GAUCIMUSIC SERIES: 9-13-2023 FEATURING MATT HOLLENBERG/RYAN SIEGEL/MICHAEL GILBERT/PATRICK GOLDEN, DANIEL CARTER/ADAM CAINE/LESLIE MOK, STEPHEN GAUCI/MICHAEL GILBERT/COLIN HINTON, THOMAS HELTON/ANDREAS BRADE/ROBERT BOSTON/JON IRABAGON, MAIN DRAG PHILHARMONIX CONDUCTION ORCHESTRA LED BY YUMA UESAKA

September 13th marked another opportunity for me to catch an edition of the Main Drag Music series curated by the indefatigable Stephen Gauci. It occurred to me while attending that each of the events is a sort of condensed version of the series as a whole: boasting completely different flavors and settings yet somehow connected through the cause of presenting improvised music and performance in the city. 

The night began with a quartet featuring Matt Hollenberg, Ryan Siegel, Patrick Golden and Michael Gilbert. With occasional deviations, the group lived mainly in a world of free, psychedelic, up-tempo swing over three extended pieces. Hollenberg was versatile and shifted between a univibe-laden, Pete Cosey-esque tone, dissonant no wave-inspired stabs and pyrotechnic, death metal freak outs. This bombastic potpourri was more than matched by the agile hollering alto of Ryan Siegel, someone that I had never seen perform before tonight. Gilbert and Golden - like a firm - anchored and drove the ensemble throughout. When they weren't committed to raucousness, the group drifted in and out of a burbling, fugue state where time dissolved and each player called upon the farthest flung approaches to sound-making. My favorite aspect of this set was this flipping back and forth between active and spare group dynamics.  

Round two featured a very balanced, well-matched trio between veteran multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, guitarist/composer Adam Caine and drummer Lesley Mok. Caine and Carter - also like a firm - were a near perfect duo for each other as both players have a knack for drawing upon a lean economy of ideas, meticulously seeking out the best melodic content and shunning anything unessential. Mok adapted to whatever gestures they could throw her way also and often took the reigns in terms of activity without it ever being too much. My only issue with their set was one of balance since Carter wasn't amplified and sometimes played flute or muted trumpet that got buried in the mix from my seat.

This week's edition of the Main Drag "house band" featured leader and host, Stephen Gauci, alongside Michael Gilbert in his second appearance of the evening and Colin Hinton behind the drumset. To my ears, the dim, brooding quality at the beginning of this set was one of the most effective and captivating moments of the whole night. With a delicate balance, each musician brought out a humbling, wide  field of expressions between each other that played upon vast vocabulary and carefully curated tastes. Further, Gilbert, through this series, has become one of my favorite upright bassists around. Solo, with each other player and in the entire trio context, Gilbert displayed a masterful wealth of approaches and novel sounds. 

The quartet of keyboardist Robert Boston, saxophonist Jon Irabagon, drummer Anders Brade and bassist Thomas Helton steered the evening in a decidedly more jazz-oriented direction (without explicitly being "jazz" per se). After spending some time finding each other in this aesthetic, they each began tastefully melting down the quality of this initial ascent into a soupy, slinking atmosphere that made me think of what it would be like if the sun were moving closer to the earth and flattening life with heat. All things considered, my favorite moment of the entire show was the point in this set where the sonic breakdown was complete and none of the scaffolding remained; a virtuosic, deep conversation between Brade employing  superball mallets on the low toms against arco drones in Helton's bass, breath sounds in Irabagon's sax and the soft harmonies of Boston's electric keyboard. It was a sustained, well developed point that I'll not soon forget.   

For the finale, we got another iteration of the recently developed Main Drag Philharmonix Conduction Orchestra. These monthly meetings have brought together players across the greater NYC area and allowed like-minded composers from those same scenes to try their hand at writing new, open music using large ensemble strategies that depend on conduction gestures as a key ingredient. This week's orchestra fell under the baton and dry erase board of multi-instrumentalist Yuma Uesaka, a friend of mine since moving to the city whom I have had the pleasure of watching perform many times. The all-star cast of players included several folks that had already made an appearance earlier in the night and several new faces as well. Musically, Uesaka's piece was a thorough dive though novel instrumental  combinations, timbres, pacing and dynamic possibilities. He had an equally impressive command of presenting soloistic textures amongst the orchestra. Experiencing this set was akin to spending thirty minutes in the Bronx Zoo with all the lights turned out and cage doors left open.