Jazz | Arts & Culture | Ninth Square | Firehouse 12
The Tyshawn Sorey Trio. Photo courtesy Firehouse 12.
The microphones froze at a standstill in front of the drum set, as if they knew what was coming. Just feet away from them, musician Tyshawn Sorey introduced band members one by one, a silence hanging in between each of their names. After a beat, the lights dimmed, and breath was the only sound in the room.
At least, it was for a moment. Within seconds, pianist Aaron Diehl was rocking back and forth, hitting keys with precision that rendered sheet music unnecessary, obsolete. As he swayed buoyantly, Sorey entered in Zenlike fashion. He was mellow, laid back, until the drumstick moved at the speed of light in a style pure and inimitable. Matt Brewer’s bass took to the foreground and receded just as quickly.
Improvisation had captured the audience’s attention, and listeners hung on to every note.
That sound filled Firehouse 12 last Friday, as the Tyshawn Sorey Trio brought red-hot jazz to a cool, damp Friday night on Crown Street. Over two sets, the group showed its ability to groove, gel, improvise and pivot, thrilling its audience over and over again with compositions that ranged from deep, almost jammy to spiritual. For Sorey, who has returned many times to the studio, it was also a homecoming of sorts.
“This is home to me,” Sorey said in an interview between sets. “You can hear a pin drop. I did my first recording here.”
A 2017 MacArthur “Genius” Grantee, Sorey is a composer, bandleader, and instrumentalist—but he’s also so much more, as was on full display Friday night. He is an alchemist blending booms, strums, and tinkling keys together as if an entire universe planned each composition. His confidence and connection to the drum set contains maps of his facial expressions. With closed eyes, his soulful expression revealed whole worlds of feeling.
Friday, the audience was intimate and up close, like birds waiting for substance to feed their hungry ears. As the trio began, Matt Brewer’s arm wrapped gently around the bass’ neck while his finger fondled its strings with certainty and passion. Then, with no hesitation, he fed the audience note by note. The heavy thump of plucked chords directed listeners to a time in New Haven where jazz reigned supreme.
The connection between these musicians was clear. Or as Sorey said, “like hand and glove.”
Within each row of seats, heads bopped throughout the room. Surely, chakras were realigned. While Diehl's fingers fluctuated between the keys in front of him to the ones toward the far reaches of the piano—rapid-subtle-rapid-subtle—a guest wearing a beret lost control of his knee, suddenly in full agreement with these up-swing melodies. The leg shook with excitement and his smile lit up the dark room.
Having recorded previously at Firehouse 12, Sorey seemed completely at home in the venue. As he played, there was nothing that depended on words. Volcanic rhythms plunged into one another. They rose and fell in a vast array of textures and feelings. In crisp black shirts, tailor-made pants, and smart shoes, trio members channeled not the year 2023, but the classic ethos of giants.
And as rhythms rumbled and rolled forward, musicians played off each other. During a change in tempo by Diehl on the piano, Sorey smiled confidently, something teasing at the edges of his mouth as he exclaimed “Oh, ok!”
Moments later, beats joined and clashed magnificently, taking the audience where the spirit of jazz decided to go. It was an unexpected journey for both the audience and the trio, but both were there for the ride and traveled forward with no regrets.
Enjoying the first set, artist Susan Clinard had high praise for the trio. While she’s been to Firehouse 12 many times, she said, she’s never seen Sorey or the trio perform. It was her husband who insisted that she go.
“And he was right,” she said. “Firehouse 12 is a little gem in New Haven. A beautiful recording venue and intimate performance space bringing wonderful artists from across the country.”
“Energetic, original work,” she later added. “Each artist is masterful in his own right and the way they play independently and off each other is brilliant.”