moving to Brooklyn several years ago was stumbling into one of these marathon nights at the Bushwick Public House. It was where I first encountered Kevin Shea and Jeong Lim Yang, two people I recently shared the Main Drag stage with.   

Lately, Gauci has held court in the cavernous, brick-walled basement space at Main Drag Music in Williamsburg. While I was sad to see the series leave its prior spot at Bushwick Public House, this new environment is superior across the board as I see it. Some new advantages include a full sound system, superior backline, dedicated sound man, vastly expanded space with a true stage and also a small bar towards the back which is usually run by a fellow performer. Gauci's weekly events are honestly the nexus of New York City's experimental music community. It's a godsend for keeping multiple scenes breathing and playing.

This edition of the series featured one of the most diverse line-ups of any that I had previously seen. First up was the collective quintet named Slow Tiger. The core of the group is keyboardist J.P. Schlegelmilch, Adam Schneit on multiple reeds and electric bass wizard Andy Dow. I confess to having seen Slow Tiger live prior to this so I knew that two of the flock - trumpeter Kenny Warren and drummer Max Goldman - were absent but their space was filled admirably well by saxophonist Jeremy Udden and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell. 

Unlike most of the shows in the series, Slow Tiger played composed pieces written by each of the members. The balance of the musical personalities here is remarkable and each person seems to looking towards the sky and ground. The overall quality was soothing and somewhat reserved in a coy way. Their aesthetic reminded me of some earlier ECM ensembles led by Art Lande, Dave Liebman and Eberhard Weber crossed with more sleepy indie rock bands like The American Analog Set, Postal Service, Sunny Day Real Estate and The Sea & Cake. Nothing too loud, virtuosic or busy. Just gorgeous washes of harmony and melody that are equal parts melancholic, groovy and charming. 

What came next was more in line with the general approach to performance I had seen in previous events. This was a guitar/sax/drum duo by Jonathan Goldenberger, Matt Nelson and the world renowned Tom Rainey. Pure free improvisation. Honestly, the common spice of this type of music is one that can only be taken in smart doses so as not to be exhausting beyond a single set. That said, when the focus and highest priority is spontaneous conversation, I'm hooked and grinning. I never wanted this set to stop and could have had 10 of them back-to-back and still been bobbing along. The performance clocked in at a spartan 32 minutes that engaged and knocked me out from top to bottom. There was the type of telepathy in collaborative performance that commands the unwavering attention of anyone in the room. They interrupt and shove any other thoughts from your mind, fusing your eyes and ears entirely to the source of such a mighty sound. Each had virtuosic and extensive tools to draw their conversations from. I was especially captivated by the sound of Nelson's tone and breadth of performative attitudes he shifted through at light speed. I have a similar view of Rainey's gifts and that they are nearly infinite and perfectly placed every time. Goldenberger's guitar was raw, mostly coming entirely from his hands and ranging all the way from delicate plucks to chainsaw level picking. Brilliant.

Next was the defacto house band of the series, a trio between Gauci, usually Adam Lane but tonight Michael Gilbert and either Colin Hinton or Kevin Shea, who took part here. I really enjoyed the shape of the arc of intensities here: more often brooding than fully throttled savage. Of course there were several razor sharp peaks per usual but they were very carefully placed across each statement. An amazing moment came early in the second piece where Gilbert and Shea engaged in an ominous, tiny dialogue between squeaks from the tom and bowed sul pont bass. Gauci really plays the whole horn going between twinkling stars to Gospel spirit and animal, warlike grunts and shouts. Shea had a few spotlit highlights as well and had an avalanche of a solo in the second piece not long after the quiet dialogue I mentioned earlier this paragraph. Michael Gilbert was a deep, assured listener throughout and able to respond with dynamic, balanced lines and sonic gestures. This quality made him the driving nucleus of the ensemble for me. 

After an energy recovery period from the last set, a trio of Thomas Herberer, Ken Filiano and Phil Haynes. Each of these players is a veteran of multiple improv-based scenes and communities all over the world. This the most sonically ecclectic set of the evening to me. It began somewhat in the manner of the last two sets with free fire between the platers but they shortly let this initial burst die out completely before resurrected anew by tiny cymbal sounds. Just after rising back to life, the texture becomes fully Takemitsu which quickly morphs into the same vibe of some sort of Morricone/Leone project. We even got a drone section that sounded outright primordial as it progressed, reaching the absolute bottom depths once Herberer started vocalizing. Then, some sort of drunken blues that quickly fizzled out like a poorly lit campfire bringing the extended piece to a slow, silent death.

The final act of the night started the final descent like a long dormant machine slowly turning on gear by gear. The trio of prepared guitar architects Sandy Ewen and Chris Libutti alongside the vast language and vocabulary of James Paul Nadien had played extensively prior to this show. They toured the Northeast a few months ago and are in talks to potentially record a studio album. There were so many times that I couldn't tell the source of the sounds being made. For me, that is a mark of the highest quality of ensemble dialogue that requires the deepest focus and concentration. Evocative, scenic and totally abstract would be the closest terms to describe my impression of the people in this trio. Each utilizes electronics and prepared artifacts in novel ways. Libutti allows radio static and broken radio noises as a shaping tool for his next creative decisions while employing steel pads, rods and pedal manipulation. Ewen somehow manages to exist in 25 unique places in the soundscape simultaneously. Unlike Libutti, she uses a single panning pedal divided between a stereo amp set-up. She does however, employ an array of objects that includes railroad spikes, battery-power toys, flexible thin metal rods, steel wool, springs, slides, sticks and much more. No one else has the sounds Ewen makes at their fingertips other than her. Her sound surrounds the listener and engages thru all directions in sublimely crafted choreography. James Paul Nadien traveling frantically thru this asteroid field of orphaned sounds like a schizophrenic Pachinko ball in perpetual motion. He is an incredible shapeshifter with amazing timing in style, velocity and feel. I look forward to listening through a future release should it come to pass.      

Here are video links to each set.