Suoni Review: Roswell Rudd & Marc Dresser

I had no idea what to expect tonight on my way to Sala Rossa to see the Roswell Rudd & Marc Dresser duo perform at the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival. These two immensely experienced players recently collaborated on the 2006 Clean Feed release AIRWALKERS. Tonight’s show was a performance of some of the tracks from that album as well as some other surprises.

The audience at Sala was set up sideways, and the “stage” was placed on the right side of the room. As the show got underway, I thought to myself that these players are the genuine article of what classic, free jazz players should be. They produced sounds that recalled the music of the big band era, classic jazz (like that of Miles Davis and Charles Mingus), avant garde music and free form creativity (whatever that might sound like!). There was a constant and intelligent musical communication happening between the two players that kept running throughout the performance. The two would play off of each other and allow space for the other to fully develop each of their ideas. Sometimes it would be signaled by the swaying arms of Roswell Rudd as he would encourage the continuation of a Marc Dresser solo or a musical idea he was applying.

The first set started off with a Dresser composition titled Slip and Slide. Rudd played the trombone with a metal mute that rattled and added a unique texture to the sound of the horn. The bass and trombone created sliding harmonies that could only be done with instruments like these, given the way they’re designed. They followed up with the title track from their album, Airwalkers. It started off with a growling horn played through a rubber plunger which created a filtering effect that you might hear in some electronic music. After a few aggressive hits from Rudd’s trombone (resembling the score of a fight scene from the classic Batman television show - BAM! BAM! BAM!) Marc Dresser entered with a walking bassline that drove the song to the next level. The sound was so cool; kind of mean and dirty, with Dresser holding down both the rhythmic and melodic elements. This was some REAL classic jazz. The song ended with a shift to double time and some overtones emanating from the bass that I never realized could come out of that instrument.

The next piece had a New York street feel mixed with African tribal rhythms and an island vibe. This composition had Marc Dresser dancing along with his contrabass while Rudd was playing long, drawn out musical lines on the trombone. At one point they were actually creating harmonies from the overtones resonating from their instruments. They finished the set with a dedication to Elton Dean, which had Rudd singing out “Elton Dean!” throughout the song and then finishing in an astonishing trombone solo.

Just one non-review related item; during the intermission I noticed Peter from Suoni passing out flyers for the Sun Ra Arkestra workshop at the Indyish Mess. It was entertaining to hear the buzz start up in the room to the tune of “Sun Ra?! Sun Ra!? Outside?! Wow! And it’s free?! Really? Sun Ra?!” etc, etc…

Second set started off with a bowed contrabass during two compositions by Herbie Nichols. It was fascinating to listen to these two instruments without set pitch markers (read: like the keys of a piano or frets of a guitar). The two players really had such a connection to slide between notes and really lock in with each other, both melodically and rhythmically. They moved into a heavy be-bop piece titled Freudian Frolics, and then finished off the set with a low tempo ballad that included gutteral, droning vocalizations and some endearing scat lines from Roswell Rudd.

They ended off the night with an encore of a song that they were playing for the first time ever. Mattress on a Stick, which had Dresser just going totally free on the bass, with bow in had, but also plucking the strings at the same time while achieving some incredible sounds, and Rudd on vocals. This was a real surprise and the vocals were absurd and hillarious, containing lyrics such as, “mattress on a stick/ sailing down the mississippi/ mattress pyramid to the top of the sky/ slice the mattress open/ fill it with squirrel brains/ mattress on a stick“.

A truly delightful, endearing experience and overall, a great show.