A Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets

This past week at Manhattan’s surprisingly majestic The Town Hall, the Red Bull Music Academy presented one of the most unique and interesting musical events I’ve ever attended -- “A Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets”, part of their ongoing New York concert series that continues through the end of this month. Having been drawn to the event by Marco Benevento’s presence on the lineup, I really had no idea what to expect from the evening. I knew a handful of artists mentioned on the long list of performers but was unfamiliar with far more of them. The premise -- “One musician starts a solo improvisation lasting five minutes. Another musician then joins for five minutes of duo improvisation. After those five minutes, musician #1 leaves the stage and musician #3 joins musician #2 for another five minutes, and so on and so forth for two hours.”

The show began with Nels Cline on stage solo. His first five minutes alone were raw and discordant, as he played with many different effects on both his guitar and pedals. After five minutes, Daedelus joined Cline, creating the first of many odd duos to grace the stage that evening. Cline mostly led the duet, with Daedelus backing him up on monome until Dave Douglas came out for the first tag-out of the evening. This interesting albeit strange combination of a trumpet player on stage with an electronic musician was something I had never seen before.   As was the case with many of the horns players who came out, the “duet” quickly transformed into Douglas soloing in a jazzy fashion while Daedelus continued to provide backup. Despite several “filthy drops” from Daedelus, this combo was a bit of a miss for me.

After their five minutes were up, Daedelus was replaced by Shigeto on the drums and the overall feel of the music changed immediately from experimental and confusing to the most recognizably jazz sound you could imagine. Their interplay was comfortable and comforting, seemingly transforming the grand room into a small, dark, jazz club.

Next, came Amp Fiddler to replace Douglas, initially beatboxing but then moving on to the synthesizer. This keys and drum combo dropped into a silky, funk groove that the audience clearly appreciated as evidenced by the loud cheer Shigeto received upon leaving the stage.

Marco Benevento was up next, sitting down to the baby grand and creating a duet reminiscent of his “Worship My Organ” show with Robert Walter at the New Orleans Jazz Fest a few weeks prior. The double keys combo was fun, playful, and weird, much like Marco himself.

Fiddler was replaced by James Carter on sax and the jam returned to scatty jazz with the two chasing each other’s builds and drops nicely. After some solo handoffs, Marco stood and waved to the crowd, receiving roaring applause before ducking offstage, disappearing behind the curtain as quickly as he had come out.

Replacing Marco was Petra Haden, a female vocalist whose voice, while beautifully melodic, was not showcased as well as it could’ve been with the tribal-like chanting and long, drawn out notes she chose to sing.

Next to hit the stage was Jherek Bischoff, the only musician to play several different instruments and employ loops during his 10 minutes on stage. Beginning on a bass ukulele, Bischoff immediately created and layered several rhythmic loops for Haden to sing over. After switching to a bass guitar to add yet another layer of sound, the duet really hit their stride, coming to almost complete silence at once point, much to the audience’s enjoyment.

Emerging from behind the curtain in a 70s-style, rust colored leisure suit, carrying his golden sax and looking particularly jazzy, David Murray joined the stage, relieving Haden and embarking on a dark, experimental segment with Bischoff. Terri Lyne Carrington was up next, sitting down to the drum kit and setting up a solid base for Murray to solo over. The two didn’t really mesh well, both going at their own paces not really listening to or playing off of one another. Guitarist Marc Ribot relieved Murray and the discordance continued, with Ribot going heavy on the distortion and effects.  

Next up was the legendary Allen Toussaint, sitting down to the baby grand and promptly beginning to play a beautiful sounding little tune which Ribot attempted to keep up with. Within the short five minute slot, Toussaint switched genres several times, moving seamlessly from lounge to rockabilly to classical until finally ending up in the NOLA-style zydeco he does so well.

After an incredibly satisfying five minutes, Jamie Lidell came on stage only to find his DJ setup out of commission. While the techs tried to remedy the problem, Toussaint continued solo, playfully teasing many recognizable ditties including the Final Jeopardy theme when it seemed as if there would never be a solution. Fortunately, the equipment began to function and suddenly, this huge, soulful voice came out of this skinny, hipster-looking white boy. His singing paired perfectly with the cajun-sounding keys until he switched over to the echo effects and beatbox loops. This duet displayed the biggest difference in age between the two musicians, as well as a clear divergence in genre and style.

Leaving the stage to overwhelming praise from the audience, Toussaint was replaced by tabla player Karsh Kale who added tribal percussive elements to the electronic sounds. The two meshed well together, allowing each other to take direction of the jam throughout their segment.

Replacing Lidell was Kaki King, an exquisite guitar player who immediately clicked with Kale to create one of the best duets of the evening. The duo was very reminiscent of Rodrigo y Gabriela, with the musicians clearly listening to one another and working together to create tension and releases that got the audience going.

Finally, trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith replaced Kale to create the last duet of the evening. Smith instantly embarked on a clearly premeditated, dark, emotive jazz solo, seemingly disinterested in the idea of playing together to create something collaborative. This was somewhat disappointing, as King was forced to simply provide backup after a wonderfully synergistic duet with Kale. While not as cooperative as the previous duet, Smith’s lead established a clear blues theme, continuing on even after King had left the stage.

Smith wrapped up his solo and left the stage, only to come right back on, followed by almost every other musician that had performed that evening (excluding Allen Toussaint). The encore, while visually reminiscent of the final scene in The Last Waltz, was probably the most difficult portion of the evening to listen to. People were filing out of the venue as sixteen musicians attempted to create music but mostly just ended up with a lot of noise.

Despite the less-than-enjoyable encore segment, the evening was a lot of fun. Watching musicians work together to figure out how their instruments will work best with their partner’s and going on to create totally unique and unexpected pieces of music was truly riveting for a live music fan like myself. While not all of the risks taken resulted in resounding successes, the ones that did click proved ultimately satisfying for both the musicians and the audience, alike.