The Ari Hoenig Trio w Gilad Hekselman and Matt Penman : Bringing Some High Wattage to Portland

The Ari Hoenig Trio: Gilad Hekselman, Matt Penman & Ari Hoenig 

Monday, October 10, 2022, was my first exposure to Portland’s live jazz music scene since moving here from the Atlanta area. The venue was a friendly, intimate, well-appointed supper club called 1905. The brainchild of the owner Aaron Barnes, a former high school band teacher turned restaurateur/bartender, 1905 is tucked in the Mississippi section of Portland and may well be, as Downbeat magazine once proclaimed, “one of the world’s top jazz venues.”  All I can attest to is that it is certainly an important place to listen to and support fine jazz in Portland. 1905 opened its doors in 2015 as a pizzeria/Italian restaurant/bar that eventually catered to live jazz music performances. The venue seats close to fifty attendees within the building and as the weather permits, there is an added generous covered outdoor seating section that is open to the bandstand. 

My visit to 1905 was sparked by the chance to see the top-notch, NY-based band The Ari Hoenig Trio. We attended the early first set which kicked off at a little after six pm. The trio was an impressive group, an international flavored potpourri, led by the forty-eight-year-old, Philadelphia-born, polyrhythmic drumming whirlwind Ari Hoenig, the fleet-fingered Israeli-born guitarist Gilad Hekselman and progressive New Zealand-born bassist Matt Penman. These master musicians have been at the forefront of a new generation of talented improvisers that honor the tradition of jazz while blazing new trails of interpretation within the broad scope that encompasses this genre. 

It was an electric performance from the start. The group took little time to warm up as they started with “Boplicity” from Hoenig’s 2018 album NY Standard. The composition was written by Cleo Henry and Gil Evans for Miles Davis's 1957 classic Birth of Cool. From the slow simmer of the thoughtful cool jazz original, the trio stirred the music into a boiling cauldron of energy led by the drummer’s exuberant brush playing, reminiscent of Jeff Hamilton’s brush mastery. There is a joy in Hoenig’s playing that makes you just get swept up by his infectious enthusiasm and creative trap work. Hekselman’s facile guitar lines were successively quicker and more serpentine path from the theme. Penman’s warm upright anchored the bottom beautifully. This group was ready to thrill.

Ari Hoenig 

The set followed with Hoenig’s beautiful composition “Anymore” which was on his album Connor’s Days. Hoenig has been known to sing and play piano on this but here he simply led the group with a polyrhythmic beat that was mind-blowing. Hekselman explored the harmonic possibilities of the song to great effect and Penman offered a probing bass solo. This is creative music at its best.

After some ardent applause from the attentive audience, the trio embarked on the classic Ray Noble tune “Cherokee,” an Indian love song. The song’s structure was used as the basis of the more incendiary version “Ko-Ko” by saxophone master Charlie Parker. The energized approach made the song into a virtual demonstration of virtuosity and speed. Here the trio took the song and made it a showcase of Hekselman’s guitar prowess. Gilad is a beautiful player who creates mercurial lines at impressive speed and without any degradation of clean precision. Deceivingly, his improvisational skill seems to make it look almost effortless. Hoenig and Penman provided the guitarist with unrelenting propulsion and polyrhythmic time shifts to make it all work like a precision timepiece. The song produced a predictably arousing response from the audience.

Ari finally took up the microphone to introduce the group to the audience who responded with grateful applause. He introduced the next selection of the set, a dedication to the pianist/composer Billy Childs, titled “Child’s Prey” which is on Ari’s latest release Golden Treasures. I am a big fan of Child’s work, so it is always of interest to listen to a song that is written with another artist in mind.  The composition has an undulating opening that was originally recorded with pianist Gadi Lehavi on Golden Treasures following the slithery course that Hoenig creates and is reminiscent of some of Child’s own work. On this night Hekselman’s guitar was the defining instrument that laid down the path and he did so with phenomenal aplomb. Penman took his turn with a potent solo that showed just how facile he is on the upright. The song features a sustained ostinato section where the music is repeated, creating a background drone where Hoenig’s drums produce an agitated whirlpool of percussive sound effects. His arms and legs are like swirling dervishes of momentum and rhythmic invention.  A tireless fusillade of percussive variation. The performance was just outstanding.

