SFJAZZ presents Terri Lyne Carrington's Mosaic Project, featuring Lizz Wright and Nona Hendryx
2015-02-14
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:00 PM, Saturday, February 14, 2015

[7:01 PM lights down, announcements by Randall Kline]

1. [7:07 PM] ?
2. [7:17 PM] ? $#
3. [7:25 PM] ? Single Petal of a Rose
4. [7:35 PM; +LW] Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly (LW)
5. [7:42 PM; -TF, HR, HS] Three Hours (LW)
6. [7:50 PM; +TF, HR, HS] “when I found you” (LW)
7. [7:56 PM; -LW, +NH] Transformation (NH) $
8. [8:02 PM] ?“what about the way you love me” (NH) (maybe this is Let's Give Love a Try?)
9. [8:09 PM] Strange Fruit (NH) &
10. [8:16 PM; +LW] Walk With Me, Lord (LW/NH)
    [set ends 8:22 PM]
     
    Encore
11. [8:24 PM] Michelle
    [show ends 8:34 PM]

Mosaic

• Terri Lyne Carrington: drums;
• Tia Fuller: alto saxophone, $ soprano saxophone, flute;
• Josh Hari: bass, # contrabass;
• Nona Hendryx: vox;
• Ingrid Jensen: trumpet, electronics, samples;
• Matt Stevens: guitar;
• Helen Sung: piano, Fender-Rhodes electric piano;
• Lizz Wright: vox;
  originally scheduled to appear: Rachel Z: piano, keyboards (replaced by Helen Sung).

Fun show from Terri Lyne Carrington and company, in fact, it was so good that it makes me think I should have opened my pocket book and bought tickets to the late show too! While the band was great, and the playing fine, my vote for MVP tonight goes to the two singers, Lizz and Nona, who took on the whole ensemble and then ratcheted up the gig a couple notches in passion and intensity. Strange Fruit was definitely the peak, in that respect, and despite the somber nature of the subject matter, the audience responded with a roar of appreciation once the tune ended. Matt Stevens' contributions during that tune were particularly inspired, though it was also pretty cool to see how Terri directed Ingrid, cueing samples of Martin Luther King's We Have a Dream speech in and out of the mix. And that encapsulates the beauty of seeing the music live: hearing the collage is OK, but wtching how it's all put together is MUCH more interesting. And somewhat to my surprise, it turns out that the arrangement of Strange Fruit is due to Nona, rather than Terri, and that tune is the only cover on Nona's latest album, Mutatis Mutandis, available from the usual online outlets. Yeah, well, time for me to go give it a spin!

For the encore, Terri gave the crowd two choices: “Up or Down”? And being a rowdy group, we hollered “Up,” which turned out to be a radical deconstruction of the Lennon-McCartney classic, Michelle, performed in fast 7/4 time. Ting was kinda disappointed – too weird, she said – and I agree that it was definitely strange, but I like the fact that the band was willing to take on something so recognizable and then try to change it into something of their own. Might not have been as pleasurable as the “Down” choice, but I guess we'll never know!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!