Rose's jazz arrives at coda

By: Alex Pagan

Posted: 3/10/09

Well, it seems that it may be the end of an era. Without the Rose Art Museum functioning as a museum, Jazz at the Rose will be pushed forcibly into obsolescence. This somber fact hung over Sunday's Jazz at the Rose, which featured an excellent quartet led by local saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase. Performing with Kohlhase that afternoon was guitarist Eric Hofbauer, who played at last month's jazz feature; Berklee-educated drummer Mike Connors; and bassist Jef Charland. The performers that afternoon were a small subset of Kohlhase's larger ensemble, the Explorers' Club, and the afternoon's music began with one of Kohlhase's compositions from the ensemble's most recent recording.

The composition was from the group's "Superhero Suite," and the movement was entitled "Jasper Jaguar: Deceptor." The music was described as being a narrative about the song's eponym as he "coils and springs." The playing of the ensemble during the first song was initially linear: Each instrument played small segments of sound as the band tentatively gained momentum and crecendoed into a drum-heavy onslaught. In this piece, the drummer Connors was the focus, assuming Rashied-Ali-like multi-directionality and incredible intensity. The song terminated with a fantastic, unified iteration of the song's melody as the saxophone and guitar ascend from beneath the drums' sonic blanket.

The following piece was called "Africanized Blues" and was notably more tonal than the previous work. The song rested upon a syncopated bass line and the djembe-like rhythms on Connors' snare drum. The melody was satisfyingly pentatonic, and Kohlhase came to prominence, coaxing guttural, overtone-rich tones from his tenor saxophone. At times he assumed shades of mid-period Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders. Midway through the song, guitarist Eric Hofbauer offered a guitar solo, which was suitably muted and consummately West African in quality. The song was notable because of its shifting rhythms, slinking easily between 4/4 and 6/8 time. Kohlhase remarked after the song's terminus that it was inspired by a Burundian recording of a man playing a one-stringed instrument. While the song's melody evoked a simplicity befitting the song's origins, the fullness of the ensemble made for a satisfying listening experience.

The third song was reportedly realized during a long car ride and last month reached its 20th "birthday." The piece began soporifically, with Hofbauer playing harplike chords and Kohlhase sustaining high-register saxophone lines over the somnolent sonic foundation. Kohlhase's alto saxophone solo in this piece was absolutely transcendent, utilizing modern intervals in a way that was both unique-sounding and tonal. Following Kohlhase's solo, Hofbauer and Connors began dual solos, Hofbauer playing at his avant-garde best, and Connors pulling everything out of his repertoire as sticks were abandoned in favor of bare-handed percussion and handclaps.

The next song was another excerpt from Kohlhase's Superhero Series and featured Hofbauer playing with his Altoid-tin slide and various realizations of the complex main melody on mallet percussion, bass and Kohlhase's saxophone. The music, as in the first Superhero piece, was extremely free during improvisatory segment, yet impeccably structured.

After the second installment of the Superhero Series, Kohlhase played a tune written by his contemporary John Tchicai. This song was characterized by a rhythmic funkiness that lapsed into reflection and then back into funkiness. When funky, the song was not far off from electric Miles Davis, with Hofbauer offering jagged stabs on electric guitar and Connors driving the band insistently. In the latter portion of the song, Kohlhase sustained a melodic ostinato and Hofbauer broke free from the rest of the group and offered a burning, distinctive solo.

The following two songs were incongrously conventional. The former was a ballad, dubbed "The Greatest Song of all Time" by Kohlhase, and was characterized by Hofbauer's chord melodies and the surprising appropriateness of Kohlhase's baritone sax in a traditional context. The latter song was, according to Kohlhase, also in the running for "Greatest Song of all Time," and he deemed it too good to be written by himself. Because of this, the saxophonist insisted that he was a plagiarist, and dubbed the song "My Latest Plagiarism." The song was burning hard bop and, as promised, was one of the most compelling songs of the evening.

The set ended with another segment of the "Superhero Suite" and the audience was left with a healthy mix of discordance and consonance in their collective aural memories as the final installment of Jazz at the Rose came to a close.