Gilad Hekselman

The group returned with “Guernsey St Gooseneck,” a rhythmic groove of a composition by Hoenig. The song has Penman and Hoenig maintaining the groove which becomes amazingly catchy. Looking around the place, I saw most of the audience, including me, bouncing their heads to this infectiously repeating groove. With the beat established it left Hekselman with the task of creating some counterpoint and diversity. The guitarist established loops on his guitar that maintained different ascending lines upon which he added variations and improvisational harmonies.

Matt Penman

Never one to leave a beat at a simple 4/4, Hoenig and Penman would occasionally change the rhythm up. I’m not one who can always identify the proper time being used but the group did so without losing the audience or each other. A crowd pleaser.

The closing composition of the set was brief and another Hoenig ballad, “For Tracy,” a song he wrote for his wife from his Connor’sDays album. This sensitive composition featured Hekselman’s gorgeous guitar voicings and showed that this trio was indeed capable of emotive music on demand.  

I had previously seen bassist Matt Penman’s work with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, and Eric Harland in James Farm. He is also a member of the influential SF Jazz Collective with Miguel Zenon and David Sanchez and is in pianist Aaron Goldberg’s trio. I first heard Gilad Hekselman’s guitar work on his 2018 album Ask For Chaos. Besides this trio with Hoenig, he has his own quartet with saxophonist Mark Turner, Joe Martin, and Marcus Gilmore. The real discovery for me was drummer Ari Hoenig. I had heard of him and knew he was an accomplished drummer/composer, who had played with pianist luminaries like Jean Michel-Pilc, Tigran Hamasayan, and Kenny Werner, but I had never really heard him play and his performance at 1905 exceeded all my expectations. He is a vibrant, personable musician who, when I spoke to him, told me some of his influences include drummers Ralph Peterson and Brian Blade among others. 

Ari Hoenig is an impressive musician, and the trio is certainly a band that you should make an effort to see if possible. The trio is on tour and will return to Smalls in NYC on Oct 17^th before they move to the European leg of this tour starting in England, playing in  Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Paris, France before returning to Smalls on Nov 21^st. 

John Raymond's Real Feels Trio: Connecting to a Youthful Pulse on "Joy Ride"

John Raymon and Real Feels Joy Ride Sunnyside Records  SSC 1501

With four years of collaboration and two previous albums under his belt, the trumpeter/flugelhornist John Raymond and his Real Feels trio presents their clearest vision statement yet as to the direction they want to bring their music . Joy Ride, due for release on Sunnyside records on February 9^th, finds Raymond choosing to use the warmer, rounder tone of his flugelhorn exclusively on this outing.  It is that tonal choice and the fact that he wanted to write music that people could sing to that gives this album its aura of authenticity making it so compelling. With fellow bandmates guitar wizard Gilad Hekselman and trap master Colin Stranahan, Raymond weaves a gorgeous tapestry of songs that reflect a refreshing indie sensibility with a penchant for understated improvisational skill. The result is an album that is modern and electric.

The songs are a combination of five Raymond originals and five reimagined pop and traditional songs.  The trio has been touring the US and recently appeared in our area at Rudy’s Jazz Club in Nashville, TN and The Velvet Note in Alpharetta, GA to sold out crowds.

The title track and opener “Joy Ride,” is reminiscent of  the music of indie-jazz crossover artist bassist/composer Ben Allison and his collaborative guitarist Steve Cardenas’ work. If you listen to the Little Things That Run the World from 2008, where the trumpet/flugelhorn of Ron Horton was an integral part of the mix, Raymond’s music seems to have a similar sound and pulse. Whether he was moved by Allison’s trail-breaking ideas, or perhaps, like Allison,  the indie rock sensibilities of his youth led him to this place, he has used these influences as a launching point to form his own musical direction. Raymond’s bass-less trio instead relies on the dexterous Hekselman, to play both bass lines and guitar parts using his formidable skill and electronic looping. The music is dynamic and pulsing, sweeping you up in Raymond’s slippery, honey-toned flugelhorn sound that plays in direct counterpoint to the choppy grooves created by his rhythmic partners. Hekselman has a light touch and a deft command of the electronics. His playing has elements that remind me of the atmospherics of the late great John Abercrombie’s work.  

