FTW/Dallas, 2.25.2022

What a difference a couple of icy days make. Watching the ongoing drama of Russia's invasion of Ukraine unfold, including the brave response of the Ukrainian people and Russian protesters, President Biden and NATO allies applying sanctions while US Republicans jeer. All my digital devices have been wonky, so I'm sitting out the last couple of days before the Texas primary, but still heading to Dallas tonight on hopefully ice free roads for the "acoustic strings" night of the Nasher Sculpture Center's "Sculpting Sound: Twelve Musicians Encounter Bertoia."

My buddy Mike Webber caught the trumpet and saxophone nights and while, from his report, it sounds as though the wind players' interaction with Harry Bertoia's sounding sculptures was more reserved than Nels Cline's, he was particularly taken with saxophonists Ingrid Laubrock and JD Allen doing a call-and-response walk-on and exiting the same way. Also the way they held the bells of their horns near the sculptures to activate them, keeping the "tonals" ringing throughout the performance. Transportation delays kept some of the musicians in town longer than planned, causing producer David Breskin to quip that "by the end of the week, we could do a Bertoia Big Band concert."

Flight drama was the cause of tonight's delayed start. Jen Shyu and Brandon Seabrook arrived late and came directly from the airport to the Nasher. This meant that they had only a cursory introduction to the Bertoias, but it didn't detract from their performance, which had an aura of ritual and ceremony, with an emphasis on small gestures and ample use of silence and space. 

Shyu is a mesmerizing performer, with remarkable vocal control. She moved about as though exploring the area and discovering the sounds that resided in each artifact she encountered. Seabrook approached the Bertoias in a more rhythmic manner, except for a gong that he spent a few moments exploring tonally, and provided more tonal relief with intervals of his highly idiosyncratic banjo playing that included staccato picking, rapid-fire runs, and the use of a violin bow. But it was Shyu who set the tone for the evening. At one point she lifted her gayageum, a Korean zither, and carried it to where she could play it while holding it upright and activating one of the Bertoias. When she set it down, I feared it might have been damaged, but after the performance ended in silent stillness, like the end of a walking meditation, the musicians were all smiles, and our hearts were lifted.

The drummers Marcus Gilmore and Dan Weiss were in the audience, taking notes for the following night's performance. We're looking forward to two nights with the pianists Kris Davis and Craig Taborn -- Sunday at the Nasher, then Monday in our zip code at Fort Worth's Modern Art Museum. Grateful to have these experiences in troubled times.