[JAZZ] If the kids pried jazz from the old institutions
that keep the music on life support and reinvented it for
themselves—could this music be cool again? And what would a generation
of new jazz fans look like? These are questions that keep me up at
night.
Portland’s
Trio Subtonic probably isn’t going to lead the jazz uprising—the music
isn’t radical, just rad; these aren’t exactly “kids,” unless you measure
in jazz years—but there is a refreshing wanderlust on the band’s new
disc, I’ll Meet You There Tomorrow. Because the trio can leap
from the down-and-dirty funk of “High Country” to a sprawling
ballad-turned-groove like “Garage & Grace” without throwing the
listener off its scent (thank Jesse Brooke’s playful and unconventional
drumming for that, in large part), this is a jazz trio for those of us
with a Saturday morning cartoon attention span.
That’s not to say that I’ll Meet You There Tomorrow
doesn’t reward patience: The tidal changes of “Obsidian Blue” are
subtle, showcasing the interplay between versatile keyboardist Galen
Clark and bassist Bill Athens. But the compositions here stay intact
throughout five- and six-minute songs, so the novice jazz listeners can
follow most tunes all the way through while still enjoying solos and
funky breakdowns that pepper the disc. That seems to me a trick learned
from pop music far removed from jazz standards.
For example, when
Trio Subtonic gets to the now-customary Elliott Smith cover, Clark and
company avoid well-worn and standard-esque songs like “Between the Bars”
in favor of “Independence Day,” a tune that resists easy taming. Trio
Subtonic’s version adds groove but resists giving Smith a cocktail-hour
glow.
Not every decision on I’ll Be There Tomorrow
is a good one: It runs long by about one funk tune and Scott
Pemberton’s electric guitar flourishes on “String Theory” are too showy
to fit the album’s tone. But the disc is, on the whole, refreshingly
driven and complete-sounding as an album. Hell, the kids might even like
it.
SEE IT: Trio Subtonic plays the Art Bar, 1111 SW Broadway, on Friday, Feb. 24. 9:30 pm. Free. All ages.