Raymond has an inherent intuition as to what pop songs will fit his musical conceptions. Take Paul Simon’s “I’d Do It for You Love,” which is played with a fractured cadenced drum line by Stranahan giving it a slightly quirky feel. Raymond’s tone is pure and warm when he plays the melody with little embellishment but with an abundance of inspiration and feeling. Hekselman’s clever use of bass lines to accompany his own guitar solo reminds me of the seven string guitar work of Charlie Hunter.  

Raymond’s composition “Follower” has a wandering, enigmatic melody where his burnished tone is most effective over a shuffling groove. Hekselman’s solo here is feathery, floating and something to savor.  Where the horn player and the guitarist leave plenty of space in their soloing, Stranahan dances on his traps with a syncopation that seems to deftly fill in the voids without ever becoming overpowering. As the song progresses the interplay becomes evident as the trio finds a slipstream, meshing in intuitive unity.

The trumpeter originally hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota and the next selection is a song that one of his North country influences, Wisconsin native Justin Vernon from the group Bon Iver, wrote titled “Minnesota, WI.” The song opens with some effervescent guitar loops from Hekselman, a sort of agitated but controlled chaos, with percussive accents and shimmering cymbals that lead up to the prog-rock melody line that lingers in your brain. Raymond ‘s clarion horn is like a plaintive call to sanity bursting through the fog. Hekselman rips on a very impressive electric guitar solo that swells with power and passion. The guitarist soars to the heavens as Stranahan plays with a heavy back beat. This one could well become a new classic in the world of creative improvisational music.

On the traditional hymn “Be Still My Heart,” we find the flugelhornist at his most poignant. His mellifluous tone transports you into a place of serenity and calm. The sparse composition, with roots in Americana, showcases Raymond’s confidence, maturity and growth as a solo player. Stranahan’s brushes are whisper soft and Hekselman’s guitar lines float in the air like wisps of vapor. The trio builds the tension to an excitable climax, with Henkleman’s filigreed guitar work, Stranahan’s fills and Raymond’s slurs creating an other-worldliness to the ending.

Raymond’s “Fortress” features an indie-rock vibe with its laid-back vamp and repeating flugelhorn refrain. The group uses a descending motif at the bridge to good effect before returning to the loping melody. Raymond is judicious when he solos. He prefers using long lingering lines over abrupt bursts of notes and smooth transitions rather than jagged breaks.

Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” is opened with a straight playing of the melody on horn before the ever surprising Hekselman creates an astonishing solo. This guy is the real deal. In one solo you can hear he has absorbed the electric stylings of Bill Frisell to the distinctive percussive picking of Beninesian player Lionel Loueke. Raymond overdubs himself, he and the trio play a repeating refrain as his overdubbed solo horn rises above with authority.

The road song “En Route” is another Raymond original. Hekselman finger picks the sauntering feel good melody. The guitarist provides a country-flavored electric solo as Stranahan expertly plays his brushes.  Raymond’s horn solo is fluid and spritely. Listen to these guys play in unison at the end with such easy familiarity.

The album continues on its folk and hymnal path with the dirge-like version of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”  The 1964 protest song, is particularly relevant in today’s fractured world where common ground seems to be a chimera. Hekselman’s guitar is delicate and retains a country-inspired twang while at the same time adding sliding glissandos to the mix. There is a respect to the sentiment of the song heard loud and clear through Raymond’s nakedly sincere playing here. Dylan should be delighted by this skillful treatment of his folk masterpiece.

The closer for this excellent album is the Raymond composition simply titled “Hymn.” The unfeigned reverence with which Raymond plays, accompanied only by Hekselman’s scant guitar lines, reveals a deeply spiritual side to this musician. His music is uplifting and brimming with a sense of hope that is sorely needed in these trying times of divisiveness.

Joy Ride is indeed just that a joyous ride.We can only hope that Raymond and company will continue to mine more gems from contemporary music, play them with such informed and polished aplomb and in doing so connect to the pulse of a more youthful audience who wants the music of their generation being more thoughtfully portrayed.